The Railway at Saltfleetby: - |
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© Copyright - D. Thompson
I am very grateful to the Webmaster of 'Daves Railpics of Lincolnshire and UK Heritage Railways' for this photo of Saltfleetby Station, who very kindly published a request for pictures of the Station on his Website and had a response from the 'Editor of Lincolnshire & East Yorkshire Transport Review' (a link to this site can be found from Daves Railpics above).
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The Grimsby to Boston line was built in 1846-48 and The Mablethorpe Line via Saltfleetby was opened in 1877. The railway line crossed local roads at: - Ings Lane, North End Lane, Saltergate, Fishmeregate, Main road and Back street. Crossing Gates were manually operated by resident Crossing Keepers. During its busy period Saltfleetby Station employed as many as 10 people with Stationmaster, Signalmen, Porter, Clerks etc. There were weekly trains to Louth market and depots at the station for coal merchants and agricultural feed merchants. In addition to the regular passenger and freight trains, each spring, cattle would be transported to the area for the rich grazing on 'The Marshes' and in the autumn the process would be reversed. Sadly, as with many rural lines Saltfleetby Station was closed in 1960 following the "Beeching Plan". Very little remains of the railway nowadays, but thankfully the 'Crossing Cottages' and 'Station' can be seen as Private Residences.
The images below have been sent by Martin Oxby, son the last Station Master.
MEMORIES: - Mrs. Audrey Hunt from Saltfleet remembers travelling from Saltfleetby to Louth by Train and writes:-
"I frequently travelled by train when I first started work, but had to cycle three miles from Saltfleet to Saltfleetby to catch the train - two or three carriages in length - 'non corridor' - and reasonable well maintained. The fare was one shilling and six pence (1/6d old money - the equivalent to 7½ p. now) single from Saltfleetby to Louth for me and my bicycle, which I had to put in the guard's van before boarding the train. The trains did run on time, but did not exactly reach a very high speed! Each Station Master and staff took great pride in their stations with roses and flowers blooming in the small gardens at the side of the platform – no litter or graffiti in those days! The waiting room was not very warm but adequate and had posters depicting resorts around the British Isles; in winter a fire was lit – sometimes without success, as the waiting room was filled with smoke!" Bert Richardson tells me that: - You could get a train from Saltfleetby to London via Louth for £2 return. There was a cattle train once a week on a Friday at 8.30am, to take cattle to Louth market and the farmers would walk the cattle from their farm to the nearest station, where there was holding pens for the animals until the train arrived. Saltfleetby Station had it's own coal yard with sections for each coal merchant, when the coal arrive it had to be tipped within a certain time or it would cost money as time was wasted, Bert remembers that during 'slack' times (on the farm) in the winter he would work at the station coal yard shovelling coal to earn extra money. He would do this for about 3 weeks.
Bert also remembers the Rev. W. J. Palmer who organised the school outing (once a year by train from Saltfleetby station) to Mablethorpe. All the children were at school on time that day!
Do you have any Memories/Photos of the Railway at Saltfleetby that you would like to share? If you have please contact me. |
