Nene Valley given new old station!
A COUNTRY station which closed 93 years ago and has just escaped demolition as part of a road widening scheme is to be given a new lease of life at the Nene Valley Railway’s Peterborough terminus.
Built midway between the villages of Sutton, Wansford, and Upton to the west of Peterborough, Wansford Road station served the Stamford & Sibson branch of the Stamford & Essendine Railway which opened in 1867.
The station was also on the busy turnpike road used by carrier carts which later became the A47 and had a busy set of cattle pens that were used for loading sheep on trains bound for the market at Stamford.
The very rural line was said to have suffered badly from the effects of the 1926 general strike. Locally the line had become known as the ‘bread and onion line’ due to the cargo it frequently carried. After it failed to attract passengers from a more established service that was already operating between Stamford and Peterborough, it closed in 1929.
With the tracks lifted, the station became a private residence for decades. Situated in a deep cutting due to the growth of mature trees, it slowly became obscured from the view of passing traffic on Sutton Heath Road, which runs alongside from the A47 towards Southorpe. It was eventually boarded up and abandoned.
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When National Highways drew up plans in recent years to turn the busy two-lane A4 between Wansford and Sutton into a dual carriageway, it was realised that the station lay in the way – and so a project was launched to save the station and stop it hitting the buffers for the final time. Anyone who could offer the station a future on another site was invited to apply to do so.
In June, Sutton farmer and campaigner Robbie Reid offered an alternative relocation site for the station on part of his land on the other side of the proposed dual carriageway.
He then encouraged villagers to stage a protest by means of a summer solstice walk a mile from the local church to the station site, demanding that the buildings stayed in the parish where they had been for 160 years.
The other application was a joint venture from the NVR and the Railworld Wildlife Haven next door to its Peterborough terminus.
The submitted applications were independently judged by Historic England and Peterborough Council – and the NVR awarded the future use of the building.
Under the plans, the station will be carefully dismantled stone by stone before being transported to the NVR, where it will be rebuilt as a gateway for people as they enter the heritage railway and the adjacent Railworld Wildlife Haven.
National Highways has allocated more than £200,000 for the deconstruction, moving, and reconstruction of the station as part of its designated funding programme. So in what could be described as a return journey for the station, Wansford Road will again see rail passengers pass through its doors as they board trains on the NVR – which operates on the same line the station formerly served as part of the branch line to Stamford via Ufford Bridge and Barnack.
Chris Griffin, National Highways’ programme lead in the East Region, said: “Breathing life into the old Wansford Road station building, which has remained unused for a number of years, was something we wanted to do as soon as we knew it was in the path of the A47 road upgrade.
Bringing history to life
NVR chairman Mike Kerfoot said:“Our volunteers work to help cherish railway heritage from our past and preserve that for future generations to learn and enjoy. The opportunity to bring history to life and return Wansford Road station to the railway it was a former part of is wonderful.
“The station closed in 1929 and we aim to have it back in business and fulfilling its function as part of a working railway ahead of the centenary since the last ticket was sold and someone stepped from the platform for the very last time.”