Summary
Former station master’s house built in 1845 by the Norwich & Brandon Railway.
Reasons for Designation
The former station master’s house, built in 1845 by the Norwich & Brandon Railway, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: it is an early example of a station master’s house built by an independent railway company during the heroic age of railway expansion;
* Architectural interest: it is a neatly composed house in the picturesque style with much attractive detailing, including the tall angled chimney stacks, lattice glazing bars and gabled porch. The use of carefully knapped local flint laid mostly in courses with thin joints creates a textured finish of considerable aesthetic appeal, which is further enhanced by the subtle contrast of the gault brick dressings;
* Architectural context: the house is one of the four contemporary station buildings of 1845 that achieve a high level of architectural coherence through the use of flint and gault brick, and the repeated application of certain details, such as the blocked brick window surrounds, gabled porches and angled chimney stacks. The hierarchy of the complex is moreover articulated by the varied architectural treatment of the different elements, providing valuable evidence of the social workings of a mid-C19 station complex;
* Rarity: the completeness with which the station complex has survived is rare. There are numerous stations throughout the country that retain three building types, and only approximately forty in which a group of four or more types survive, whereas Thetford retains nine. Very few stations have survived with this number of buildings, and Thetford thus provides an almost complete picture of an early station that continued to evolve throughout the second half of the C19;
* Group value: the station master’s house forms a key element in one of the finest surviving station complexes in East Anglia. It has strong group value with the main station building, railway workers’ cottages, railway tavern and signal box, all listed at Grade II. Although the bridge and good shed at Thetford are not listed, they would appear to be of local interest as they make an important contribution to the group of railway buildings.
History
Thetford Railway Station was built as part of the Norwich & Brandon Railway but a month before the station opened in 1845 it became part of the Norfolk Railway. This was later incorporated into the Great Eastern Railway. The line from Norwich to Brandon was constructed by Messrs Grissell & Peto, and the engineers were Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) and George Parker Bidder (1806-1878). It is likely that it was Bidder, rather than Stephenson, who was closely involved with the project on a day-to-day basis. Sizeable station buildings, mostly in neo-Tudor style, were erected at each of the stations along the line; and according to an article in the Great Eastern Journal (October 1998), they would have been designed by the engineer, in this case Bidder, and approved by the board of directors.
In addition to the main station building, located on the south side of the tracks, accommodation was provided for railway staff. The workers were housed in a terrace of four cottages situated on the north side of the tracks, and the station master had a separate station house and garden further to the north-west. A railway tavern for travellers was built to the south at the entrance to the station yard. These three buildings are contemporary with the main station building. A timber goods shed was also built to the west of the station together with a covered coal shed of a type once common in East Anglia. The coal shed has since been demolished. A brick extension was built onto the goods shed in 1898 but the timber part was destroyed by fire in 1912. It was rebuilt in the same year, retaining the 1898 extension. The loading gauge located at the end of the loading dock, to the west of the goods shed, probably dates to the 1930s, having replaced what would have been an original timber one. Further developments at Thetford include the erection of the footbridge linking the up and down platforms in 1881 by J O & C E Beckett (it has since lost its corrugated iron roof); and the signal box, to the west of the main station building, which was built in 1883 when block signalling was installed on the Ely-Norwich line. In 1889 a comprehensive rebuilding of the station took place. The 1845 station building was retained but a new red brick booking office, erected by P H Dawes of King’s Lynn, was built onto its right (east) end, and a canopy was put up on the platform side. A matching waiting room in a screen wall with a canopy was also erected on the north (down) side.
Houses for station masters located at or near stations were built from the earliest days of the railway. The example at Thetford has changed little externally since it was built in 1845 and it still occupies the same triangular garden plot depicted on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1885, 1905 and 1928. It is now a private residence.
Details
MATERIALS: knapped flint with gault brick dressings and slate-clad roof.
PLAN: approximately rectangular with a projecting porch on the west side.
EXTERIOR: the picturesque two-storey, two-bay house has blocked quoins and a steeply pitched roof with coped gable ends and tumbled in brick kneelers. The central chimney rises through the ridge of the roof and has two tall angled stacks with oversailing brick courses and circular pots. The principal, west-facing elevation has a gabled porch on the left hand side containing a timber door with vertical panels under a four-centred brick arch. It is lit by a centrally placed window on the ground floor and two symmetrically placed windows on the first floor. These are iron casements with lattice glazing bars and are set in ornamental surrounds of blocked brick. The south return has two windows on each floor, the upper left one is blind and the lower right has a late C20 casement. The other two elevations were not seen.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
