Attleborough Railway Station

Attleborough Railway Station

This red-brick station building with pitched slate roofs and painted stone dressings forms a long, linear composition comprising, from left to right, a two-storey Station Master's house, a double-height ticket office, and a single-storey waiting room with lavatories. These three elements are separate but adjoining structures, with their own roofs. On the far right stands a signal box, slightly set back and connected to the main range via a former single-storey lamp-room and a partly rebuilt wall. The Station Master's house is rendered, while both the main station building and signal box are red brick.

The north elevation serves as the entrance front. The Station Master's house occupies three bays on the left, with ground-floor uPVC windows in wide, plain, lugged architraves. The first and third bays feature gabled dormers with 19th-century timber sash windows below the eaves. A lower projection on the left has a plain parapet, a long vertical window, and a door set under the same wide lintel. To the right sits the slightly projecting, double-height former ticket office, painted overall, with a projecting gabled bay containing three windows. The gable head includes a moulded, pointed-arched niche that was probably originally louvred. The windows here are uPVC. The central bay was originally flanked by two doors; the right-hand door has been replaced by a window. The three-bay single-storey waiting room adjoins to the right, displaying a plain parapet and tall timber sashes in each bay. Between the first and second bays is a door with a segmental brick head.

On the south elevation, which forms the platform front, the waiting room and ticket office are sheltered under a flat timber canopy with a chevron edge. The three-bay waiting room has timber sash windows set in wide, moulded architraves with projecting, rectangular hood moulds. A four-panelled door with a segmental arched brick head opens to the platform, above which is a rectangular memorial tablet dedicated to the men of the 452nd Bomb Group (H) who sacrificed their lives in World War II. Further along are another window, a blocked doorway now containing a uPVC window, and three more timber sash windows. The south elevation of the Station Master's house mirrors the north elevation except for having two windows in the first bay, a blocked window in the second, and three gabled dormers; all windows are timber sashes except for a uPVC window in the third bay on the ground floor. A lower section with a plain parapet and blocked doorway follows, succeeded by a brick wall enclosing the former service yard.

The signal box occupies one storey above a basement. Its shallow-pitched roof has overhanging eaves, weather-boarding in the gable heads, and decorative timber bargeboards. Access is via an external flight of steps on the south-west side, through a partly glazed door with a segmental brick head. At first-floor level, three sides are glazed with a continuous band of large, sliding, multi-pane windows with timber glazing bars. A dentilled string course at basement level is lit by two small windows with segmental arched brick heads. The 1912 mechanical signal lever frame remains in-situ and in working order.

Interior features of the station reveal significant alterations. The back-to-back fireplaces that originally separated the waiting room and booking office have been removed, leaving an open-plan room stripped of original fixtures and fittings. A wall subdivides the booking office, and a plain painted fireplace has been inserted in the east wall. The remaining portion was further subdivided into smaller rooms, probably in the early 21st century. The Station Master's house retains greater architectural integrity. Its plan form and joinery survive largely intact, including a plain timber lintel fireplace in the former sitting room, a dog-leg stair with stick balusters, and extensive original joinery comprising 19th-century four-panelled doors, doorcases, picture rails, and skirting boards.