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Description

Summary Railway Station built in 1848 to the designs of Sancton Wood for the Midland Railway, including footbridge and waiting shelter dating to the late 1880s or 1890s. Reasons for Designation Stamford Railway Station, built in 1848 to the designs of Sancton Wood, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: Architectural interest: * it is an especially accomplished example which stands out from the vast majority of Grade II listed stations with its picturesque composition and finely wrought design; * the whole is meticulously detailed and crafted using the local oolitic limestone and Collyweston slates, materials that are renowned for their aesthetic qualities and complimentary palette; * the footbridge is a good and well-preserved example of the standard Midland Railway design, considered to be among the most handsome of footbridge designs; * the late C19 waiting shelter survives with little alteration and, along with the footbridge and stone gate piers, forms an integral and significant element in the station, thereby considerably enhancing its special interest; Historic interest: * it is an almost complete example of a Victorian station encompassing the station building with adjoining stationmaster’s house, waiting shelter, footbridge and signal box, demonstrating how it functioned overall. History The railway station in Stamford (formerly known as Stamford Town Station) was built for the Syston and Peterborough Railway in 1848. It was designed by Sancton Wood (1815-1886) who began his architectural career in the office of his cousin Robert Smirke, and later worked for Robert’s brother Sydney Smirke. Wood enrolled as a student in the Antique School at the Royal Academy and travelled in continental Europe before setting up his own practice in England. He designed railway stations, becoming a protégé of the Midland Railway, as well as houses in Westminster. Wood has six Grade II listed buildings to his name, including the railway stations at Cambridge (1845) and Bury St Edmunds (c1847). In 1845 the Midland Railway Company obtained an Act authorizing the construction of the Syston to Peterborough Railway. It was intended that the line should follow the river through the town but the Marquis of Exeter, who owned most of Stamford, insisted on a cut-and-cover tunnel which avoided a level crossing and kept the railway out of sight of the town and, more importantly, Burghley House where he lived. The tender submitted for £8,700 by Groocock and Yates of Leicester was accepted and work on the railway began in March 1846, supervised by a man called Cleverley. The deep cutting through High Street St Martin's was finally completed in March 1847 and the station was finished in June 1848. It was described in The Mercury as 'in an Elizabethan style similar to Burghley House'. The first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1887 depicts the station and adjoining stationmaster’s house on the north side of the tracks and, to the west, a goods depot and cattle pens. A booking office appears to have existed on the ground floor of the stationmaster’s house as there was a window opening (since blocked) to the entrance hall for this purpose. By the second edition map of 1900, a waiting room had been added on the south side of the tracks, and a footbridge to the east. The footbridge was therefore erected between 1887 and 1900. Until the 1870s footbridges were, as a rule, found only at major stations, at busy suburban locations, or at some junction stations. Smaller stations made use of boarded crossings at platform ends until the 1870s when footbridges began to appear, initially built of wood but due to high maintenance costs timber construction fell out of favour by the end of the 1870s. Timber bridges were generally replaced by iron or steel examples from the 1890s onwards. Footbridges were supplied in prefabricated form by large engineering firms and their designs followed fairly similar lines while still allowing plenty of scope for variety in decorative detail. The Midland Railway had a number of standard designs, the most familiar pattern having a gently curved span and lattice ironwork balusters. Details Railway Station built in 1848 to the designs of Sancton Wood for the Midland Railway, including footbridge and waiting shelter dating to the late 1880s or 1890s. MATERIALS: coursed and squared oolitic limestone rubble walls with ashlar dressings, and a roof covering of Collyweston slates laid in diminishing courses. PLAN: the station is located on the north side of the rail tracks. It has a single-storey entrance hall with waiting rooms to the east, and a stationmaster’s house of two storeys and attic to the west. A waiting shelter is situated opposite on the south side of the tracks, and a footbridge to the east. EXTERIOR: the station is in the Tudor style and has an asymmetrical and picturesque composition. The steeply pitched roofs have parapets at the gables with kneelers embellished with roll and bird’s beak mouldings, and tall clustered, octagonal chimney stacks on stone bases. The main approach is on the north side through a three-bay loggia with segmental pointed arches which have small round columns at the sides and a stepped diagonal buttress on the left hand side. The crenelated parapet above is interrupted by three shallow gables pierced by arrow slit windows. The arch on the right has been infilled with glazing and a door. To the left are a series of former waiting rooms in a single-storey range with gabled bays at each end, that on the left is recessed and that on the right is projecting. These bays are defined by a closed, pointed segmental arch with blocked jambs and are pierced by pointed arch windows with a geometric glazing bar pattern incorporating Y-tracery. The single window in the right hand gable is surrounded by a triangular gable with moulded kneelers, whilst the left hand gable has a pair of windows and an arrow slit window above. To the left is a small lean-to with a sloping crenelated parapet which is pierced by a single pointed arch window. The wall continues to the left and encloses a small open yard which provides access to the original WCs. To the right (west) of the loggia is the stationmaster’s house, a slightly projecting wide gabled bay with square uprights at the apex and ends, and a moulded string course at ground-floor level. The ground floor is lit by a three-light mullion window with wooden glazing bars under a continuous hoodmould. The upper floors are slightly recessed so that the first-floor three-light mullion window, which is set within a stepped square projection, is flush with the ground floor. The attic is lit by a single window in a square surround. To the right of the stationmaster’s house is a lower range of one and a half storeys which may have been associated with the use of the goods yard to the east. This has a single-storey front range with a pointed arch doorway set within a gabled surround, followed by a C20 window, and double-leaf vertical plank doors with long strap hinges. The west gable end has been rebuilt in brown brick. The taller element behind has a triangular gable to the right lit by a two-light mullion window. A tall brick chimney stack has been added to the right of the window. A small C20 lean-to extension of red brick with a slate-clad roof has been added to the gable end. The south-facing platform elevation has, from the left, a small single-storey block under a hipped roof with a wide vertical plank, sliding door, followed by a taller gabled bay lit by two windows in pointed arch surrounds with Y-tracery glazing bars. All the apertures along the ground floor of the building have this design, except that the windows to the station itself (as opposed to the stationmaster’s house) also have geometric glazing bars. Adjoining these areas, which were probably associated with the running of the goods yard, is the stationmaster’s house which has a window, door, window and door. The doors have glazed upper panels with Y-tracery. The gabled bay above is lit by a three-light mullion window, and the attic by a single window in a square surround. To the right is the single-storey range encompassing the former booking hall, lit by a window, followed by a plank and batten door into the entrance hall which is lit by another window. What is now used as the ticket office, but which may have originally been a waiting room, is defined by a triangular gable and lit by a window followed by a panelled door with Y-tracery above. To the right is a window and door to another waiting room. The canopy, which runs the length of this part of the station, including the stationmaster’s house, has cast iron columns supporting a ridge and furrow canopy (dating to 2016 or 2017). A further waiting room is housed within a projecting gabled bay lit by two windows, followed by a square turret which has a broached octagonal upper part with open sides and a conical roof surmounted by a weather vane bearing the letters ‘SPR’ for Syston and Peterborough Railway. To the right is a short, parapeted range with a door to the former WCs which are lit by two windows. Adjoining this is a stone buttressed wall with saddleback coping and a pair of chamfered square piers with pyramidal caps, providing access to the platform. The single-storey shelter on the south side of the tracks is covered by a shallow pitched roof. This is supported by cast iron columns and has canopies on both sides with swallow tail valences. The small waiting rooms at each end are clad in timber with vertical ribs and lit by two-light fixed windows with wooden glazing bars. The panelled doors have glazed upper panels. The cast iron footbridge to the east has a gently curved span with lattice balusters and intermediate uprights. The straight flights of open steps have stick balusters which form into delicate arches at the top, and square, chamfered newel posts surmounted by domed finials. The bridge is supported at each end by four cast iron columns with octagonal bases which have a chevron outline on plan and stylised Corinthian columns. The bridge is stamped with the maker’s name: ‘T. Woodhall, Boiler, Bridge and Roofing Works, Dudley, England’. INTERIOR: the entrance hall has a canted ceiling with large moulded panels on the slopes. The original opening in the west wall to the booking office has been blocked up and a new one made in the east wall into a room that is now used as the ticket office. This room, along with the waiting rooms to the east, retain the moulded wooden window and door surrounds but the fireplaces have been blocked up, and any fitted furniture that they may have had do not survive. In the stationmaster’s house the principal ground-floor room has the same high canted ceiling as the entrance hall, indicating its original use as the booking office. The ground floor has been remodelled, involving the removal of some walls and the creation of openings in others. The front room retains wooden shutters with panelling below and a moulded cornice but in the rest of the house, other than the window and door surrounds, and some four-panel doors, little of the original fixtures and fittings survive. The two staircases date to the C20 and all the fireplaces have been blocked up. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: two square chamfered stone piers with pyramidal caps are located to the east of the footbridge on the north side of the tracks and to the north-west of the station. Sources Books and journals Biddle, G, Britain's Historic Railway Buildings: A Gazetteer of Structures and Sites, (2011) Harris, John, Pevsner, Nikolaus, Antram, Nicholas, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, (2002) Websites 'Secular Buildings', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the Town of Stamford (London, 1977), pp. 37-57. British History Online , accessed 5 June 2018 from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/stamford/pp37-57

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