The Railway
Buntingford was one of the many
thriving market towns in East Anglia that was bypassed by the main
rail lines. At a public meeting in 1856 a route from the Eastern
Counties Railway's Hertford branch to
Buntingford was adopted and an
application was put before parliament on 11th November 1857 for the
incorporation of the Ware, Hadham &
Buntingford Railway. Despite its name,
the railway never went to Ware but made its junction further south
at St. Margaret's, after a change to the original route was made to
avoid offending a landowner.
Capital was difficult to
raise and there was strong opposition to
the route from landowners particularly at the southern end of the
line. The line had more than its share of troubles; the bridge at
Braughing failed a Board of Trade
inspection even before opening and the contractor used low-grade
timber on the bridge at West Mill, which was completely rotten by
1868. To these troubles was added the high cost of compensating
landowners along the route and but for aid from the Eastern
Counties Railway and later the Great Eastern Railway the line would
never have been completed. There was also an added expense with
eight crossings over the rivers Ash & Rib.
Construction started in January 1859
and although beset with difficulties from the start, the thirteen
and three quarter mile branch from St. Margaret's to
Buntingford finally opened on 3rd July
1863 with intermediate stations at
Mardock,
Widford,
Hadham,
Standon,
Braughing & West Mill. The branch
prospered despite its troubled birth and traffic increased allowing
most of the line and its stations to be rebuilt before the turn of
the century.
Passenger numbers remained healthy
until the mid 1950s, when car ownership allowed commuters to try
Bishop's Stortford and the Great Northern stations with a much
faster service to King's Cross which was far more convenient for
the West End offices. Few middle-of-the-day trains had more than a
handful of passengers and by November 1960 these were eliminated.
The business trains direct to London ceased and the choice of
motoring to a main line station became more attractive.
The withdrawal of
the passenger service was inevitable and closure of the line was
proposed by Dr. Beeching in 1963 with
only 2000 passengers a week buying tickets to travel on the line.
The line finally closed to passengers on 16th November 1964. A
freight service was retained to Hadham,
Standon &
Buntingford until 17th September 1965.
Barely four months after the complete closure of the line
the track was lifted. A short section of
track at St. Margaret's was retained as a siding serving a gravel
pit until March 1969.
The Cache Trail
The cache trail
starts at a notice board for the Amwell
Nature Reserve at N51 48.057 W000 00.520. A
great place to sit and look at the reserve and learn about otters,
hence the cache name. You need to gather some information
from the board.
1) Add the digits of the organisation’s phone number (including STD
code) to give AB
2) Add the digits of the Charity Number to give CD
3) Add the digits of the Company Number to give EF
[As a check (A+B+C+D+E+F) should equal 21]
The cache itself is
further up the line at
N51 48.(E)(F)(B+D) W000
00.(C)(A-D)(D)
Before walking in
the direction of the cache you may want to take the pleasant stroll
down to the cache
River Lee Buntingford Line in the
opposite direction. In spring and summer there are also nature
trails open within the Nature Reserve.