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The Railway Station: Part Two
“The End of the Line”
By Stephen J. Bull

Today the rails grow rusty and plant life flourishes where once steam and diesel ruled for 145 years. While nature reclaims the trackbed not only is the abandoned line popular with walkers of dogs but rabbits sun themselves amongst the sleepers and foxes and badgers prowl in the dusk for tasty morsels(The Fisherman: Harvest 1992 “Railway in Danger”: Yule).

The section of line running through the cutting beneath the Over windmill and the towering communications mast houses a unique nature reserve which harbours the rare “Grizzled Skipper” butterfly.

Oh, Doctor Beeching!
Hundreds of stations and numerous branch lines were closed in the Sixties as Dr. Beeching, Chairman of British Railways, wielded his axe.*¹ Following lengthy attempts to save the Cambridge-St Ives branch line from closure British Rail withdrew passenger transport on Saturday 3rd October 1970; mineral traffic from ARC Fen Drayton ceased in May 1992 and the train disappeared from British Rail’s working timetable early in July 1992 (The Fisherman). A number of well publicised special passenger services were organised by the Railway Development Society in the Nineties using a SouthEast liveried six-car DMU (diesel multiple unit). A healthy number of people turned out. However, except for bringing back memories to many who had once used the line regularly, the renaissance of the line failed to materialise.*²

“The train now standing at platform six .....”
For many years Cambridge rail travellers bound for Swavesey welcomed the announcement that their train was ready for departure “..... calling at Histon, Oakington, Longstanton, Swavesey and St Ives.”

For many the local branch lines were lifelines for villagers. Thousands of workmen, businessmen, London commuters, school children and women shoppers used the Cambridge-St Ives line, many of whom alighted and returned at Swavesey railway station. Swavesey enjoyed two passenger services - Cambridge to March and Cambridge to Kettering - both running over the same metals from Cambridge and diverging at St Ives Junction.

The March 1961 timetable recorded twelve trains departing Cambridge, the first at 6.40 in the morning, concluding at 8.10 in the evening - with an additional 10.30pm service on Saturdays and a separate service on Sundays. Just prior to closure three Midland trains per day ran between Cambridge via. St Ives and Huntingdon (East) to Kettering.

The early morning St Ives to Cambridge service was appropriately referred to as the “Workmans’ Train” and the 8.01am the “School Train”, again for obvious reasons.

People with long memories still fondly remember the “Jam Train” - the 5.30pm from Cambridge to St Ives which stopped at Histon to take on the ‘girls’ from Chivers Jam Factory - later to become Cadbury Schweppes (CEN: Bill Last’s memories - no date).

Journeying from Cambridge by either steam or DMUs one could arrive at Swavesey in 22-24 minutes. Interestingly, comparison with the earliest timetable available in 1849 (just two years after the commencement of rail services) showed favourable times of 30-35 minutes - the number of trains however were significantly fewer.

Holiday ‘Excursions’ and ‘Specials’
However it was not all work and no play! Holidays for the masses rather than the select few became common in the 1880s which saw the development of the East Anglian seaside resorts including Hunstanton, Clacton-on-Sea, Yarmouth and Southend. Family holidays were taken in hotels, boarding houses and rented cottages and the Broads were developed for leisure use.

Seaside railway trips increased when Bank Holidays were introduced from 1871. Endless streams of ‘excursions’ and other ‘specials’ streamed across the Fens every summer weekend, bearing tens of thousands of holiday makers to the East Coast in a single day. They sometimes operated around the clock, straining railway resources to the limit. Hunstanton was one such popular venue.*³ Anticipation heightened on leaving Kings Lynn as the journey alongside the Wash appeared to come nearer and nearer to the sea. On leaving the station platform the ‘white horses’ on the crests of incoming waves was a sight never to be forgotten.

Click here to view Hunstanton Railway Station in the early 1900s.

In 1863 the Swavesey Chronicle reported one such excursion when: “75 people travelled on the 1st railway excursion from Swavesey to Yarmouth, although it was showery. They enjoyed the ‘Yarmouth Beef’. Arrived back about 2 a.m. the next morning.” 26 Sept. 1863.

Excursions were not all to the seaside. Again, the Swavesey Chronicle reported an excursion, to London. “Crystal Palace Excursion On Monday last eleven of the First Class boys of the Night School went with the Rev. Sharpe & Mr. G. Long by the Huntingdon excursion to see the Palace Grounds.” 4 August 1866.

As early as July 1872 Swavesey residents were being encouraged to make ‘cheap day’ trips to London. The Cambridge Chronicle contained the following advertisement:-
“Great Eastern Railway, 1st class return to Bishopsgate station, London 8/- (40p), Covered Car 4/- (20p), Depart Cambridge 8.45. arrive London 10.45.”
The fares were cheap by today’s standards but the pace rather slow - however a trip in a “covered car” (cattle truck?) leaves a lot to the imagination!

Locally, Mare Fen’s close proximity to the railway station proved an attraction for skaters who availed themselves of the excellent opportunities for skating during cold winters. The Swavesey Chronicle recorded in 1867 that: “Large crowds of people from Cambridge and neighbourhood travelled into Swavesey to enjoy the skating on Hanslip Long’s ground only 200 yards from the railway station. There was nearly 100 acres of ice on which to skate.” 19 January 1867. (Presumably the 100 acres would have included Mare Fen and ‘20 Acres’ opposite.)

In 1939 Arthur Mee described how: “Every Cambridge student knows Swavesey, for here the fens (Mare Fen) hold out their first invitation, and when Lent term begins with frost here is excellent skating.” (Cambridgeshire: The County of the Fens.)

As late as 1963 people travelled by train from Cambridge to enjoy skating at Mare Fen.

“The End of the Line”
However, even in its ‘heyday’ passenger transport throughout East Anglia was very light, except during the morning and evening ‘rush hours’ and in the height of summer excursions. The coming of mass-produced motor vehicles in the 1920s altered the picture completely for the railways.

Cross country through services to Kettering via St Ives Junction were useful at peak times, for connections and occasional excursions, but were hardly vital. RAF personnel well remember it as a means of getting from the Midlands and East Anglia to Oakington and Cardington or vice-versa and it was one of the several branch line whose passenger traffic declined remarkably as National Service was phased out in the late Fifties. [It may be noted that “L-o-n-g-stanton” station served the nearby Oakington Barracks. For many an airman arriving for the first time to barracks mistakenly alighting at Oakington railway station it would have meant a long walk, or a wait for the next train!]

The Cambridge, St Ives-Kettering Midland line, “one of the prettiest routes in the district through orchards and water meadows”, lost its passenger service on Saturday 13th June 1959. Up until then, three trains each way ran daily, with no Sunday service. On rare occasions during the summer months, special excursion trains used this route to and from the East CoaSt

Dr Beeching couldn’t be blamed for the closure of the St Ives-Huntingdon branch line but his Report sealed the fate of many more branch lines in the 1960s. Many branch lines were left carrying a handful of passengers with the arrival of bus companies. Excursion traffic to the seaside declined and summer holiday passengers changed to cars and coaches.

In the Sixties East Anglia suffered badly from a spate of line closures. The St Ives, Chatteris, March GN&GE Joint Line closed to goods traffic on 18th April 1966 and passenger services on 6th March 1967. [Today parts of the St Ives, once a grand four-way junction, and Chatteris on to Wimblington bypasses follow the old line.] The Cambridge-St Ives line, which opened with so much promise in 1847, closed for goods traffic in 1966 and to passengers on 3rd October, 1970 - thus bringing to an end 123 years’ of passenger service. Early on enthusiasts campaigned British Railways to reopen the line, and attempts continue to re-establish some form of rail or guided bus transportation using the route of the line from Cambridge to Huntingdon.

Swavesey Railway Station: “Not quite the end of the line!”
will be concluded in the next issue.

Notes:
*¹ Beeching is a name that strikes a chord in the hearts of all who remember our railway system before the fateful year of 1963. It was then that British Rail published “The Reshaping of British Railways”, forever known as the Beeching Report after its architect, Richard Beeching, the chairman of British Railways.

*² On 24th March 1990 the Railway Development Society held its first ‘special’ day on the Cambridge-St Ives Line (which at that time remained open as a single line to Fen Drayton for mineral traffic from the gravel-pits) in order to try to prove the need for the establishment of a viable passenger rail service.
Members of the RDA were “dumbfounded” when hundreds of people swamped the first passenger train service between Swavesey and Cambridge for 20 years. At least 200 travellers had to be turned away by officials on the packed four-carriage DMU.
At Swavesey about 500 people, including many elderly people and young families, waited for the first of four trains during the day and crammed the platform and spilled into Station Road. At Longstanton about 100 people were waiting, at Oakington another 200 with many left behind and at Histon, the last stop before Cambridge, 50 of about 100 passengers were turned away!
Although it was reported that the weather was not good on the 24th and “bedraggled passengers” alighted the Swavesey-bound DMU at Longstanton it didn’t dampen the spirits of the potential passengers. The same enthusiasm was not shown by BR - a spokesman commented that : “One swallow does not make a summer.” (CEN: 26 March 1990)
A re-run on 23rd June 1990 made three round trips and “a healthy number of people turned out, many of them children .......” However, these displays of support for the re-opening the line failed to sway BR and we now know the outcome!!!

*³ The “Lynn”-Hunstanton line served not only royalty (bound for Sandringham) but thousands of humble citizens each year with holiday trains and excursions to Hunstanton (not forgetting Heacham of course). The long island platforms could take excursion trains from all over East Anglia, the Midlands and the North, and discharged passengers straight to the promenade and pier. Long-term holiday makers came and left on Saturdays, while the ‘trippers’ mainly came on Sundays and Bank Holidays in a constant stream of trains at ten minute intervals. During especially busy times half-a-dozen or more trains arrived within an hour, calling for fine timing on a single line. For a brand new resort, such as (new) Hunstanton, the location of the station was ideal.

Hunstanton passenger service finally closed on 5th May 1969. Today the only memories are photographs of the demolished railway station, the site of which serves as a coach and car park.

Acknowledgements:

1. “Branch Lines Around Huntingdon: Kettering to Cambridge” by Vic Mitchell, etc. (1991);
2. Cambridge Evening News: 26 March 1990, 28 September 1995, 23 November 1995,
   January 2003;
3. “Cambridgeshire: The County of the Fens”: Ed. Arthur Mee (1939, reissued 2001);
4. “The Fisherman”: Harvest 1992: Revd. John-David Yule;
5. “Forgotten Railways: Vol 7: East Anglia” by R.S.Joby (1985);
6. “Modern Branch Line Album” by J.A.M. Vaughan (1980);
7. “The Swavesey Chronicle”: Compiled by H. Hepher (1982).