The Southwold Railway 1879–1929: The Tale of a Suffolk Byway

By David Lee, Alan Taylor and Rob Shorland-Ball

A journey through the history of this railway that brought passengers to the English seaside for fifty years. Includes maps and photos.
 
The Southwold Railway was a delightful example of one of East Anglia's minor railways: A 3ft gauge railway, single track, just over eight miles long from Halesworth (connections to London) across the heathland and marshes of East Suffolk to the seaside resort and harbor of Southwold.
 
This book collates the research and memories of one of the last surviving passengers with maps and pictures to tell a fascinating tale of immaculate passenger service, management from a distant London office, closure at very short notice, and twenty-first century revival.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781473867598

Book preview

PART 1

BEGINNINGS

CHAPTER 1

SOUTHWOLD RAILWAY – PREAMBULATION

Rob Shorland-Ball

My Oxford English Dictionary [OED] defines ‘preambulate’ as ‘To walk in front‘ and I am honoured to walk in front of David Lee and the late Alan Taylor in telling the story of the Southwold Railway.

I have known Southwold since the 1940s when as a 4-year old, just after the Second World War, my mother took me there to enjoy the seaside. We lived in Cambridge, not too far from Southwold, but getting there meant a rather complex rail journey as far as Halesworth and thence by bus. Or in a hired car from Cambridge. The missing railway link was the Southwold Railway which closed in 1929 and, by the end of the 1940s, was only a scar on the landscape, several derelict buildings, some bridges and many memories. As soon as I was old enough in the early 1950s I explored these remains, photographed some of them (Fig 2), and researched the memories because railways have always fascinated me and here were the remains of an unusual narrow-gauge railway.

I did not meet David Lee until the 1980s, when I was Director of the Museum of East Anglian Life in Suffolk and David was – and still is – the Honorary Librarian at Southwold Museum. I explained my interest in Southwold and the Railway and David, with the wry smile and impish humour I have come to cherish, said, ‘You know, I rode on the Southwold Railway’. He explained that as a 4-year old, sitting on his mother’s knee, he travelled to Southwold but remembers little more than that there was not much to see because it was pouring with rain.

Fig 2 : Southwold Station building in the early 1950s.

My museum career, and my affection for Southwold, kept me in touch with David. When in 2015 I was commissioned to research and write a book about the Railway my first contact was with David, still very much alive in his 90s. I knew that he planned to write a definitive book on the history and operation of the Southwold Railway and that he has always been an exhaustive and very meticulous researcher into subjects which interested him. Some of his booklets have been published by Southwold Museum, but he believed that the Railway needed a fully illustrated and extensive book.

I was concerned David might feel that I should not take over his project but, at our first meeting, he acknowledged that I could be a means to his end. I had a commission from a publisher and was therefore committed to delivering text and pictures for what has become this book. In our subsequent meetings, at David’s house in Southwold, we explored my knowledge of the Railway and agreed a list of contents. David showed me what he had already written and the several hundred pictures and paper artefacts he had accumulated.

People stories have generally underpinned my writing, so I suggested to David that I would like to introduce our book with a brief biography of him. Though he is an unassuming man, and initially resisted my suggestion, I guessed he would have some interesting stories to tell:

‘I was born on 9 April 1922 and christened David Mark Lee; the ‘Mark’ was a family memory of my grandfather, Sir John Mark, who was Mayor of Manchester in the 1890s. Schools were Stubbington House Prep School and then Uppingham – but that did not do me any good!

‘I was still at school at the beginning of World War Two. I left in July 1940 and after a failed attempt to get into the Royal Marines I joined up in January 1941 as an Ordinary Seaman RN. After initial training I joined HMS Norfolk for convoy escort work then more training at HMS King Alfred, a training depot for RNVR officers, and passed out as Sub Lieutenant Lee, RNVR in June 1942.

‘There followed training at Chatham as a High Angle Control Officer (HACS) on a British antiaircraft fire-control system used by the Navy from 1941. HACS calculated the necessary deflection to reach a target flying at a known height, bearing and speed. There followed sea-going service on HMS Argonaut then HMS Nigeria and finally to HMS Tulip which took me to the Far East and to Singapore on air-sea rescue work. I was demobbed in June 1946 so that is the end of that story!

‘My interest in railway operation was fulfilled by clerical employment for fifteen years on the GWR, then BR Western Region and finally 4 more years with BRB in the Passenger Rolling Stock Section. I resigned in 1965 because the Beeching cuts were making my long-term railway future a little doubtful so I moved with my wife and family to Southwold to become an antique furniture repairer and restorer. From 1969 to 1989 I owned and managed an antiques business in the front of the High Street house which is still my home.’

I have ‘pruned’ David’s life story but I hope it gives a flavour of the man who has researched and contributed much of this book. However, I made clear in our subsequent discussions that this was to be our book, not just David’s book, and I have explained to him that I must judge what twenty-first century readers, and our publisher, would consider to be readable, saleable and a good story about a Railway which was a Suffolk byway.

A byway in the OED is a little-known area of knowledge and the Southwold Railway fits that definition:

•A 3ft gauge railway – an unusual gauge found only elsewhere in the UK for passenger-carrying on the original Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, acknowledging that the 3ft gauge Isle of Man Railways is outwith the UK.

•A railway company in rural Suffolk which was managed from a London office with which, for many years, there was no telephone connection so instructions and decisions were communicated by letter from Secretary Ward.

Just such a letter is Fig 3 which I have re-created from David Lee’s extensive collections. At first sight the Secretary is applying standard railway operating procedures and insisting that they must be followed.

However, the final sentence of the first paragraph reveals a little more; other evidence suggests that one of the Railway’s regular passengers, whom the driver and guard would recognise, was hurrying for the last down train of the day so the train was ‘detained’ for him. What we do not know is who reported this practice to Secretary Ward but perhaps another passenger, in a hurry to get home and frustrated by a ‘regular’ who got special treatment, felt that the driver and guard should be ‘severely dealt with’. This incident is typical of many rural railway byways where the staff were keen to help their passengers but where Head Office, often many miles away, had other views.

I knew our second author much less well than I know David Lee and I was unable to develop my knowledge of Alan Taylor – whom I met several times – because he became very unwell and died on 16 January 2017 aged 91. Like David and me, Alan had a long interest in the Southwold Railway and his name may be best known as co-author with Eric S. Tonks for The Southwold Railway, Ian Allan, 1965 and subsequently a revised edition in 1979. For this book, Alan has contributed Chapter 2 and was very supportive of the whole endeavour in which a number of images from his extensive photograph collection were promised to me for publication; I hope those pictures, which are acknowledged to him in the List of Illustrations, may be another tribute to Alan.

David Lee recalls Alan and writes:

‘We became acquainted in the 1950s when I was staying in Southwold and Alan came over from Beccles to discuss his research into Southwold Railway history and to exchange photographs. We kept in touch periodically and discussed some of our continuing researches. I was very pleased when Alan became President of the Southwold Railway Trust (see Chapter 18) in 2011 and he was encouraged, despite his ill health, by the prospect of a recreated Southwold Railway. Rest in Peace, Alan.’

When David Lee and I discussed the contents of this book we had differing viewpoints. As a geographer, and with ready IT access to a number of sources, I enjoy well-written words but also think in terms of map extracts and pictures which should speak for themselves in telling a story. David, without a computer but with an indefatigable skill at detailed research, thought more in terms of words and sometimes very detailed statistics plus a number of pictures from his files, each with a detailed caption.

Fig 3: A peremptory letter from Secretary, and subsequently Manager, H. Ward in London to the operating staff in Suffolk.

My solution is what follows; many words, some maps, many pictures and captions wherever the words cannot embrace the illustrations so they complement each other. But I believe it is very important that an interested researcher should be able to access all of David’s work. He has agreed, therefore, that all his research files and associated papers, plus my scans of all the pictures he and others have made available, should be deposited in the Archives at Southwold Museum one day in the future. In due course they can be seen, by appointment, in the excellent Search Room there. The contact is the Curator at: <[e-mail]> or telephone [phone].

Fig 4: SR No 1 SOUTHWOLD heading the 6.30pm mixed down train at Halesworth. 3 July 1920.

We hope that this book will be an enjoyable tale about a Suffolk railway byway, wandering across the marshes and through the wooded coverts between Halesworth and Southwold. And that readers who want to discover more will visit Southwold Museum, explore David Lee’s collection which will be accessible there for current and future generations and, perhaps, contribute more research and their own discoveries.

If there are mistakes in the text we would be pleased to hear of them and, since I am happy to accept responsibility for them please contact me at robsb @wfmyork.demon.co.uk and I will share them with David in Southwold.

David Lee Rob Shorland-Ball

CHAPTER 2

PROPOSALS FOR A RAILWAY TO SOUTHWOLD

Railways of northern East Anglia, 1840 – 1859

Railway promotions in the Blyth valley, 1860 – 1876

[Text by Alan Taylor, copied and compiled from David Lee’s Research Notes obtained by him from TNA and other sources – see pages 7 and 8]

Southwold, in the nineteenth century, was a small coastal town with a population of a little over 2,000 situated in East Suffolk, south of Lowestoft and north of Dunwich. This latter, in mediaeval times, had been a thriving town and port but nearly all of it had been lost to the inroads of the sea. Southwold was close by the mouth of the River Blyth and was served by a harbour in that river. The river’s valley extended to the Southwold hinterland via Halesworth, a small market town.

Fig 5, a 1960 sketch map, shows the river winding its way through extensive marshes to the sea at Southwold. The contours show there was very little land above 50ft, so the construction of a railway should not require extensive civil engineering – and consequent cost. If the local landowners were keen to see a railway through, or near, their property and were persuaded that it could improve the local economy, a railway proposal might be successful.

Fig 5: 1960 sketch map, shows the River Blyth winding its way through extensive marshes to the sea at Southwold

But why was there such a Suffolk byway as the Southwold Railway? This can best be explained by the development of rail systems in East Anglia and the subsequent isolation of Southwold. The Great Eastern Railway Company was incorporated by the Great Eastern Railway Act of 7 August 1862. The purpose of the Act was: ‘To amalgamate the Eastern Counties, the East Anglian, the Newmarket & Chesterford, the Eastern Union and the Norfolk Railway Companies, and for other purposes’. The ECR had previously leased and absorbed the constituent Companies which morphed into the GER in 1862 but the ECR was never financially stable and lacked holistic management. The GER Act was an expression of parliamentary good sense in bringing together in one Company a diverse miscellany of company management and operational practices. The Sketch Plan of the Great Eastern System ( Fig 6) shows the network of standard gauge main lines, and some branches, but Southwold is isolated.

The first railway in Eastern Suffolk and Norfolk was the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway which opened on 30 April 1844 and became the Norfolk Railway in 1845. By 1849, Norwich was connected to London via Cambridge.

In 1844, Sir Morton Peto – an entrepreneur, railway developer and civil engineer – bought the ailing Lowestoft harbour and began developing the Lowestoft Railway and Harbour Company (LR&HC) which joined the Norfolk Railway at Reedham and was taken over by the Norfolk Railway in 1846 and this in turn came under the control of the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR] in 1848.

The next line of the ECR system, the Halesworth, Beccles and Haddiscoe Railway (HB&HR), opened for traffic to Halesworth on 4 December 1854. The Southwold Diary of James Maggs (1818-1876), Boydell Press, Suffolk Records Society, 2007 records: ‘1854 Decr 20 – Fish first sent from here [by road] to Halesworth Railway Station.’

Southwold was now less than 9 miles from a standard gauge main line railway at Halesworth.

In 1854, the HB&HR became the East Suffolk Railway and obtained authority to build southwards from Beccles to Woodbridge with branches to Leiston, Snape and Framlingham. By 1860, this extension was complete to Woodbridge with standard gauge branches to Framlingham, and to Aldeburgh via Leiston and a goods-only line to Snape to serve Snape Maltings.

Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Aldeburgh were now connected to the railway system but Southwold was still isolated. Southwold, with no direct rail link, was connected to the outside world by public omnibuses to Darsham.

Of the population of about 2,000, many felt that their town was important enough to be served by its own railway. As a result, a number of proposals were made with this in mind. In 1855, the Mayor of Southwold, Alfred Lillingston, presented a petition to the East Suffolk Railway requesting that a branch be constructed to Southwold, but the request was rejected.

The Suffolk Chronicle of 11 October 1856 carried the following report:

‘SOUTHWOLD – Oct 9th PROPOSED BRANCH RAILWAY At a very important and highly influential meeting, held at the Town Hall, in this Borough, on Friday, the third inst. presided over by the Mayor (Alfred Lillingston, Esq., ) and attended by the members of the Town Council, the Town Clerk, . . . and many other of the inhabitants and visitors interested in the welfare of the town, proposed:

‘… to take into consideration the best means of promoting a railway as a branch from the East Suffolk Line at Halesworth.’

It was resolved:

‘That the inhabitants do hereby give, and the Mayor and Corporation are also requested to give their warmest support to the project; and that, in the event of the railway passing through the Corporation property, the Corporation be invited to take payment for the value of their land required for the railway in paid-up shares of the Company.’

Also resolved:

‘That a committee . . . (with powers to add to their number), be appointed for the purpose of inviting all persons having an interest in the trade and prosperity of the town, to take shares, as an earnest of their approval of the project.’

It was also agreed that copies of the resolutions should be submitted to the Right Honourable the Earl of Stradbroke, Sir Edward Sherlock Gooch Bart MP, Sir John Blois Bart, Sir Fitzroy Kelly MP, and other Gentlemen residing in the neighbourhood, with a request that they will give their support to the same. Most cordial thanks were voted to Alfred Lillingston, R.A. Broomar, and G.J. Mayhew, Esqrs, for their exertions in furtherance of the proposed railway, and to the former gentleman for his kindness and ability in presiding at the meeting. A subscription list for shares was subsequently presented, and, we understand received general support.

Fig 6: The network of GER lines serving East Anglia. The Southwold Railway is not shown because it was a narrow gauge independent company. Note that the non-GER Mid Suffolk Light Railway is included and is heading towards Halesworth and, its promoters hope, to Southwold.

In reference to the above meeting another correspondent says:

‘The meeting decided in favour of the proposed plan, the only opposition being that of the Rector, whom, we are told, thought himself justified in that course as the line would bring an influx of Sunday visitors to the town, and thus, by offering facilities for travelling on that day, exert a prejudicial effect on their morals.

Maggs’ diary contains a cutting dated 11 October 1856, possibly from the Ipswich Journal, also reporting the October meeting. The cutting emphasises that a railway and improvements to the harbour would greatly improve the prosperity of the local fishing industry and the welfare of the town.

However, little, if any, progress was made and despite the East Suffolk Railway’s success with branch lines, the Eastern Union Railway (soon, with the ESR, to be part of the GER) was not persuaded that branch lines were remunerative (Fig 7 ).

In 1859, further representations were made by people in Southwold to the East Suffolk Railway for a connecting branch line but the request was again turned down. However, there was a real public desire for a rail connection to Southwold and the story is best told in the vigorous reportage of the local press.

On 14 August 1860, the Halesworth Times carried the report:

‘PROJECTED RAILWAY. Those at all acquainted with the Eastern coast will bear ample testimony to the natural advantages possessed by Southwold as a seaport and, as a place of resort for invalids and pleasure seekers, we know of no place comparable.

‘Owing to the want of public spirit amongst the inhabitants the town has fallen into a state of desuetude and decay, whilst towns like Lowestoft and Aldeburgh, with not a tithe of Southwold’s natural benefits, are in a state of comparative prosperity. But we hope the end of these things is approaching, and that Southwold will soon be able to vie with either Yarmouth, Lowestoft or Aldeburgh.

‘A project is on foot for establishing railway communication via the East Suffolk Line, at Darsham or Halesworth. We trust the scheme will be taken up with energy and spirit by the inhabitants. Now or never must be the cry: ˝With a long pull and a strong pull, and a pull altogether,ˮ and the thing may yet be a fait accompli. Lord Stradbroke has been waited upon, we understand, and is favourably disposed towards the undertaking.’

In September 1860, the Suffolk Mercury newspaper reported that a memorial had been prepared by the Southwold Town Clerk for presentation to Sir Morton Peto, who had been involved in the development of Lowestoft, was the contractor for constructing the East Suffolk Railway, and a Director of that Company.

Fig 7: Notice from the Suffolk Chronicle. . etc. expressing concern about EUR proposals to build more branch lines in East Anglia. 3 March 1855.

A September report in the Halesworth Times stated:

‘With scarcely an exception the whole town are very anxious that this projected line should be carried into effect. There can be no doubt that the formation of such a line would give immence [sic] impetus to the trade of the town, and restore it to its proper position, as one of the most important ports on the Suffolk and Eastern coasts.

‘One of the advantages of the projected line would be the cheapness with which it could be constructed – it being estimated that from £3,000 to £4,000 per mile would be the actual [cost], the principal portion of which might be expected to be almost entirely subscribed for by the residents of the town.’

Progress seemed to be slower than the keenest advocates might wish but the Halesworth Times of 13 November 1860 reported on a meeting with Sir Morton Peto which was very positive:

‘SOUTHWOLD – PROPOSED RAILWAY

‘The proposed railway from this old seaport still continues the engrossing topic of conversation here, and considerable anxiety is manifested that it may ere long become a fait accompli. The principal inhabitants of the town, headed by the Mayor Alfred Lillingston, Esq, had an interview with Sir Morton Peto, on Tuesday last, at the Angel Hotel, Halesworth, in connection with the proposed scheme, and were most politely received by the honourable baronet.

‘The Mayor, in the name of the deputation, stated the facts of the case, clearly pointing out to Sir Morton the immense advantages that must accrue not only to the town of Southwold and the neighbourhood around but to the share-holders as well. Immense quantities of fish were caught off this coast, and, provided greater facilities were granted by means of direct railway communication with London and other large towns, a very great impetus would be given to the trade of the port, and a much more extended and extensive business would be carried on. New enterprises would be embarked on and he had no doubt but very important results would follow.

‘Other members of the deputation pointed out to Sir Morton Peto the advantages that would accrue from the formation of this line. Sir Morton Peto listened most attentively to the various statements of the deputation and in reply assured them he would assist them in the undertaking to the best of his ability. It appeared to him that the cost of the proposed railway would be about £60,000. The heaviest item in the amount would be the construction of the bridge over the river – if of solid masonry the cost would be not less than £10,000, and if a swing bridge, the amount required would not be less than £16,000. The honourable baronet seemed very favourably disposed, and stated that if the deputation would guarantee half the amount he himself would undertake to furnish the remaining £30,000.

‘The question then arose whether the junction should be at Darsham or Halesworth, and could the consent of Lord Stradbroke be obtained for the passing of the line through his estate? The general feeling appeared to be in favour of the junction being formed at Halesworth.

The deputation, after thanking Sir Morton Peto for his urbanity and patience in listening to their statements, then withdrew.

‘There is a tide in the affairs of towns as well as men that followed at the flood leads on to fortune – and this seems to be the turning point in the history of Southwold. Now or never if the inhabitants wish to see the old seaport taking its proper position as one of the best, and pleasantest, and most prosperous of places on the eastern coast. Surely there is enough of public spirit in the old town not to let this opportunity slip, but to put fourth all its energies for the accomplishment of an enterprise which must prove highly advantageous in every point of view.’

A printed circular letter, dated December 1860, but with the originator not stated, was distributed in the district. It read:

‘I have the pleasure of informing you that a project has been set on foot to connect this town by means of a Branch with the East Suffolk Railway, relative to which an interview was sought with Sir Morton Peto, Bart MP who estimated the cost of such Branch Railway at £60,000, and stated that upon its being shewn to him that £30,000 was subscribed he should be willing to enter upon the necessary arrangements.

‘A Public Meeting was subsequently convened in Southwold Town Hall, the Mayor, Alfred Lillingston Esq presiding, at which the desirability of the undertaking was admitted, and evinced by the Gentlemen present entering their names upon the Subscription List, and upwards of £1,000 was subscribed in the Room, and a resolution passed that Application should be made to Gentlemen possessing property, and having interest in the Town to enable them to aid the undertaking by adding their Names to the Subscription List.

‘I need scarcely remind you that the want of Railway Accommodation has been long felt in this Bathing Town, and has deterred many Families from visiting it, who would otherwise have been only too desirous of availing themselves of the opportunity of pleasant temporary Marine Sojourn.

‘I have therefore to solicit your co-operation by allowing your name to be placed on the List, and request the favor [sic] of your informing me the amount of the Subscription you desire to be added, in.

‘I am, Your obedient Servant,’ A N Other

What success this appeal had is not known, but it is known that Sir Morton Peto became more involved with the finances of the East Suffolk Railway and was also beset by financial difficulties so thus was unable to continue support for the Southwold branch project. Without his support, the project failed.

In 1862, the East Suffolk Railway was absorbed by and became part of the Great Eastern Railway, which owned and operated most of the railway lines in East Anglia.

The Blyth Valley Railway Company came on the scene in the mid-1860s with a proposal to build a Standard Gauge line connecting with the East Suffolk Railway at Halesworth and roughly following the course of the River Blyth to Southwold. On 8 November 1865, the Halesworth Times reported:

‘SOUTHWOLD – PROPOSED RAILWAY

‘There is at length a