Sometimes you spot something on a Facebook group that catches your eye and this place certainly did that. I saw it on a post about old railway lines and pinned it to take a look. Yeah, it’s completely knackered but it is beautiful in it’s abandoned state and right up my street when it comes to exploring things that are completely different to the usual spots.
Only a very quick visit but totally worth it.
History -
Ashdon Halt was a very small station on the line from Audley End, via Saffron Walden, Bartlow and Haverhill North. Most of evidence for that line was swept away after it was closed in the 1960s. The old line is not even traceable because it did not become a footpath as many others did. Every now and again, as you journey by car along the roads near the original line, you will pass a brick bridge abutment that once supported a railway bridge over a road. There is one part of an abutment near Tesco on the road leading to Radwinter, just outside Saffron Walden. There is another similar abutment on a lonely road near Bartlow.
Ashdon Halt is near Church End on the Saffron Walden branch line in North Essex. The railway was opened on the 23 November 1865 by the Great Eastern Railway. The halt did not appear until 1911. The railway and halt closed on 7 September 1964.
The ‘real gem’ is the ruinous remains of an old railway carriage that was used as the waiting room on one of the platforms of Ashdon Halt. Peter Paye’s book, on the line from Saffron Walden, states that the coach was a five-compartment, 2nd class coach built in October 1883 as GER No.342. It was widened from 8 feet to 9 feet in 1902-04 and withdrawn from traffic on 31st December 1915. The benches were not in the coach but added on installation of the waiting room in 1916. Although it is now in a rather poor state, it is incredible that it is still there in one piece and has not been torched or seriously vandalised.
Only a very quick visit but totally worth it.
History -
Ashdon Halt was a very small station on the line from Audley End, via Saffron Walden, Bartlow and Haverhill North. Most of evidence for that line was swept away after it was closed in the 1960s. The old line is not even traceable because it did not become a footpath as many others did. Every now and again, as you journey by car along the roads near the original line, you will pass a brick bridge abutment that once supported a railway bridge over a road. There is one part of an abutment near Tesco on the road leading to Radwinter, just outside Saffron Walden. There is another similar abutment on a lonely road near Bartlow.
Ashdon Halt is near Church End on the Saffron Walden branch line in North Essex. The railway was opened on the 23 November 1865 by the Great Eastern Railway. The halt did not appear until 1911. The railway and halt closed on 7 September 1964.
The ‘real gem’ is the ruinous remains of an old railway carriage that was used as the waiting room on one of the platforms of Ashdon Halt. Peter Paye’s book, on the line from Saffron Walden, states that the coach was a five-compartment, 2nd class coach built in October 1883 as GER No.342. It was widened from 8 feet to 9 feet in 1902-04 and withdrawn from traffic on 31st December 1915. The benches were not in the coach but added on installation of the waiting room in 1916. Although it is now in a rather poor state, it is incredible that it is still there in one piece and has not been torched or seriously vandalised.
