Whatever happened to Bardney station re-erection plans?
I WAS surprised to read that the Nene Valley railway is to rehome Wansford Railway station.
Now this is a surprise, as the Nene Valley has reported to have already got a dismantled station which was removed and dumped at its railway, namely Bardney station, not far from Heritage Railway’s address in Horncastle… or has it been quietly forgotten about?
Graham Clark, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
➜ The GNR’s Bardney station closed to passengers on October 5, 1970 and to freight in January 1981. Thirty acres of the site was sold to British Sugar, whose adjacent plant once had its own internal rail system. British Sugar took the station building down brick by brick to give to the Nene Valley Railway, which subsequently decided it did not want it and gave it to Railworld.
Railworld trustree Brian Pearce said that it had been proposed to re-erect the building on its site, or maybe alongside the East Coast Main Line opposite Peterbrough station, and detailed drawings were commissioned. However, the project failed to take off because of a lack of funds and was dealt a blow in 2010 when thieves stole a large quantity of neatly-stacked bricks from the site.
This was reported to police but no arrests were made, and the project never recovered from the loss.
Brian said that the brick-by-brick relocation of Wansford Road station would be a different matter, because funds had been made available.
As we reported last issue, National Highways, which wants to move the station to allow the A47 between Wansford and Sutton to be widened into a dual carriageway, has allocated £2000,000 for the deconstruction, moving, and reconstruction of the building.