The old railway station

 

The coming of the railway during the 19th century gave the people of Bourne fast access to other parts of Britain and one of the major developments was the building of track to connect the town with the main Great Northern line at Essendine, a project that was completed in 1860 when the route was opened for both passengers and goods traffic. The undertaking was not a particularly difficult engineering feat because the 6½ mile stretch of line needed no tunnels and there were no difficult gradients. The new railway company had already bought the Red Hall and adjacent land and Bourne railway station was developed on that site to cater for a business that was quickly expanded by the opening of the line to Spalding in 1866 which gave a direct connection as far eastward as King’s Lynn and Cromer in Norfolk. The line to Sleaford was opened in 1872, giving access to the northern parts of Lincolnshire and, more importantly, trains began to run between Bourne and Little Bytham junction in 1894, from where the line continued to Saxby. This east-west route became the most important of the lines which served the town, carrying a considerable amount of both passenger and freight traffic. Thus within the space of just over thirty years, Bourne had become a railway centre of some importance. The boom was not to last and despite protests from local people, the last passenger train to Spalding ran on 28th February 1959, and freight facilities for the movement of sugar beet disappeared in 1965, virtually ending the railway age for Bourne. The platforms were demolished and the remaining red brick station buildings became part of the central depot and offices of Wherry and Sons Ltd., the agricultural and seed merchants who have been associated with the town since the early 19th century. The company demolished the last of the railway buildings in 2005 and applied for permission to use the site as part of a new 121-home residential development but this is currently under consideration by South Kesteven District Council. An illustrated history of the railways in Bourne including a copy of the original 1856 prospectus of the Bourne and Essendine Railway Company can be found on the CD-ROM A Portrait of Bourne.