Winteringham Local History and Genealogy at winteringham.info

The North Lindsey Light Railway

Plan of Winteringham Station in 1953 reproduced by kind permission of Alan Corney This scan kindly produced by Anthony ‘Flyer’ Robinson. See below for enlarged section containing the station.

There are three different railway companies involved in the story of Winteringham, plus the Leeds Contracting Company.

They were:

The North Lindsey Light Railway;
The Great Central Railway, (originally called the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway); and
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

The two big players - the GCR and the L&Y were very wary of each other's intentions for expansion, though neither showed any interest in the north-west of Lincolnshire until ironstone was discovered there in the 1890s.

When the 'Yorkshire Light Railway Syndicate' promoted a scheme to build the North Lindsey Light Railway from Scunthorpe, to Winteringham, with stations named Winterton & Thealby, and West Halton, both the major companies could see that there was a potential riverside outlet for at least some of the products from the expanding Scunthorpe steelworks.

The L&Y proposed in 1904 to build quays along the southern bank of the Humber, and run a steamship service there. It also wanted to build a railway from Fockerby, where it already had a branch-line, under the Trent and then by way of Burton Stather, Alkborough, Whitton, Winteringham and South Ferriby to join with the line at Barton-on-Humber.

The Great Central persuaded the NLLR men to extend their railway from Winteringham to Whitton, with their own proposals for further extensions to Burton Stather in one direction and Barton in the other. These extensions were authorised by Parliament in 1913, with the exception of the section between Alkborough and Burton.

The issue was somewhat complicated by the L&Y apparently owning land on Winteringham Haven.

In the event, the line was built from Scunthorpe to Winteringham, and then just the section to Whitton.  The Great Central ran the trains, and the L&Y paid for the construction of sidings a wharf and chutes at Winteringham Haven, so peace was restored!  From Normanby Park North to Winteringham, and then later to Whitton, the line was single, and worked by electric train staff.

The NLLR was opened from Scunthorpe to Winterton in 1906, and then to Winteringham in 1907.  The very first passenger train run to Winteringham was a village sports club special on Saturday 13th July, and the line opened to the public on Monday 15th July.  The goods branch to the haven opened at the same time.  It wasn't until December 1910 however, that the line to Whitton was inaugurated. The driver and fireman on the first scheduled train (15th July 1907) were Joe Stow, and Albert Ryall. The locomotive (seen left) was a Parker 0-6-0T No 744 from the Keadby Shed.

There were three passenger trains in each direction. Typically an early morning train would leave Scunthorpe shortly before 8 o'clock, arriving at Winteringham by about 8:15.  A quick turn round would see the train arriving back in Scunthorpe by 8:50.  There was an early afternoon train too, and the final train of the day would leave Scunthorpe shortly after 6, arriving at Winteringham by about half past, and returning to the steel town by 7.  One can only surmise that the first and last trains were timed to fit in with the working patterns of commuting villagers (as we would now call them). However, it would appear the final train of the day was withdrawn as on the 2nd August 1912 the Parish Council received an appeal to reinstate the final train of the day to Winteringham.

The stationmaster’s house was built next to the railway station. One of its tenants thought so much of the design of the house, that when he retired he had one built to almost the same design on Winterton Road as these two pictures show. 

Since these photos were taken, the real stationmaster’s house in Low Burgage has undergone major changes, and so the similarities are no longer as apparent.

For a very full description of the Stationmaster’s House, when it was still owned by the railways, please click here for “Flyer” Robinson’s account.

When the line was opened to Whitton, the first two trains went ‘all the way’ while the final train of the day terminated at Winteringham before returning to Scunthorpe. Interestingly, there were two platforms at Winteringham! The one for which we have numerous photographs was on the spur towards Low Burgage, but there was a second, joining the first at an angle to it so that trains to Whitton did not have to reverse, but simply pulled up on the adjoining platform, almost on the bridge over the Haven Drain.

All trains were made up of Third Class carriages (there were only two classes on the Railways by this time ... First and Third!).

The return fare from Winteringham to Scunthorpe was 8 (old) pence - approximately 3½p in our present currency. The station at Scunthorpe was just off Dawes Lane, close to St John’s Church.  The current Scunthorpe Station was named Frodingham, and later ‘Scunthorpe & Frodingham.’

Meanwhile on the goods side of the business, Lysaghts Steelworks were receiving iron ore shipments from Grimsby, and returning processed iron there for export or coastal shipment, and the anticipated use of Winteringham Haven for at least some of this traffic never materialised.

The railway staff employed at Winteringham Station were also charged with looking after business at the Haven. The people employed were:

1 stationmaster
1 signalman
1 male porter
1 female porter

Though it is believed that the staff frequently changed, the 1933 WEA group stated there were only four stationmasters between 1907 and 1926. These were (in order of appointment): Mr. Herbert James Richards (see Kelly’s 1909), Mr. Barratt, Mr. Britain and Mr. Samuel Elliot.  But we have found evidence of others - Herbert Unsworth was Stationmaster (according to Kelly’s 1919 Directory), and Mr Theophilus Teall in 1913 (according to Kelly’s 1913 Directory)

Apart from the stationmaster’s house mentioned above there were two passenger platforms, at the eastern end of which was the booking hall, waiting room, staffroom, and so forth; a weighbridge capable of weighing lorries and other vehicles up to a limit of 20 tons; and a goods platform which handled many types of products, but chiefly farm produce and cement from the Eastwoods factory after it had opened in 1938.

Shunting duties were carried out daily by the pick-up goods from Scunthorpe.

Anthony ‘Flyer’ Robinson tells us: “Even though Winteringham had a signalman on the staff, there was no signal box but he operated the signals and points on what is known as a ground frame (a single or number of levers in a frame at the track side or suitable position as with Winteringham at the end of the platform).”

After 1922, the passenger service was reduced to just one train in each direction per day.

The passenger side of the railway ran for exactly 18 years to the day that the first passengers had been carried the last regular passenger service being withdrawn on 13th July 1925.  As this is a Monday, I presume that the last passenger train actually ran on Saturday 11th July, there being no trains on Sundays.  This was the first closure of the century of passenger services in the locality.  Fred Hawkins and Ted Kirkby were two of those who were in the local platelaying gang.  About the time of the closure of passenger services, the staff included Fred Hawkins, Fred Hawkins junior, Ted Kirkby, Jack Weston, Elliott the Stationmaster, and H Ball the porter.

Villagers of the time tell of numerous specials in addition to the normal service. The specials included ones to the seaside, and others to London, especially to Wembley, which was then the newly opened West London stadium.

The freight service on the line continued until 1951.  During the Second World War the Haven had certainly seen an increase in some of its freight handling, with Eastwoods factory alone sending a shipment of 75,000 tons of cement to a Scottish naval base. 

By 1948, the goods pick-up was timetabled to leave Frodingham yard at 9:00 a.m., arriving at Whitton by 11:30.  It stayed there until 4:40 p.m. and returned to Frodingham by 6:35.

Soon though, the line - particularly beyond Winteringham towards Whitton - became a store for wagons.  In his book, "The Lost Railways of Lincolnshire" Stewart Squires tells of the time an engine and guard's van were dispatched to retrieve the wagons so that the track could be pulled up. The engine was coupled to the first truck. "The guard then set off, returning 1½ hours later to say that he thought 500 wagons excessive, and so he had only coupled the first 265 on!"

The line officially closed on 1st October 1951, and the tracks pulled up the following year.

But for several years afterwards it remained an unofficial shortcut between Winteringham and Whitton, and its hedgerows produced prolific crops of blackberries!

An enlarged section of the station plan (reproduced by kind permission of Alan Corney, and scanned by Anthony ‘Flyer’ Robinson).

The platforms are marked in orange, with position and style of signals shown. The buildings at the bottom (eastern) side of the plan are from left to right, Havelock Place, the Stationmaster’s House, the weighbridge office and the warehouse.

‘Bradshaw’, (above, recreated below)

0 5 6 8½ 11

Scunthorpe dep Winterton and Thealby West Halton Winteringham Whitton arr

7 35 7 50 7 53 8  0 8 10

1 20 1 35 1 39 1 46 1 56

6 10 6 23 6 26 6 33

0 2½ 5 6 11

Whitton dep Winteringham West Halton Winterton and Thealby Scunthorpe arr

8 15 8 25 8 32 8 35 8 50

2  0 2 10 2 17 2 20 2 35

0 6 37 6 44 6 47 7  0

Anthony ‘Flyer’ Robinson not only lived in the Stationmaster’s House at Winteringham in the 50s and 60s, but also worked as a signalman on the southern section of the line in the 1970s (by which time of course the Winteringham section was closed). His photographs of Normanby Park North signalbox, and the entrance to the southern end of the NLLR (right) show what the line was like.

Anthony writes: The signal box Normanby Park North was where I worked for a short time as a signalman This signal box was the the one that controlled trains onto and off the single line to Winteringham etc from the double track from Scunthorpe.  Behind it can be seen wagons loaded with iron ore to be taken to Scunthorpe over part of the NLLR from the mine at Dragonby. The motor cycle belonged to my father Ron who had loaned it to me as my own was in need of repair.
The second photo shows the southern end of the single line. The signal in the fore ground (left) is what is called the `starter`due to it been one that controlled the start of that section of line. The small ground signal (round disc) is the signal for the points into what we called Yorkshire Sidings - this had only one line but at one time had at least three, a number of wagons can be made out in it. The signal right of centre and farther back is the point where two tracks become one. The signal has the red side of the arm towards the Single Line this one is what is called home signal or board farther away is the starter. On the sky line to the left of the first signal can be seen the dragline sticking up. This was in the open cast mine at Roxby. This mine I believe is now used as a land fill site for rubbish from Manchester.