Burnham Market railway station

Burnham Market
Location
Place	Burnham Market
Area	King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk
Grid reference	TF834419
Operations
Pre-grouping	West Norfolk Junction Railway Lynn and Hunstanton Railway Great Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway Eastern Region of British Railways
Platforms	1
History
17 August 1866	Opened (Burnham)
1 June 1883	Renamed (Burnham Market)
2 June 1952	Closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Burnham Market was a railway station which served the village of Burnham Market in Norfolk, England. Opened by the West Norfolk Junction railway in 1866, it closed with the line in 1952.

The construction of the West Norfolk Junction Railway was prompted by the success of the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway which had opened in 1862 to link King's Lynn with the seaside town of Hunstanton. The West Norfolk opened in 1866 at the start of a major financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Overend Gurney Bank; the year also saw the outbreak of a "cattle plague" in North Norfolk which impacted on the cattle receipts on the line. The West Norfolk was absorbed into the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway in 1872 which in turn was acquired by the Great Eastern Railway in 1890. The line eventually closed to passengers in 1952, a consequence of rising costs and falling passenger numbers, aggravated by the inconvenient siting of stations. Up to the end of its passenger services, the line was one of the last where one could travel in gas-lit clerestory coaches hauled by Victorian locomotives.

A freight service continued to operate until 1963, though it was cut back to Heacham/Burnham Market after the North Sea flood of 1953 which badly damaged the section between Holkham and Wells, damage which British Rail judged not worth repairing.

Burnham Market was the principal intermediate station on the West Norfolk branch, serving the largest settlement between Heacham and Wells. Its importance was to decline towards the end of the nineteenth century as it shed its urban functions to become the village it is today. A single platform was provided together with a brick station building situated on the down side of the line. A crossing loop to the west of the station allowing it to be a passing place. Four sidings led from the loop to serve a goods yard equipped with a red brick goods shed. Another siding led to a nearby brickworks which used the railway to import coal. The station, like many others along the line, also handled its fair share of agricultural traffic and, in addition, some fish traffic (notably shellfish) from nearby villages such as Brancaster and Burnham Overy.

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