Signal Box At Former Beach Station

CROMER

TG24SW HOLT ROAD 892/2/10005 Signal Box at former Beach Station 24-MAY-00

GV II

Railway signal box. 1920 for the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, built by William Marriott, company engineer. Concrete block and gault brick with a Welsh slate roof. Small signal box with a concrete and brick base with two sunk panels facing the track. Single panel in end elevation with a door to the locking room and a window, now blocked with red brick. The upper floor has six windows separated by timber mullions, each window with 3 x 3 panes, some windows slide. The end elevations have two windows as above, the platform elevation also has a part glazed door with a rectangular light over. This is up a flight of timber stairs which leads to a steel balcony leading in front of the windows for cleaning, this is supported on cast brackets. Hipped roof with centre vent and rear stove pipe. Interior (not seen) contains a 35 lever frame dating from 1954 and a traditional pot-bellied stove. History: The line between Melton Constable and Cromer Beach was built by the Eastern and Midland Railway and opened in 1887. This railway failed in 1890 and was bought jointly by the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway, thus forming the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway in 1893. This railway, with 183 miles of track, was the largest of the joint railways and remained independent until 1936 because its parent companies were incorporated into different groupings', LMS and LNER, the LNER finally taking full responsibility in 1936. The M&GNJR had an engineer William Marriott (1884-!924) who took a particular interest in concrete as a building material and many items were manufactured at their works at Melton Constable. Cromer signal box is the last box from this system still working out of an original 90, and the largest surviving of his concrete structures. It was built in 1920 as Cromer Yard and was refitted with the present frame when Cromer High station was closed in 1954 and all the traffic transferred to Cromer Beach. References: Jack Simmons and Gordon Biddle, The Oxford Companion to Railway History, OUP, 1997, p 103 for concrete and p 320 for Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. Richard Adderson and Graham Kenworthy, Branch Lines around Cromer, Middleton Press, 1998. Michael A.Vanns, Signal Boxes, Ian Allan, 1997, p 113. The Signalling Study Group, The Signal Box, OPC, 1986, pps 123-4.

Listing NGR: TG2123242007