Colne Valley & Halstead

The Colne Valley & Halstead Railway, incorporated in 1856 and opened in stages between 1860 and 1863, ran for a distance of 19 miles from a junction with the Great Eastern Railway Marks Tey to Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds cross-country route at Chappel to terminate at its own station at Haverhill, wholly within the County of Essex. In 1865 a connection was made to Haverhill GER station on the same cross-country route in neighbouring Suffolk. For the majority of its 57 years of independence the CV&HR was in financial difficulties, with services being operated by agents including in 1865 Sir Daniel Gooch of the Great Western Railway. A motley collection of rolling stock was hired and a Cornish entrepreneur provided backing for the organisation, but by 1874 the railway went into receivership and it took an Act of 1885 to rectify matters. Several attempts were made to entice the GER to take over the line but these were rebuffed as investigation proved the infrastructure and maintenance left much to be desired. The first decades of the 20th century, under the stewardship of Elyot S. Hawkins from the Cambrian Railways, brought vast improvements – but grouping under the L&NER from July 1923 could not have come sooner for the company was experiencing insoluble problems. Having become just another branch line, the route played an important part in World War Two with military traffic for local airfields. British Railways management, whilst introducing modern rolling stock, decided the line duplicated other routes and passenger services were withdrawn on 1st January 1962 and freight finally from April 1965. To the last, local staff remained patriotic to the line, boasting they were ‘Colne Valley and proud of it’.

Colne Valley & Halstead - Sample Images