The Railway

The Original GER plan for the railway through Wreningham was published in 1876. The central black line shows the nominal approved route for the tracks, although this nominal path was permitted to deviate as far outwards as the dashed lines should local circumstances require it. Two sections of the line were drawn on each of the three pages – collectively covering the complete route.
The corner of the map is signed ‘Langley, Engineer’. We have found references to an Alfred Langley who was involved in several new schemes for the GER. Is this ‘our’ man?

In 1876, an Act of Parliament approved a wide range of works to be undertaken by the Great Eastern Railway (GER).

This covered a wide range of new railway works across East Anglia, including the building of a Forncett-Wymondham line. The relevant text extract is shown here.

The passage of the act provided the legal basis for the detailed design and construction activities to get underway.

One of the aims of the new line was to provide a link the London to Norwich passengers who wished to travel through Wymondham, to Dereham, Swaffham, Wells, etc, without the need to pass through Norwich.

It was expected to provide a useful new link within the region’s extensive rail network. This would also benefit freight services. The latter was very important in the period before we had large-scale commercial road transport.

An extract from the 1882 Bradshaw’s railway map augmented with a red oval to show the location of the about-to-be-opened Forncett-Wymondham connection.

It was known as the ‘Swedes and Swimmers’ line. A comprehensive write-up about its construction and operation can be found on the Forncett History Group website – with other details provided here. The following information largely covers aspects relating to Wreningham and other details not included in those articles.

As part of their original survey, in 1876, the railway company (GER) created a catalogue specifically for Wreningham to show the route plan and list the properties the line would cross – together with the names of the landowners and occupiers. The numbered fields, on the left of the table, correspond to the same numbers shown on the map at the top of this page.
On this page, we can find the familiar village names of Baroness Berners, Sir Henry Tyrwhitt, Henry Bothway, George Childs and Alfred Quantrell. The subsequent pages provide others.

The Great Eastern Railway had bought a continuous strip of farmland across Wreningham. Partly opened in May 1881, the line’s link with the Norwich/Diss line at Forncett took additional time. This final stage was probably not complete until 1882.

Various Census pages list how the railway had provided immediate local employment opportunities, although most were relatively unskilled. The personnel responsible for operating the principal railway equipment are shown to have arrived from across the country.

Whilst introducing a modern and effective means for transporting people, the railway was an important way of despatching agricultural goods to a wider range of customers, or receiving goods into the area from long distances. Trains could also carry heavy loads and reach distant locations at speed. Local tradespeople quickly realised the benefits and had already started displaying information about their proximity to the various local stations.

The single intermediate railway station on the line was at Ashwellthorpe, and just a few minutes walk from the centre of Wreningham. Ashwellthorpe station was actually closer to the centre of Wreningham than to the centre of Ashwellthorpe!

Whilst Wreningham was never named on any rail map, it was close enough to the nearby station to add a new dimension to village connectivity.

Ashwellthorpe Station

Following the initial opening, on the 29th of June 1881, there was an auction in Wymondham for the sale of railway contractors’ equipment. To the layman’s eye, it appears they were disposing of staggering amounts of construction equipment.

The sale list includes: 220 tons of contractors’ rails, 3 tons of bridge rails, 15 tons of wheels and axles, a Scotch crane, mainline bogies, a powerful brick machine, 25 and 8 horsepower portable engines – in ‘splendid order’, through to 94 navvy and brick barrows. There were also 40 tons of ‘scrap’, 2 tons of ‘tested chain’ and ‘4 powerful draught horses’ with both ‘double and single carts’. Anyone wanting wood or brick huts, smithies and storehouses – or the contents of storehouses and cartwright’s shops(!) could have been in luck, too. We have not seen any report about the success of this sale, although, for anyone else wanting to build a few miles of railway, it must have been THE go-to event!

An 1890 newspaper article described the Wreningham wedding of William Bothway to Annie Quantrell. Towards the end, it tells us: ‘Immediately after the ceremony, the happy couple departed by the 3 o’clock express from Ashwellthorpe Station to London to spend the honeymoon.’ The local railway had clearly become a regular part of the village’s way of life!

Bridge House is shown next to the road. The GER railway map extract (south west is up!) shows how the road was diverted over the newly constructed bridge – opened on 30th June 1880.
Bridge House, no longer in existence, adjacent to the Wymondham Road bridge over the railway – looking (approximately) in the direction of the centre of Wreningham

In November 1880, the Goods Manager’s Office of the Great Eastern Railway, at Liverpool Street Station, wrote to farmers in this area advising them of an offer. Other ongoing railway work had resulted in the GER being in possession of large quantities of alluvial mud, presumably dug from rivers and marshes. This mud had been analysed for its nutrient properties at the County Analyst’s Office, London Street, Norwich. A two-page report was attached to the letter, signed by Francis Sutton, Consulting Chemist to the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture.

The GER’s letter and report described how alluvial mud was fantastic stuff, and full of nutrients. GER claimed it would be excellent for use on fields in place of standard fertilisers.

The mud was for sale and would be available for delivery during the following spring. It would be dried, finely pulverised and delivered to the nearest railway goods yard for collection by the farmer.

The GER was urging farmers to buy some – although it needed to be ordered in quantities of ‘6 tons and upwards’. Did six tons of ‘dried and finely pulverised mud’ represent the capacity of a small rail wagon? A copy of both the GER letter and the technical report was recently discovered at a Wreningham farm.

Research suggests, whatever GER’s claims, their alluvial mud would have been completely unsuitable for application on Wreningham’s wet clay soils! Fortunately, there is no evidence that this Wreningham farmer ever bought any!

The 1900s

The railway does not appear to have been especially busy, although in 1912, a bridge on the main London – Norwich line, at Flordon, was washed away by floods; the Forncett to Wymondham link enabled London – Norwich services to continue (trains reversing from Wymondham to Norwich) until the missing Flordon bridge was replaced, about two months later.

The First World War saw the line being used by a lot of military traffic.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, in September 1939, all passenger traffic on the line ceased, never to resume. Freight services continued, and the line became useful in moving materials for the construction of Hethel Airfield. After the airfield became operational, one of the tracks (in a cutting just north of Hapton village) was reserved for the use of an ammunition train.

The line was finally closed to freight in 1951. The tracks were eventually taken up and the land was offered back to the farm owners. In Wreningham, this final land disposal seems to have taken much longer than the original land purchase!

Following the line’s closure, the Ashwellthorpe Station site was transformed into the (very linear!) Ashwellthorpe Industrial Estate.

For a period during the 1950s, a stub of the original line had remained at the Wymondham end. This short stretch was used by Norwich scrap dealer, Archie King, who set up a dedicated operation on the site (since converted into an oil depot) to break up old railway carriages. The wooden carriage tops were usually burned, the metal wheels, chassis etc recovered for the scrap metal value. The Royal Mail carriage from the infamous Great Train Robbery (1963) was scrapped at this location.

In December 1954, the same stub of old track was used for a discreet overnight stay of the Royal Train in connection with a royal visit to Norwich.

Current Times

The stencilled number is the bridge’s unique reference. Repair work shown – carried out in 2025 – mostly involves replacing ‘blown’ bricks in the structure.

Whilst most of Wreningham’s old railway land returned to private ownership, surviving former railway structures such as bridges remained under the control of a government agency, which has become a branch of National Highways.

Across the nation, dedicated and contracted personnel make regular visits to assess the condition of these structures. They ensure continuing management, safety, and necessary repairs. The above set of photographs shows repair work being undertaken on Wreningham’s Wymondham Road railway bridge over spring and summer 2025.

Most of this 2025 Wreningham work is believed to be the first major repair activity since the bridge was first constructed in 1880-81. Much of the work relates to replacing blown facing bricks, some of which can be seen in the above photographs. The replacement bricks are set in lime mortar – the same type of mortar used in the original construction. The brick underside of the span remains in excellent condition.

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