THE LYNN SUTTON BRIDGE RAILWAY

Railway mania was beginning in Norfolk. The Lynn Ely Railway opened in 1846, and the Lynn Dereham Railway also commenced operations at the same time. In August 1861, the Lynn Sutton Bridge Railway was authorised by Parliament and opened in 1864, along with lines from Wisbech and Bourne that all connected at Sutton Bridge. Historical maps show this railway initially as the Bourne and Lynn Railway.

The Lynn Sutton Bridge Railway initially operated services from the original wooden station in King’s Lynn. This was later replaced by a brick station built by Robert Skipper of Dereham in 1871, which still stands today.

The government wanted the Lynn Sutton Bridge Company to construct a new rail and road bridge at Sutton Bridge. However, the Lynn and Sutton Bridge Railway Act of 1863 modified this, permitting the railway to purchase the existing crossing, which had been built in 1850.

Departing from King's Lynn, the Sutton Bridge railway line initially used the Lynn Ely line before heading to the southern edge of the town at Harbour Junction. From there, the line diverged towards Sutton Bridge, with the next station being West Lynn. However, the single-platform station at West Lynn was short-lived, and little historical detail is available about this old station. I found that it was estimated to have been open from 1866 to 1886.

After West Lynn, the line called at Clenchwarton, Terrington, and Walpole before reaching Sutton Bridge.

In 1886, the Lynn avoiding line opened, with South Lynn station, diverting traffic away from King's Lynn's heavily congested main station. The line to Sutton Bridge now ran from South Lynn station.

The Cross Keys bridge: The first bridge opened in 1831, and a replacement bridge was opened in 1850. The second bridge was a swing bridge, similar to the one seen today. From 1850 onwards, the bridge was used exclusively for road traffic until 1864, when the railway also gained the right to use it.

The present bridge, which still stands today, was constructed in 1897 for £80,000.

This was the third bridge constructed.

To put this in perspective, the whole of the Hunstanton line, when constructed, cost £80.000.

The newly built bridge altered the track alignment at the approach to the Sutton Bridge from the east to accommodate the newly constructed bridge. It was originally hoped that the 1850 bridge could be kept for rail use, but it was considered a hazard, so it was demolished.

In the late 1890s, the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway was formed

(Nicknamed the Muddle & go Nowhere)

The M&GN took control of the Lynn Sutton Bridge line, as well as the Peterborough, Wisbech, and Bourne lines to the West, the Lynn Fakenham line, the Norwich city, Cromer, and Great Yarmouth lines, and the Melton Constable works and junction to the East.

In 1958, a report by British Railways concluded that the M&GNJR was making no money and was redundant, as Wisbech, Peterborough, Norwich, and King's Lynn all had other stations in their towns supported by different railway companies. In early 1959, most of the M&GN was closed, with some small sections remaining open for freight use. The only parts of the M&GN still in use are Cromer station, formerly Cromer Beach station, and West Runton station, with Sheringham and Weybourne still in use as part of the North Norfolk Railway.

Part of the closure was rumoured to be that the bridge that crossed the River Ouse at South Lynn was beyond repair, and constructing a new railway bridge would have cost more than the railway was making.

King’s Lynn Town station

The original station in King’s Lynn, from which the Sutton Bridge railway first started, is still used daily for services to London King’s Cross.

South Lynn.

Opened on 1st January 1886 and closed to passengers on 2nd March 1959. It remained open as a coal depot until 1966.

Sutton Bridge.

It opened on March 1, 1866, and closed to passengers on March 2, 1959; Sutton Bridge closed to freight on April 5, 1965.

All intermediate stations along the route were also closed in 1959.

When I wrote this page, all that remained of the Lynn Sutton bridge railway was a bridge and some small parts of the railway track close to Harbour Junction near South Lynn. I'm unsure if the bridge was original or replaced over time. All stations along the route have been demolished, with only a small memorial at Walpole dedicated to the long-lost railway. The track bed was repurposed into the A17 bypass, which, in many parts, follows the old track bed. At Sutton Bridge, the Swing bridge, known as Cross Keys Bridge, still exists and is in daily use, carrying A17 road traffic over the River Nene.

The river Nene leads into Wisbech Docks and serves Sutton Bridge Docks from the Wash.