Disused Stations:Scarning Station

[Source: Glen Kilday]

Date opened:	11.9.1848
Location:	Where Chapel Lane, called Podmore Lane on older maps, crosses the A47 Trunk Road at a staggered crossing. The station building was where the north side junction with the lane now stands.
Company on opening:	East Anglian Railway
Date closed to passengers:	c1850
Date closed completely:	c1850
Company on closing:	East Anglian Railway
Present state:	All signs that a railway once passed the site of Scarning station have disappeared under the A47 Trunk Road which was built over the line of the railway for some distance a few miles west of Dereham. The road embankment, although not high, has a wider footprint than did the railway previously, obliterating anything to do with the railway.
County:	Norfolk
OS Grid Ref:	TF957126
Date of visit:	30.8.2017

Notes: Scarning was a very short-lived station 3 miles west of Dereham. The tiny hamlet of Scarning is less than a mile south of the station site The station house was located on the down side of the single running line, east of a level crossing. No images of the station could be located: if it was similarly built to other stations on the line, then it had a short low platform, edged and faced with dark coloured brick. The single running line passed through the station. Clinker asserts that there were no sidings or other facilities for handling goods traffic at Scarning.

Opened at the same time as other stations east of the Lynn & Dereham’s temporary terminus at Sporle, it appeared in Topham timetables in October 1848 listed as Scurning and Bradshaw in March 1849. Its last appearance in Bradshaw was in the October 1850 edition. In March 1850 it appeared in Bradshaw when all three weekday up and down down trains stopped and two in each direction, labelled as Government Trains, called on Sundays. All of the trains ran the full distance between Lynn and Dereham.

The building remained and was presumably used to house a crossing gatekeeper and his family. It survived until 1976 by which time it was roofless. The upgraded A47 road was built between 1976 and spring 1978, starting 7 years after the railway closed. It is probable that any visible remains of the station were obliterated at that time..

Route map dawn by Alan Young. Tickets from Michael Stewart.

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

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

Looking east from the site of the level crossing at the site of Scarning station in 1975. Scarning gatekeeper's house was roofless by this time and woukd be demolished the next year during the construction of the East Dereham bypass (A47).
Photo from Scarning Village web site

1859 1:63,360 (1" Norwich sheet 66) map. Although published in 1859 the survey woukd have been some years earlier.

1884 1:2,500 OS map. There is little to see at Scarning except the former station house still in place beside the road crossing.

Scarning gatekeeper's house was roofless by this time and woukd be demolished the next year during the construction of the East Dereham bypass (A47). The ticket office for Scarning station would have been in the house.
Photo from Scarning Village web site

Constructiuon of the East Dereham bypass (A47) along the line of the railway line at Scarning in 1976.
Photo from Scarning Village web site

The view east along the line of the railway in September 2017. The station building was where the trees stand on the northern corner of Chapel Lane.
Photo by Glen Kilday

The view to the west from the approximate location of the up side of the railway line, as seen in September 2017.
Photo by Glen Kilday

Small section of picket fence or gate is in the hedgerow at the site of the station house in September 2017. It resembles fences at other stations on the Lynn & Dereham and is very similar to the fencing seen in the 1975 photos above.
Photo by Glen Kilday

Station Name: SCARNING