The station house, outbuildings and up platform are now occupied as a fine looking dwelling that is easily recognised as a former station.  The platform-facing house wall is rendered covering up the knapped flint structure.  The streetfacing wall and entrance retain a lot of the original character.  The former platform shelter and store survive, now rendered as does the brick one-time waiting room.  The platform remains at original height above the track-bed which is laid to nicely maintained grass. A station name-board stands on the platform. All four ornate chimneys, three on the main building and one on the waiting room, have gone. The original glazing on the station house has not survived.  The down platform has gone. There is no trace of the level crossing or signal box.  The view eastwards from the road offers no suggestion that it was once a railway. 

Notes: The station at East Winch lay more than a half mile north of the village of the same name. Along the railway it was exactly two miles east of Middleton Towers. The station facilities were bisected by Gayton Road which connecting East Winch and Gayton villages, the line crossed on the level. The station buildings were on the Lynn side of the crossing on the south side of the running lines. The original building, close to the road, had its roof-line at right-angles to the track. Set under a slate roof with four ornate chimneys, the walls were built of beige brick corners and an infill of finely knapped local flint with a flat facet as its facing. This produced an altogether visually satisfying appearance. There was a substantial ornate porch forming the entrance from the lane. There were two floors, the upper level built into the roof in dormer style with a window looking out over the rails. Later, a new building was added to the west c1870 to provide a waiting room: it was of red brick and slate roof. It was linked to the original by a narrower building that had a canopy. The platform was provided with a canopied timber waiting room. A small number of oil lanterns lit the platform.

No signal boxes were provided when the line was built. The Great Eastern Railway constructed them later, in the case of East Winch on the down side beyond the level crossing from the passenger facilities, thus the box was nearer the meagre provision for goods traffic. When the 1905 25inch OS Map was surveyed there were two platforms and the station was a passing place for trains. The previous map in the same series, dated 1885, shows a much simpler layout at East Winch than is shown on the later edition. It would not have allowed through trains to pass except by use of a siding. In this map there is a single platform and running line on the down side opposite the station buildings. Between the building and the main line a long siding, shunted from the west, passed through the station and shared the road crossing with the running line. A short siding branched off the longer one east of the road and led to a loading or cattle dock. In Nov 1879 a horse/carriage dock was approved for the Earl of Romney 'and others' travelling to Lynn. The Romney seat was and still is nearby Gayton Hall. It is currently occupied by the 8th Earl and his Countess.

In January 1880 expenditure of £300 on sidings and roadway approved. This large sum, for the time, of money would suggest additional siding accommodation with a metalled roadway of some form. The new siding, this shunted from the east and provided with a dock platform, ended at the road beside the level crossing. ‘Scissors’ or multiple points allowed the earlier sidings to be accessed from either up or down lines. On 20 April 1886 contract for new signalling at East Winch was awarded to Saxby & Farmer and a signal box was erected that year. At the same time an up platform was added in front of and west of the station building and a point added from running line to the new platform, establishing the station as a passing place. The LNER later noted that the signal box had a 29 lever Saxby & Farmer frame. The station did not have a covered goods-handling shed. The GER board did note that a goods shed was required in May 1958 but it was never built.

Jenkins also researched the names and careers of station masters at many locations. Paraphrasing his entries for East Winch we see William Smith in post in 1888 and William Fisk in 1896. Both moved on to other GER stations. One Edward Jackson was in charge around 1904 - 1908 whilst L Raney left East Winch in 1920 moving to Silvertown in East London. He was replaced by F Constable who, in turn, moved on, followed by William Dines then George Taylor. The latter had assumed responsibility for East Winch and Middleton Towers stations. In the 1950s the station master was Ken Blatch.

East Winch was one of five intermediate stations on the Lynn & Dereham that, soon after opening, had become request stops. The timetable for 1866, just twenty years into the line’s existence, offered only four trains in each direction, the first towards Lynn as late as 10.50am. Passengers for the Dereham direction had their first choice at 9.13am. The station was not an ’unstaffed halt’ but passengers wishing to travel had to arrive five minutes before the advertised time. Those wishing to leave the train had to inform the guard earlier in the journey. On Saturdays an extra train ran to Norwich for its market, leaving East Winch at 8.03am: returning market-goers caught the 5.20pm from Norwich and changed at Dereham. There was no equivalent help to reach the Lynn Tuesday Market.

In the 1882 tables East Winch was no longer a request stop. A train shortly after 7am went to Swaffham and Thetford, the Norwich market train appeared in the columns and five further down trains halted; a sixth, a mixed train, called on Monday evenings. In the up direction travellers to Lynn’s Tuesday market now had a train provided for them. It called at East Winch at 8.38am and, except on Tuesdays, a mixed stopped at 9.52am. Four further trains called the last at 9.06pm. One train ran each way on Sundays.

In May 1919 English Oilfields Limited was developing an oil shale industry, with brick and cement making, on 100 sq. miles of land near King’s Lynn, The Company asked the GER to help construct a light railway from St. Germans Siding between Magdalen Road and King’s Lynn to East Winch. The GER board decided development had not reached the point where the company would be justified in building the line, but they noted 'there is a working brickfield at Blackborough End from where EOFL could run a siding to GER between Magdalen Road and King’s Lynn

In the London and North Eastern Railway’s (LNER) 1925 tables request stops were no more. Six down trains spread between 7.27am and 9.06pm called at East Winch. The first up train left at 8.10am followed by five more, the last at 8.22pm. One additional train was run on Saturdays, calling at 5.40pm. ‘Market’ trains were not highlighted at this date and no Sunday service was offered. 

The Up platform was shortened at its west end during the 1050s. Steam passenger work ended with the British Railways Eastern Region summer timetable in 1955. The engine sheds at Swaffham and Dereham closed to steam and new Metropolitan Cammell and BR-built Derby DMUs were allocated to the route. The service was increased to a level without precedent with twelve weekday trains calling at East Winch in each direction: two more called on Saturdays. One train each day ran to and from the Thetford branch. There were no Sunday trains between Dereham and Lynn.

Despite BR’s modernisation attempts, the end was signalled in Dr. Richard Beeching’s report The Reshaping of Britain’s Railways, published in March 1963 and closure of Norfolk’s branch lines began with some urgency. Additionally services on the Lynn & Dereham were run down by closure of general goods facilities at intermediate stations. East Winch closed to goods traffic on 28 December 1964. In August 1966 East Winch became an unstaffed halt. Unlike other intermediate stations on the line, East Winch retained its signal box, two platforms and its passing loop. Closure notices were served in 1968 and the line, including East Winch station, closed to passengers with effect from 9 September 1968, with the last trains running on Saturday 7 September.

The surviving length of line from King’s Lynn to the quarry at Middleton Towers terminated a short distance east of the quarry and the rails through East Winch were removed soon after services ceased.

Route map dawn by Alan Young. Tickets from Michael Stewart.
Additional source GER board minutes. Additional research by Darren Kitson.

Click here for a brief history of the Lynn & Dereham Railway

See other stations on the Lynn - Dereham line: Middleton Towers, Pentney & Bilney, Narborough & Pentney, Swaffham, Sporle, Dunham, Fransham, Wendling, Scarning & Dereham (EAR Station)