Early Growth
The railway arrived in 1846, with the Ely and Lynn branch of the Great Eastern Railway. A spur connecting the harbour was opened in 1849, and at one point was a complicated network of lines, boasting two swing bridges, serving premises on and around the town's South Quay. Another short branch, about three-quarters of a mile long, connecting the docks was opened in 1862 by the King's Lynn Docks & Railway Company. The railway was initially not welcomed by the port authorities in King's Lynn; they predicted that sea-bound trade would decline, and were later proved correct when through-trains to London ended up carrying the majority of freight to the capital.
Expansion followed with the opening of several branches. The Lynn & Dereham Railway, which weaved a 26-mile (42 km) route to East Dereham via Narborough and Swaffham, was given the Royal Assent in 1845, opening in stages between 1846 and 1848; this later became part of the Great Eastern Railway. A line running north to the seaside resort of Hunstanton was opened in 1862, a journey celebrated by former Poet Laureate John Betjeman in a short BBC film about the line.
The Hunstanton line included Wolferton station, which served the Royal Family's Sandringham House, and so became the route of hundreds of Royal Trains. Since Royal services to London had to first pass through King's Lynn before heading south to King's Cross, crowds on King's Lynn station cheering the Royal Train became one of the town's cherished and memorable traditions.
King's Lynn also received services from the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway system, whose main station serving the town was in nearby South Lynn; a short shuttle service ran from King's Lynn to South Lynn as often as twenty times a day. The station opened in 1886, serving Sutton Bridge and Spalding to the west. Prior to the opening of South Lynn station, there had been a simple single platform station serving West Lynn, on the west bank of the River Ouse. An early constituent of the M&GN, the Lynn & Fakenham Railway, had used King's Lynn station, but ran into it from the north, via Gaywood Junction. This line was abandoned on the opening of the station at South Lynn. The "Lynn Avoiding" line was the last link in the chain which brought the eastern lines, which had reached Norwich in 1882, and Cromer in 1887, in direct contact with the lines west of Lynn.
King's Lynn's original station building was replaced by the current building in 1871, and has remained largely unchanged since; the original was a somewhat rudimentary timber building on the site of the goods yards of the time.
Read more about this topic: King's Lynn Railway Station
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