Railway Engine Sheds And Workshops At National Grid Reference 196 979

The railway engine sheds and workshops were built in 1848 for the Great Eastern and Midland Railway Companies. Constructed from stock brick with some stone dressings, they feature a slate roof with coped gable ends and brick axial and lateral stacks topped with stone cornices. The layout consists of two large, parallel engine sheds with a workshop range at the west end.

The exterior is a single storey, with the north and south sides of the engine sheds each displaying eleven bays of double recessed round-arch windows. Some of these windows still have their cast-iron frames with glazing bars, while others are blocked. The centre bay features a narrow blind round arch in the lateral stack, with the south stack truncated. There are two large entrances in the east end gables, supported by steel girder lintels. The workshop range at the west end has a nine-bay front with large segmentally arched windows, most of which are blocked, and a later porch in the centre. Both the workshop and the south engine shed have raised ridge ventilators with louvred sides, and the workshop range has a pair of stacks at its centre.

Inside, the sheds have timber roof trusses and a large water tank with a cast-iron base. Six tracks remain in place, and pits are still visible under the concrete floor. The sheds were jointly used by the Great Eastern and Midland Railway Companies until 1872, when the Great Eastern took over the entire shed. They remained in railway use until the 1950s.