The Lost Branch Line to Hadleigh

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00:00 Prologue
01:18 Route Overview
01:49 Bentley
03:15 Junction to Hadleigh
04:05 Bentley Church
05:26 Capel
07:00 Raydon Wood
07:53 Along the trackbed
09:33 Hadleigh

Through this sylvan glade,  there once ran a railway. Crossing red-brick bridges… …Cutting through woodland… …And calling at ornately fashioned stations. It is all but gone today,  lost to both nature and time. Let us go then, together, to seek out  its route and to locate its relics… …to take in views from the past…

…and and to journey where trains once ran… …and where rails once lay. Located south-west of the Anglian port  of Ipswich, the line in question ran for   seven and a half miles between the Suffolk  village of Bentley and the town of Hadleigh. Hadleigh was renowned for  its wool and cloth making;  

It was these industries that partly  gave rise to the railway itself   so that this valuable product could be  distributed with greater ease nationwide. Ultimately closing in 1965,   traces of this rural line are still  to be found several decades hence… Our journey begins at Bentley  on the Great Eastern Main Line.

Here’s the station in 1963 as a Class 37  powers through with a London bound express. From a similar position today. The station  closed in 1966 as part of wider economies. Not visible in the previous picture, the bay  platform which served the line to Hadleigh.

Here with Brush Type 2 No.D5544 which  headed the ‘Lockie Add-on Rail Tour’ of   the 20th of April 1962. This train will  be taking us down the branch shortly. Notice, too, the signal box which,  along with this platform and the   surrounding yard, have all been swept away.

The aforesaid platform was located on the other  side of the fence, where the trees now grow. Trains would then travel north by half  a mile before taking the points and   diverting in a north-westerly  direction towards Hadleigh. We see this moment in action from  the same rail tour of April 1962.

It is worth spending a few moments examining  this junction. The Great Eastern Mainline   runs north and we can see where the Hadleigh  Branch diverged from the mainline due west. Until 1875 this was in fact a triangular junction,   which allowed services to travel  to and from Ipswich directly.

After the spur’s closure, trains from  Ipswich had to reverse at Bentley. In the years since closure, it  is little wonder that nature has   reclaimed the site of this northward  spur but relics are still to be found. Before long, our first stop  occurs at Bentley Church

Opened for 7 years between 1846 and 1853,  photographs of the station are difficult   to come by, but it was certainly located near  this delightful rossing keeper’s cottage… …and and this building remains secluded in this  quiet lane, guarded by the woodland all around.

So our journey continues and the line’s  rural character becomes ever more pronounced. Camouflaged in the intervening  years since it last saw trains,   this plate layer’s hut becomes  ever more consumed by nature… …but if you know what you’re looking for, then  the railway’s course is still easily found…

…and among these naturally framed sylvan scenes,   the relics of this railway  continue to stand undisturbed. Two miles after departure from  Bentley, we approach the next station. Capel served the village of Capel St Mary. Like a great many similar stations, it was  located at a reasonable distance from the  

Village it served, and indeed, six years into  the line’s opening, that village had only 651   residents. It is little wonder that such stations  and such routes became financially unsustainable. But what a shame to have lost the  delightfully ornate station building,   where now stands a more conventional structure.

Indeed as we continue west, the rural character is   briefly and abruptly lost as the A12  bisects what was once the track bed… …imagine the ire of motorists today if the level   crossing continued to be in  place now as it was then… …luckily, two miles later the  balm of songbirds and the buzz of  

Insects returns and we encounter this  occupation bridge standing strong and   with its characteristic red brick colour,  the signature of this line’s architecture. Trains continued west. And here on Bottle Bridge Road passed  beneath a bridge which has long since   been demolished and filled in,  with only the ghostly tree-lined  

Traces of the track bed betraying  the railway’s westward journey. Thus, three miles from Capel, we arrive at  Raydon Wood, our penultimate point of calling. We view the station’s north  side in this photograph. Like other stations along the route, passenger  traffic did very little to pay the line’s bills,  

Though like Capel during the Second World  War, the station was used a great deal,   bringing personnel and supplies to the vast  US Air Force Base to the south of the station. Today as viewed from its south side,  the station has benefited from partial  

Restoration and we can see just how ornate and  characterful were the buildings on this route. Here’s a fine picture of the same from 2008. Time to leave. Between Raydon Wood station and Hadleigh,  the track bed is now a foot and cycle path…

…but here’s how the same part of the  route looked on a spring day in 1962. Few structures were built for this section  of the line, but this occupation bridge,   which connects the two sides  of Raydon Great Wood, remains. We pass over Kate’s Hill embankment,  

Close to where the first sod was  cut in the railway’s construction. What the trees mask here is that in  places this embankment is about 40   ft high and the slopes on either  the side are quite precipitous. Here we find the bridge on Hook  Lane, over which the railway crossed.

Indeed the end of the cycle path is marked by this   installation which alludes to the  history of this stretch of land… …as does this upright length of rail. And so beyond the trees we the final station. As mentioned, Hadleigh was an important  centre for the wool and clothing industry  

And like any reasonably prosperous town of  the mid 19th century it saw the coming of   the railway as an opportunity  to strengthen its prospects. Seen here after closure, the station is no less  attractive than those which populated the route.

Eequipped with sizable goods sidings serving the  giant malt houses, it is no wonder that goods   continued to serve the town for three decades  after the cessation of passenger services. Sadly the story of the Hadleigh  branch line is not unfamiliar. Noble early ambitions gave  way to economic realities and,   as outgoings increased, incomes faltered.

Of course this focus on the economics  loses sight of the great social benefits   of these little lines, but this was not a  column to be found in the balance sheets. Today the station building in  Hadleigh is a private residence,   and a fine architectural legacy  of a railway which closed in 1965.

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