Surfleet

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Surfleet is a small village on the Lincolnshire fens, situated on the River Glen about five miles north of Spalding.

The population is about 2500 people, many of whom commute to regional populations centres such as Spalding, Boston and Peterborough.

Attractions in the village include an acient church dedicated to Saint Lawrence, which has a 15th Century font and a tower that leans 6 feet 4½ inches (1.94 metres) out of perpendicular.^[1] Remains of Roman sea banks and salt pans can also be seen near the village. The Church is situated exactly 2 and a half miles between the nearby villages of Gosberton to the North and Pinchbeck to the South.

[edit] The Railway

The Railway arrived in Surfleet in the 1850's due to the completion of the Great Northern Railway (Great Britain) Grimsby to Peterborough section of the Lincolnshire loop Line. The railway station was situated at the bottom of the village giving the main road through the village (Station Road) its name. The station was a modest brick building with two platforms and sidings. The station also had a signal box that the controlled the points and signals in the station and further down the line. A small hotel was also built and was called the Great Northern Hotel until the late 1980's.

It was the first station north of the then much busier station in Spalding. Spalding station was once a mainline station with lines coming from the north (which was the line Surfleet was on) and west which is now the only line from the north of the station. It also had the line that leads to Peterborough which still exists today and the line from Norwich in the East which was the first to be axed in the 60's.

Surfleet enjoyed regular trains to Spalding and Boston and other destinations. The river was used to transport goods from around Surfleet to the station where they were transported all over the country by rail. These goods consisted of mainly farm produce such as wheat, potatoes, sugar beet (went by train to Spalding sugar beet factory, which has since been demolished and is now the site of a power station), flowers and barley. Fish and shellfish that was caught in The Wash and landed at Surfleet Reservoir was also transported from Surfleet Station, much of which left on an early train to be sold at Billingsgate Market in London the same day. The Line was owned and operated by the Great Northern Railway Company until the company was absorbed by the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1927.

The demise of the railway in Surfleet was very much thanks to British Railways. The LNER had gone as the Nationalisation of the Railways in Britain was devised by the first Labour Government. The station was on one of the many lines across the country that was axed by the controversial Beeching Report. The Station closed to passengers in 1961 and to goods in 1963. The line between Spalding, Lincolnshire and Boston, Lincolnshire survived until late 1970 when, after over 100 years of service, the Line was finally ripped up leaving only the station buildings thus ending an era of reliable rail transport for Surfleet. Even a busy town station like Spalding station was affected as even it closed when the line was axed. It was lucky though, as it was re-opened a year later in 1971 to provide the areas which had lost their railway service with at least one rail link.

The station buildings in Surfleet stood until 1994 when they were bulldozed to make way for the building of the A16 Spalding Bypass. The A16 road is built on the route of the old railway line from Boston to just past Surfleet where it turns away to the left to avoid Spalding. The only part of the station that still exists is the Riverside Hotel Public House which is on the original route of station road which was re-routed to accommodate the A16.