Record Details
| NHER Number: | 13582 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Route of Leziate Quarry Tramway |
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Summary
These are the routes of extensive lines linked to the Gayton Road siding (NHER 13581) and the Middleton Towers siding (NHER 13600). It was a narrow gauge system used until 1977, and fragments of the track are thought to survive. A track also ran to the Bawsey Brickworks (NHER 3413), though this was abandoned around 1942.
Images - none
Location
| Grid Reference: | TF 67402 18897 |
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| Map Sheet: | TF61NE |
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| Parish: | BAWSEY, WEST NORFOLK, NORFOLK |
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| LEZIATE, WEST NORFOLK, NORFOLK |
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Full description
Extensive lines linking Gayton Road (M&GNR) and Middleton Towers (GE). Most still extant.
This was a narrow gauge system, a 3ft 0in line being replaced in 1919 by 1ft 11in. Used until 1977.
According to (S1) the rolling stock has been given to the Leighton Buzzard railway.
Another reference to 'a 2ft gauge line near King's Lynn' being lifted to provide track for the Corris Railway may also refer to this.
June 1981.
The tracks have all been lifted north of the works at Middleton Towers. Conveyor belts follow approximately the same lines and the earthworks are clear. The track of the old branch to Bawsey brickworks abandoned around 1942 is still clear.
The bridge under Brow of the Hill (road) shown as a railway on 1953 6in Ordnance Survey map is now used by the conveyors and seems remarkably low for any gauge of railway. Has it been infilled? It is of glazed red bricks.
In fact the 1928 25in Ordnance Survey map does not show any railway crossing the road at this point; the tramway coming from the north and that coming from the south stop some distance each side of the road. The same map shows an embankment running from west of Middleton Towers station along the west side of Station Road and becoming a cutting, which in 1999 is a deep waterfilled ditch. Is this an earlier tramway?
E. Rose (NLA) 1 March 1999.
The tracks shown on Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 map not marked with the NHER number are recent temporary lines used during extraction and then removed.
February 2000.
The section at TF 673 195 still has some rails remaining, now part buried on what is a ridge between two lakes. (Where this line crosses the conveyor belt marked by the Ordance Survey, the latter has gone but has left a concrete tunnel of considerable length which looks deceptively like a wartime dugout).
E. Rose (NLA) 18 February 2000.
Monument Types
- RAILWAY (18th Century to Late 20th Century - 1800 AD? to 1977 AD?)
- TRAMWAY (18th Century to Late 20th Century - 1800 AD? to 1977 AD?)
Associated Finds - none
Protected Status - none
Sources and further reading
| --- | Record Card: NAU Staff. 1974-1988. Norfolk Archaeological Index Primary Record Card. |
| <S1> | Publication: September 19. Railway World. |
| <S2> | Map: Ordnance Survey, First Edition, 6 Inch. 1879-1886. Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 6 inch map.. |
Related records
| 13600 | Related to: Route of Lynn and Dereham Railway (later Great Eastern) (Monument) |
| 13581 | Related to: Route of Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (Great Yarmouth to Sutton Bridge) (Monument) |
| 3413 | Related to: Site of Bawsey Brickworks (Monument) |