East Ville Railway Station - History

History

The station was opened on 2 October 1848 as East Ville and New Leake after the nearby settlements of Eastville and Leake, and later renamed in 1852 to simply East Ville. It was constructed by Peto and Betts civil engineering contractors who, in January 1848, had taken over the contract to construct the section of the East Lincolnshire Railway between Louth and Boston from John Waring and Sons. This section was the last to be completed in September 1848 at an agreed cost of £123,000 (£9.62 million as of 2013). The station was situated in the middle of Eastville and was provided with two long sidings on the up side and a small goods yard, warehouse and long headshunt on the down side. To the north of parallel platforms was a signal box and level crossing, with the main station building located on the down platform. Goods traffic was always more important than passenger receipts and the goods yard handled large amounts of sugar beet in block loads, which were manually transferred to waiting wagons. The 1922 timetable saw five up and four down services, and one Sunday service each way. The station was closed to passengers on 11 September 1961 and to goods traffic on 15 June 1964.