Hardingham Station
Norfolk Railway

Station History:

Hardingham Station opened to passengers on 15 th February 1847. It is believed the building was designed, along with the other stations along the line by Sir Henry Hunt who was the quantity surveyor for the Houses of Parliament and also designed stations for The North Staffordshire, Brighton and South Coast and the Eastern Counties Railways. Below is a description of the station that appeared in the Norfolk Chronicle on 12 th December 1846.

The approach to the station is by a new road leading to the Hingham an Dereham road. It is built about 5 miles from the junction, and is a first class telegraph station, comprising about 3 acres, with various buildings. The principle building contains the company’s booking office, waiting rooms, clerks apartment’s, etc. It is built in the same style as the Dereham station; has a handsome frontage to the railway of 56 feet 7inches in length. Between this platform and the road four coal-bins have been built of brick. A goods shed of brick has also been erected , which is 50 feet by 40 inside, with a double roofing; and platform and crane inside complete. There are carriage-landings, projecting from this goods shed to the back of the platform. These landings are 122 feet round. Platforms are placed on both sides of the line, there is a water-tank to supply the engines.

It is interesting to note the Hardingham and Dereham stations were exactly the same when the line opened. As Dereham was in a town and traffic increased the buildings were extended to meet the demand.

There were several additions to the station including the new ladies and general waiting rooms on both platforms in 1882 and an extra bedroom added in 1898. One interesting addition was in September 1861 when it was agreed for the Stationmasters house to have an outside meat safe built!

In the yard a granary was built but this unfortunately this collapsed on 1st April 1942 due to “overloading” where an excessive number of grain sacks had been placed on the upper floor causing it to collapse and the added load on the ground floor drove the timbers outwards and demolished the greater part of the dwarf brick wall on which the building had been constructed.

The platforms were shortened and raised in the 1950s for the new diesel railcars and the line was made into a passing loop in 1965. The signal box closed in 1968, a year before the line closed. The1882 upside waiting rooms were demolished sometime in mid 60s and the downside in 1975 along
with the goods shed.

The station buildings fell into a state of disrepair and were purchased by the current owner in 1994 who restored the buildings and rebuilt the 1882 waiting rooms along with the canopy. The station masters house was purchased in 2021 and is currently being returned to its 1847 condition so visitors will be able to see how Dereham looked in 1847.

The current signal box at Hardingham was moved from Snettisham to Hardingham and rebuilt in 2012 to the same design as the original box, albeit in a different location.

​

Written by N Teulon