Firsby railway station

Firsby railway station was a station in Firsby, Lincolnshire, a rural linear village 36 miles (58 km) east from the county town of Lincoln, 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of the nearest market town of Spilsby and 8 miles (12.9 km) inland from the popular holiday resort town of Skegness. It served as a main line station and a terminus for two branch lines to Skegness and Spilsby respectively.[2]

Firsby
Location of the station in 1992
LocationFirsby, Lincolnshire
England
Platforms3
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companyEast Lincolnshire Railway[1]
Pre-groupingGreat Northern Railway[1]
Post-groupingLondon and North Eastern Railway
Eastern Region of British Railways
Key dates
3 Sep 1848Opened[1]
1 May 1868Spilsby and Firsby Railway Company formed
30 Nov 1958Spilsby branch line closed
5 Oct 1970Station[1] and line closed

The station was popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries for seaside connections to Skegness, but was recommended for closure in the Beeching Report and closed in 1970. The station premises have mostly been demolished.

Opening

The station, originally named Firstby, opened on 3 September 1848, and attracted a regular goods service from Louth.[1][3] Unlike many isolated rural halts, it had a substantial structure.[4] The station had three platforms each two hundred and twenty yards long and covered with buildings, booking offices, several waiting rooms (male, female and general), restaurants, toilets, baggage and goods halls, crew rooms, staff canteen and housing, and several railway offices. The main line tracks were crossed by a passenger footbridge and most of the station was covered by an ornate cast-iron and glass canopy normally only seen at main city stations.[5] The station also had signal boxes, water towers, extensive goods sidings, and engine repair sheds.

The station was served by two public houses, one of which doubled as the Firsby Railway Hotel. There are several mentions in old records of a second drinking establishment around 1852, called Whyley's Beerhouse, that stood adjacent to Firsby railway Station.

By the 1860s, the station was serving four trains a day to Grimsby, three a day to Boston, and two a day to Louth.[6]

Firsby Junction in the 1930s

Branch lines

Firsby was a junction for the Skegness line and the Spilsby line on their short branches from the main Great Northern Railway's London Kings Cross to Cleethorpes East Coast Main Line railway.[7] The branch to Skegness opened as far as Wainfleet on 24 October 1871, then to Skegness on 28 July 1873.[8] The connection to Spilsby opened on 1 May 1868.[9]

Traffic peaked at the station during the summer months, where holiday passenger traffic stopped for a connection to Skegness. This led to overcrowding at the station, but was also a significant source of employment.[4]

Traffic at the station peaked in the early 1920s, mostly excursion trains to Skegness.[10]

Between 1943 and 1958 Firsby was used as a nearby staging point for RAF and later USAF airmen travelling to and from RAF Spilsby at Great Steeping.[4]

Closure

The connection to Spilsby closed on 10 September 1939.[9]

The station was recommended for closure to passengers in the 1963 Beeching Report and did so on 4 October 1970. The link to Skegness was also scheduled for closure, but the branch to the south of the station was retained, as was the line from there to Boston.[11][12] After closing the station was mostly demolished the following year.[4]

The former level crossing looking towards Little Steeping

Only the most southerly section of the station building remains and is now a private residence.[13] With the old East Coast Main Line between Firsby and Grimsby removed, a new direct link to Skegness was used at the junction a few hundred yards south of the old Firsby station. Although the station is long gone many locals still remember the station master calling out "Skegness passengers, Over the bridge for Skegness!"[14]

A small part of the former junction remains but is partially built on by a small house partially angled onto the trackbed. The trackbed from Firsby to Spilsby can still be followed albeit on private land.

Former services
Preceding station   Disused railways   Following station
Little Steeping   Great Northern Railway
East Lincolnshire Line		   Burgh Le Marsh
Little Steeping   Great Northern Railway
Kirkstead and Little Steeping Railway		   Terminus
Halton Holegate   Great Northern Railway
Spilsby branch		   Terminus
Thorpe Culvert   Great Northern Railway
Firsby to Skegness railway branch line		   Terminus

References

Citations

  1. Butt 1995, p. 97.
  2. British Railways Atlas.1947. p.17
  3. "Railway Intelligence." Times, 23 Feb. 1849, p. 8. The Times Digital Archive, http://tinyurl.gale.com/tinyurl/BzCCK7. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.
  4. Catford, Nick. "Firsby". Disused Stations. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  5. "Firsby Station". Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
  6. Bradshaw General Railway and Steam Navigation Guide, February 1863
  7. Stennett 2016, pp. 50,117.
  8. Butt 1995, pp. 213,239.
  9. Butt 1995, p. 217.
  10. Bradshaw Railway Guide, July 1922
  11. Stennett 2016, pp. 230-231.
  12. "Passenger Services To Be Withdrawn." Times, 28 Mar. 1963, p. 9. The Times Digital Archive, http://tinyurl.gale.com/tinyurl/BzCZd9. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.
  13. "Firsby Station". Disused Stations. Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  14. Firsby station memories

Sources

  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Stennett, Alan (2016). Lincolnshire Railways. Crowood. ISBN 978-1-785-00083-6.

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