Rayne Railway Station

Rayne Railway Station

This railway station was built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1869. It is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond with gault brick dressings, stone door and window surrounds, and slate-covered hipped roofs.

The station building stands on the north side of the former railway track. The station master's house has an L-shaped plan and is attached on the east side to the booking hall, which is almost square on plan. To the west of the house is a rectangular outbuilding. A 21st-century WC extension on the east side is not included in the listing.

The building has a brick plinth and prominent rusticated quoins, string and eaves courses. The doors are painted railway green and the window surrounds and glazing bars are yellow, evoking the original colour scheme of the Bishops Stortford to Braintree line.

The north elevation comprises, from the left, a single-storey three-bay booking hall with a central four-panelled door. The panels are flush with the framing and the vertical edges are emphasised with a double groove. The door has a single-pane overlight which brings it to the same height as the tall flanking windows. These are two-over-two pane sashes, the upper panes of which are cambered. The doors and windows have prominent shouldered surrounds with a delicate concave moulding and a keystone. The windows also have a reprise and a chamfered sill supported by small corbels at each end. The fenestration is regular throughout the building, except the surrounds to the first-floor windows are not shouldered or keyed as they are directly under the eaves. The booking hall has a ridge stack on a brick base with oversailing brick courses. To the left is a recessed single-storey flat-roofed projection which is not included in the listing.

The station master's house to the right of the booking hall has two storeys and two bays; the quoins that divide the bays indicate where the house originally ended. The left bay has a window on each floor, and the right bay has a first-floor window whilst the ground floor is blind. The house has two wide stacks rising through the lower part of the west pitch. Against the right return is a lean-to providing WCs which has two plank and batten doors and is lit on the right return by a single-light window. The south elevation of the house, consisting of the later extension, has a ground-floor window and door, and a first-floor window set slightly to the right. The original house is set at right angles to this, the west elevation having two bays with a four-panelled door in the left-hand bay. A lean-to porch with timber valencing provides shelter for both entrances. The south end of the house, which overlooks the platform, has one bay lit on both floors.

To the right of this is the platform side of the booking hall which has the same frontage as that on the north side, except the roof extends beyond the eaves to form a small canopy supported by three decorative brackets with pierced spandrels. To the right is the 21st-century WC extension.

The booking hall and station master's house have both retained a high proportion of original fixtures, fittings and joinery which is of particularly good quality in the booking hall. This has a deep skirting board with a moulded top edge and wide vertical panelling to dado height, incorporating benches in two of the corners, the ledges of which have been replaced. There is an opening in a moulded frame in the party wall with the ticket office and, to the left of this, a two-part door. The upper part has been removed but the lower panelled section retains its outer ledge supported by consoles. The booking hall has an elaborate plaster cornice embellished with egg-and-dart, a picture rail and a round-arched cast-iron fireplace. The windows in this room, the ticket office and the ladies waiting room all have prominent moulded internal window frames. The latter two rooms have plaster cornices of different designs and back-to-back fireplaces which have been boarded over but are thought to survive.

The station master's house retains skirting boards with a roll moulding, picture rails and decorative plaster cornices in the reception rooms. These also have cast-iron fireplaces and grates, one in a classical design and the other with a round-arched opening. The curving stairs, which ascend from the wide entrance hall, have stick balusters, a closed string and a square newel post with compressed ball finial. Directly to the left of the stair is the door leading through to the booking hall. The bedrooms have four-panelled doors and decorative cast-iron fireplaces with grates and stone hearths.

The outbuilding to the west of the house has a pitched roof, moulded timber eaves cornice and a brick plinth. The centrally placed door of vertical planks is flanked by two-over-two pane sash windows, all under cambered brick arches. The right return has a large double-leaf door with strap hinges which may indicate that the outbuilding has changed its use from a scullery and larder.