About the Railway: History of the Line In the Beginning

The Lynn and Dereham Railway and the Norfolk Railway both obtained Parliament's permission to build lines to Dereham in 1845, at the height of the so-called "Railway Mania", when railways were being frantically built across the whole country. The Norfolk Railway, building its line from Wymondham, reached Dereham first, and opened its railway to passengers on the 15th February 1847; while the line from Lynn had to wait until 11th September 1848.

Traffic was quickly transferred to the new railway, with more than 10,000 tons of coal being carried in the first year. However, the cost of building the line had been immense, leaving the Norfolk Railway in a precarious financial position in spite of its success. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that the Eastern Counties Railway took on a lease of the Norfolk Railway from May 1848. Work was already under way on building the extension to Fakenham by that time, but after opening that section of the line on the 20th March 1849, the money to build the remainder of the line had run out. Eventually, the independent Wells and Fakenham Railway was set up to build the final missing link, which opened in 1857, ten years after the first trains had run into Dereham.

All this time, the Eastern Counties Railway had been jealously guarding its monopoly in East Anglia, dominating and then leasing smaller companies in the area. The result was a hotch-potch of agreements with the countless small companies, and the ECR had gained itself a thoroughly unpleasant reputation as a result of its constant belligerence and its desire to put profits before customers' needs. Matters were greatly improved in 1862, when all the companies concerned merged as the Great Eastern Railway, thus shrugging off the ECR's burden of bad publicity.

Following the merger, it took several years before expansion took place but, once started, it was carefully planned. A line was built, in stages, from Wroxham to link up with the Wymondham to Wells line just north of County School, and was opened throughout in 1882. Then the line from Wymondham to Dereham was dualled and an avoiding line was built at Dereham, so that King's Lynn trains no longer had to reverse in Dereham station. To complete the improvements, a line was built south from Wymondham to connect with the main Norwich to London line at Forncett.

The Great Eastern Railway did not manage to maintain its monopoly in East Anglia for long. Having connected all the major centres of population to London, they mistakenly believed that there were no further routes left to build. This false impression was exposed by the arrival of the predecessors of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, with its competing routes to both Norwich and London.

By the end of the 19th century, the line was at its peak and Dereham had a station with trains leaving for King's Lynn, Wells, Forncett and Norwich (via Wymondham or via County School). It had four platforms, a refreshment room with an extended drinks licence on market days, an engine shed and a busy goods shed. It was a hub of activity as almost everything made in Dereham, or brought into the town, was moved by train. The station staff numbered over 90.

Based on an original essay by Owen Stratford.