Holt railway station

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Holt railway station served the town of Holt in Norfolk, England. It was on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway network, which connected Cromer, Norwich and Great Yarmouth. The station opened on 1 October 1884 and had two platforms. It closed to passengers on 6 April 1964 and closed to freight later that year.

History and design
The line north from Melton Constable to Holt was built by the Lynn & Fakenham Railway and the Eastern & Midlands Railway. Holt was the line’s northern terminus until 1887, when the route reached Cromer. The original 1884 station building was small; after the line to Cromer was completed, a more substantial brick station was built, with a central block and two projecting cross wings, plus a wooden waiting shelter on the up platform. The wooden building later became a reading room at Melton Constable. Holt station was destroyed by fire in 1926 and rebuilt in concrete.

Closure and after
Most of the M&GN lines closed in 1959, but the Holt branch stayed open until 1964. After the line closed, the station buildings were demolished and part of the trackbed was used to build the A148 Holt bypass. In 1965 a company tried to buy the trackbed but was turned down. The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) later restored the line between Sheringham and Weybourne and opened a replacement Holt station on the edge of the town in 1987. Holt’s original signal box was moved to Weybourne.

Future plans
The Norfolk Orbital Railway could give Holt a regular railway service again. It would link the NNR at Holt with the Mid Norfolk Railway, crossing the A148 and running to Melton Constable, using existing tracks and some new connections.