Lynn News Wensum column: trains linked Fakenham with Wells plus Woking Waterloo rail line allowed Surrey at the Oval or Chelsea at Stamford Bridge trips

Wensum by Jim Harding

I grew up in a railway family with my grandad, my dad and his two brothers all working in signal boxes or on the tracks themselves.

I’ll always remember the first time I was taken inside the Woking station box right above this busy junction on the Waterloo line which I found very exciting. To see and hear and smell express trains pulling in or flying through from up there was a dream come true for this wide-eyed youngster.

When I expressed the wish to ‘join the club’ when I left school, dad reckoned I should not be so hasty as he felt, in his words, that I could ‘do better than that’.

At the time, railways connected just about everywhere across Britain and were accepted as key links between communities.

In my teens I was free to take myself off to watch Surrey play at the Oval or Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. When history stepped in to close down many small lines which were seen to be uneconomic, ways of life bound up with their dynamic had to be quite suddenly abandoned.

Many years later when we first arrived in Fakenham the decline of the ‘railway age’ was very apparent.

Just down from our house in Norwich Road (formerly known as Station Road) crossing gates served as a reminder of when trains used to link Fakenham with Wells on the coast along with many other inland places. These have long gone now and trains themselves are but a distant memory.

At least the beds of these tracks were put to good use as wonderful footpaths which continue to be popular as such today.

One of my favourites is the two-mile stretch opposite Fakenham Garden Centre which heads west in the direction of Sculthorpe.

Many friends who have visited us have accompanied me along this placid way, encouraged by its conclusion at the splendid Sculthorpe Mill pub.

I was delighted to read in last week’s Lynn News that there are plans to extend this corridor as a walking and cycling link all the way to Lynn itself.

If and when this happens and I’m still as keen on walking and biking as I am today, then I shall certainly endeavour to ‘huff and puff’ my way there. Perhaps, as an age concession, starting out from the pub itself as the full distance is reckoned to be around 20 miles or so.

The article indicated that the Lynn-Fakenham Railway was opened in 1880 and closed to passengers in 1959.

One of the books I received over Christmas was called Coasting by Elise Downing.

Our youngest son Jack reckoned that it was right up my street. As it happened, I read it in a matter of days, unusual for me, and was captured by its spirit and sense of adventure.

Elise may have been a bit of a scatter-brain but her writing was infectious as she recorded her amazing achievement of running – yes, running – around Britain despite struggling to read a map. A terrific read.