Great Northern Railway and London & North Western Railway Joint Line from Market Harborough to Bottesford and Saxondale via Melton Mowbray

Melton Mowbray North

Harby and Stathern station and goods depot was the traffic centre of the line but Melton Mowbray was the focal point. It was here the Joint Committee established its executive head, a superintendent of the line.

The station was on the northern edge of the town and more readily accessible than the rival Midland Station. It was near the cattle market and was better fitted to handle the variety of traffic which flowed through a country market town. It was a station worthy of the town, with a good approach road, an attractive frontage and well laid out. In the best years of the Joint Line Melton Mowbray Station was a show-piece, being smartly kept. 

The carriage area fencing was painted yearly, white paint being used to give a permanent clean look. On the up platform there was a fine range of buildings, which included the usual offices, a first, a second and a third class waiting rooms. A two class refreshment room, which also included a dining room, used by towns people perhaps more than by travelers. The odd thing about this was that the kitchen and the living quarters were below platform level. The catering was contracted out by the Joint Committee and a family named Pratt held the concession for the whole of the time refreshment rooms existed at Melton Mowbray.

Both platforms had platform-edge awnings for the full length of the buildings, which meant almost all the platforms were covered. The awnings were roofed with glass, as were the gable-ends which ran to the platform edge from the buildings, in all there were about twenty of these gables which gave the station an attractive appearance. Cast iron pillars supported the awnings along the midplatform and the buildings were of pleasant deep red brick of one storey high. On the southern gable of the buildings on the up platform was a coat of arms of the Great Northern and the London and North Western Railways in terra-cotta, the artifact is now lost to history.

Melton Mowbray being a fox-hunting centre could have had a great deal to do with why the station was not the exchange station for the Joint Line. It is reasonable to think that the Joint Committee were anxious to make Melton Mowbray the main exchange station as well as the only town station. There is extant an instruction that a wooden shield was to be built on the line-over-road bridge just south of Melton Mowbray Station. This was done at the request of the town council and influential people, who were afraid that engines would startle horses passing along Scalford road, it seems possible that this was the reason for Melton Mowbray not being made a railway centre.

Originally there was a signal box at the north end of the down platform, which controlled the passenger station and that end of the up and down side yards. It was considered as the principle signal box at Melton Mowbray and had the duties of messages, relays and the change of "block" - the two companies had different practices for block working and the signalman at this box had to have knowledge of both systems. Throughout the working life the joint Line it was divided into two parts for operation, south of Melton Mowbray the LNW system and to the north the GN practice. This made it imperative that the South Box was open continuously. The other signal box was at the north end of the two yards and was named North Box. It controlled that end and was still an LNW area maintained installation; the actual division between "north and south" of Melton Mowbray was some hundred yards to the north of this box, at an occupation road-under bridge. 

On the down side the yard was mainly used for various dock loading, which included a very large amount of cattle traffic and, in the season, hunting horse traffic. Taking the latter first, the custom was for the hunting gentry, who had hunting lodges in and near to Melton Mowbray, to send on ahead their mounts to the place of the meet, themselves following by carriage, or later by motorcar. As many as twenty to thirty horses have been sent by special trains to such places as Redmile, Sedgebrook, Barnstone, East Norton, Tilton, Hallaton, Medbourne and to stations on the Great Northern Leicester Branch. 

A brief list of some of the gentlemen of the pre-first world war period has its interest, it includes:- Major Harrison of the shipping line; Mr Sutton of the agricultural seeds firm; Mr Palmer of the famous biscuit firm; Mr Colman of "mustard" fame; Sir Joseph Laycock of Wiseton Hall, near Gainsborough and Mr Ambrose Clark, an American millionaire. In between the wars the Prince of Wales occupied Craven Lodge and his two brothers had separate lodges, the Duke of York was at Warwick Lodge and the Duke of Gloucester was at Hamilton House. The Maharajah of Cooch Behar occupied the Spinney and a special train used to bring the Indian Prince's household from the London docks; one of the few occasions Great Eastern stock came on to the Joint Line. Captain Heyson, who lived just beyond the town boundary, was another who used to charter a special train to take his staff to Scotland for the fishing and shooting. In this manner the hunting season was a period of lavish spending in Melton Mowbray and remunerative traffic for the railway. 

On the up side of the main line was the goods yard, which was very commodious and well equipped with the usual warehouse, wherein there were four hand cranes. The town deliveries from the station were undertaken by a team of five horses, one for the parcels van and four for dray work and shunting wagons. At least one horse was working at Melton Mowbray until 1950, when the last horseman retired. 

The show-piece station of the Joint Line did not undergo many changes. "Show-piece" is used with a purpose for on gala days flags were flown from permanent poles, ready kept painted white. One change took place in 1914, when the two signal boxes were demolished and the work centred in one new box. This was sited immediately south of the goods warehouse, it was a large cabin, built high on steel girders and stilts. The method of construction had a peculiar effect .and a wind only a little more than a breeze would rock the cabin, which in turn stopped ,the clock and some confusion resulted. In the end the London and North Western sent a dining car clock for testing, this was found to be suitable and so good timekeeping was resumed. The girder work straddled the warehouse line and partly over-hung the up line and a stop-signal at the south end of the cabin had to be stepped out on a bracket to be visible to drivers. Housed in the box were- 37 working levers and 11 spares, and for many years a myth existed that the lever frame was divided, half LNW and half GN pattern, but this was unfounded as it was entirely LNW equipment.

The site of the station has been completely cleared and modern buildings erected. For the stranger it would be difficult to trace, or imagine, the fine Victorian station.

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