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(If you have any more
information to add we would be pleased to publish it)
During 1865 the Tendring Hundred Railway Company was
formed and work started on the Colchester – St. Botolph to Walton
line.
The Wivenhoe to Brightlingsea section was completed in
1866, the lines to Weeley and Kirby Cross were opened in 1866 and the
line to Walton completed in 1867.
In 1881 the census showed a total population of 651 in
Clacton-on-Sea, by 1901 it was 7,456 and by 1911 it had reached just under
10,000.
Started in 1870, by 1882 the railway eventually arrived
in Clacton as a spur from the London – Thorpe-le-Soken – Ipswich
Line.
It was during this period in the early and mid 19th
century that seaside holidays started to become popular and a number of
people eyed the sandy shore of Clacton beach with a view to developing
the area as a resort.
In 1956 the Thorrington station was closed.
The first through electric train ran in 1959
Thorpe-le-Soken The Railway
In the book "A History of Thorpe-le-Soken
to the year 1890" by Ernest Alan Wood, M.D., extracts, giving details
of the railway are given as follows:-
The railway came to Thorpe late in the century. It had
been intended to build one from Mistley to Walton, and notice to landowners
was given in 1862, prior to subscription and contract for making it in
1864.
A half-yearly meeting of the Mistley, Thorpe and Walton
Railway Co. was held in Feb. 1866 at Bishopsgate Station of the Great
Eastern. I do not know when the scheme was abandoned, but already land
was being acquired on the line of the present railroad between Weeley
and Clacton and in that month the Tendring Hundred Railway extension had
been opened to Weeley. Some abandoned workings for the Mistley - Walton
rail can be seen in Tendring parish.
The 25 inch Ordnance map of 1823 shows a long narrow
strip of wood marked "abandoned railway" about half way between
Tendring rectory and the Weeley (here called Tendring) Brook, pointing
south-east towards Hill House in Thorpe.
For the railroad which eventually survived, a little
land was transferred to the Company from the territory of "The Grange",
with diversion of the brook to the south side of the railway embankment.
In 1867 Stephen and Georgiana Martin Leake sold to them a part of Hull
Row Wood, and Rev. F. P. Lowe and his wife (nee Martin Leake) sold other
parts of Thorpe Hall lands. In 1864 William Charles Grant ceded part of
Thorpe Park farm in the occupation of James Rolph to the Tendring Hundred
Railway Company.
There is a plan of the Thorpe and Clacton railway and
pier extension dated 1874. Extension to Clacton was still "proposed"
in 1876 but other strips of ground were acquired for the railway from
Maria Grant, widow, in 1882 and 1884.
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Thorpe Railway Station Bridge and
Footbridge |
The railway crosses over the road leading from Thorpe-le-Soken
to Little Clacton. The corner where it turns right after going under the
bridge is the location of the brook that divides Thorpe-le-Soken parish
from Little Clacton.
The railway station is up and to the right. The road
leading off to the left just prior to the bridge leads away to Thorpe
Park farm and eventually joins up with the Frinton Road at Thorpe Cross.
The footbridge over the railway tracks leads to the other platforms, the
signal box can be seen by looking through under the bridge. The carpark
area that can be seen on the left of the picture covers a previous track
that was the Maltings Siding, the Maltings being just out of shot to the
left. Station House, pictured above, can be seen above the parked cars.
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