Campaigner saves Bridge 234 number plate at auction
CAMPAIGNERS who lost their battle to keep the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway’s Victorian Bridge 234 in Bourne, Lincolnshire, from being demolished are celebrating after a key artefact from it was saved.
Barrister and campaign supporter Marc Maitland – who lives in Rippingale station which served the GNR’s Bourne to Sleaford line and who has been establishing a byinvitation-only visitor centre in the goods shed, as highlighted in issue 288 – was delighted to see by chance one of the original metal number plates from the classic three-arch overbridge bridge listed in Talisman Auctions’ sale at Newark-on-Trent on July 2.
He attended the auction, where his £260 bid plus 15% commission and VAT for the number plate was successful. It will now take pride of place in his visitor centre, which includes an OO gauge model of Bourne station and a representation of Bridge 234.
Sad farewell
Meanwhile, local people saddened by the imminent loss of the bridge as part of their town’s heritage took part in a peaceful farewell march to a public vantage point near the site on the evening of Friday, July 22.
About 30 people marched from the Red Hall in Bourne, the Elizabethan mansion that the Bourne & Essendine Railway decided not to demolish when it opened its line to the market town in 1860 and co-opted it as the ticket office instead.
They walked along public footpaths through new housing estates including those at Elsea Park, where Bridge 234 now stands isolated in the middle of Abbey View, a new 373-home development under construction by Bellway Homes Ltd (Eastern Counties).
The march ended in Musselburgh Way, in front of locked steel security barriers across a road leading into the construction site, but which afforded views of the bridge through its railings.
As reported is issue 294, in late May the Planning Inspectorate upheld an appeal by Bellway against South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee’s decision on September 16 last year to refuse permission for a ‘pocket park’ and children’s play area on the site of the bridge, on the grounds that the plans did not go far enough to recognise the heritage of the site
The councillors had voted 8-1 against the advice of a planning officer to approve the scheme.
Gateway to Bourne
Since it was built in 1892, Bridge 234 had served as a landmark gateway to Bourne for rail passengers, many of whom were travelling from the East Midlands to the Norfolk coast for summer holidays. The closure of Bourne station to passengers on March 2, 1959, along with the line from Saxby to King’s Lynn, marked the first time that BR had closed a complete system, that of the M&GNJR, as opposed to individual lines, and sent ominous reverberations through the UK rail industry about worse to follow.
Following the piecemeal demolition of all other significant, publicly-accessible railway-built structures in town, Bourne History Group has for five years spearheaded moves to save Bridge 234. Group’s founder Steve Guilliari who took part in the march, said: “‘It was a good turnout. For a good few, this was their first time seeing the bridge, which is something they will cherish forever.
“I sincerely want to thank everyone for their continuous and unwavering support.’
As Heritage Railway closed for press, Bridge 234 was still standing. However, Bellway staff have said that it will be taken down brick by brick, possibly in August, with the bricks sent to be cleaned and reused to create a piazza in the proposed pocket park, for which the firm now has full permission.