Melton Constable railway station

Melton Constable was a railway station on the Midland and Great Northern Railway which served the North Norfolk village of Melton Constable from 1882 to 1964. Notwithstanding its rural location, the station became an important railway centre with lines converging from all directions providing connections to key East Anglian towns such as King's Lynn, Norwich, Cromer, Fakenham, Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Although long since demolished, there is a possibility that the station may yet be resurrected as part of the proposed Norfolk Orbital Railway.

The Lynn & Fakenham Railway Act 1880 authorised the construction of a railway from Fakenham to Norwich via Melton Constable, followed by a second line east from Melton to North Walsham. The scheme had been born of a desire amongst North Norfolk landowners, including notably Lord Hastings of Melton Constable Hall, to break the East Anglian monopoly of the Great Eastern Railway and to improve communications between the farming community and the outside world. The outcome was the incorporation of the Lynn & Fakenham Railway which began services from King's Lynn in January 1882, with the line to Norwich being opened to traffic in December. The connection to North Walsham was completed on 5 April 1883 thereby enabling through-running to Great Yarmouth over a line constructed by the Yarmouth & North Norfolk Light Railway, some three months after the Lynn & Fakenham Railway, the Yarmouth & North Norfolk and other small companies had merged to form the Eastern & Midlands Railway. The final line to reach Melton Constable was that of the Great Eastern from Holt which opened on 1 October 1884, and was extended to Cromer Beach in 1887.

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