Melton Constable Railway Heritage

Almost nothing of the great junction survives intact, but the village street pattern is the clue: rows of red-brick railwaymen's terraces lined up parallel to where the platforms used to be, plus a few station buildings now in private use. A small information board near the level crossing site sets out the story.

A short walk east along the old trackbed, now part of the Marriott's Way long-distance footpath, gives a sense of the scale of cuttings and embankments. For serious railway interest, drive on to Sheringham for the preserved North Norfolk Railway — they keep alive the look and feel of an M&GN-era branch line.

things to do sight
A story
From 1882 until 1959 Melton Constable was the operating heart of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway — a junction in the middle of nowhere that ran its own locomotive works, signalling school, and chapel for the railwaymen. At its peak the works employed 1,200 people in a village of fewer than 1,500. When the M&GN closed in 1959 the works went with it, and a generation later the trackbed was lifted. Locals still call it 'the Crewe of north Norfolk.'