Long Lost Railways
This is my second cache and to continue the railway theme this one is located on the old Newmarket and Chesterford Railway, please be aware this is like to be reasonably difficult to get to as it is likely to be heaverly over grown, here is a little history of the railway.
The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway was incorporated on 16 July 1846 with engineers Robert Stephenson and John Braithwaite. The act authorised capital of £350,000 on £25 shares. Backed by local owners and the Jockey Club at Newmarket the bill had a smooth passage through parliament. As well as the Newmarket to Chesterford line a branch line from Six Mile Bottom to Cambridge was also proposed. One of the stranger provisions in the act was that the railway would not be allowed to pick up or set down passengers at Cambridge station between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sundays.
Construction began on 30 September 1846 and at the ensuing celebrations a representative of the Jockey Club stated, "The Jockey Club feels that a railway from Newmarket will not only be a great convenience to the parties anxious to participate in the truly British sport of racing, but will enable Members of Parliament to superintend a race and run back to London in time for the same night's debate".[1]
During 1847 the company drew up plans for (separate) extensions to Bury St Edmunds, Thetford and Ely which were approved by a parliamentary act of June 1847.
The line was opened on 3 January 1848 (for goods) and 4 April (to passengers) and was commonly known as the "Newmarket Railway".[2] It branched off the Eastern Counties Railway's London–Cambridge line at Great Chesterford and ran about 15 miles (24 km) north east to a terminus in Newmarket, with intermediate stations at Bourne Bridge[Note 1] (about 800 yards (730 m) west of Little Abington), Balsham Road (about 2 miles (3 km) south east of Fulbourn), Six Mile Bottom and Dullingham.
The only known photograph of Abington Road bridge appeared in Kenneth Brown's booklet A Derelict Railway: Being the History of the Newmarket and Chesterford Railway. Kenneth Brown read his paper at a meeting of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on 14 November 1927. It was eventually published in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society vol XXXI in 1931.
The railway cutting.
I hope you enjoy finding this cache please post any photos of your adventures finding this cache. SJNB