This charming station house is under threat. A Certificate of Immunity from Listing (COI) was issued in November, excluding the building from listing, despite objections from SAVE and the Victorian Society. The COI indicates that plans are being made to redevelop the site, and we are concerned that the station's historic character will be lost.
Elsenham Station was built as part of the Eastern Counties Railway’s (ECR) expansion, which connected Norwich to London in 1845. It also acted as one terminus of the Elsenham and Thaxted Light Railway (1913-1953), the last of almost one hundred and fifty Great Eastern Railway lines to be constructed.
Elsenham’s Light Railway was a ‘farmers’ line’, used for both passengers and agricultural produce, with a sharp increase in usage during the Second World War due to petrol rationing. The line was affectionately known as the ‘gin and toffee line’, after its key supporters, a spirits dealer from Elsenham and a confectioner from Thaxted. Its two terminus stations are its only surviving structures of significance. The line was much loved by the local community, and its loss mourned – to the extent that its final passenger train in 1952 was marked by a mock funeral, complete with casket.
The station has served the village since 1845. The station house provided accommodation for the station master and was later extended and adapted in the mid-C20 to provide a shop and café in a single-storey extension to the north-east. It complements the grade II listed waiting room on the opposite side of the line.
Elsenham Station preceded the ‘standard country station design’ which the Great Eastern Railway (which amalgamated railways across the East of England, including the ECR) implemented during the 1860s. The station house reflects the origins of the design for station masters’ houses which would become the blueprint across the region with its rectangular plan across two storeys, two-light sash windows, and quoined brick exterior, laid in Flemish bond – all characteristics of the later ‘standard’ design.
The station house is currently available to let. A new use is needed to secure a future for this station building.
