Signal Box At Former Beach Station

This is a railway signal box built in 1920 for the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway by company engineer William Marriott. It is constructed from concrete block and gault brick, with a Welsh slate roof. The signal box features a concrete and brick base with two sunk panels facing the railway tracks. The end elevation has a single panel containing a door to the locking room and a window, which is now blocked with red brick. The upper floor has six windows separated by timber mullions, each with a 3x3 pane arrangement; some of these windows are sliding. Further windows are present on the end elevations and the platform elevation, which also has a part-glazed door with a rectangular light above, accessed by a flight of timber stairs leading to a steel balcony for window cleaning, supported on cast brackets. A hipped roof incorporates a central vent and a rear stove pipe.

The interior, which has not been inspected, contains a 35-lever frame installed in 1954 and a traditional pot-bellied stove. The railway line connecting Melton Constable and Cromer Beach was initially built in 1887. Following the failure of the initial railway company, it was jointly acquired by the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway in 1893, forming the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. This railway, with its 183 miles of track, remained independent until 1936. William Marriott, the railway’s engineer, championed the use of concrete in construction, and many components were manufactured at the company's works in Melton Constable. This Cromer signal box is now the last surviving original from a system of ninety, and it represents the largest remaining concrete structure built by Marriott. Originally constructed in 1920 as Cromer Yard, it was refitted with the current frame when Cromer High station closed in 1954 and all traffic was redirected to Cromer Beach. It retains stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops.