The mid 1800s was the time of railway mania when speculators were flocking to invest in the new transportation system. Close to home, engineer and entrepreneur Morton Peto was the driving force behind the development of Lowestoft, including bringing the railway to town. The 1840s & 50s saw a network of lines criss-crossing Norfolk and Suffolk. In 1854 the Halesworth, Beccles and Haddiscoe Railway (renamed the East Suffolk Railway Co.) was opened between those towns and extended via Darsham to Ipswich in 1859.

Prior to that, a number of schemes for linking Southwold with the main network had been promoted but failed to gain enough support. However, the existence of a thriving fishing and commercial port and the growing attractions of Southwold as a holiday destination, led a number of local businessmen to try again - this time successfully. The Southwold Railway Act was passed by Parliament in 1876 and the Southwold Railway Co was formed with a capital of £53,000. It constructed a railway linking Southwold to Halesworth which opened in 1879. The route of the line can be seen on the diagrammatic map above.

Unusually for an English railway it was narrow gauge (three feet) and had a speed restriction of 16mph. Mostly it had easy gradients and the only major civil engineering work was the swing bridge over the River Blyth. A branch to Southwold Harbour and Blackshore Quay was opened in 1914 just as war broke out and the fishing industry collapsed. It was never a success.

The carriages had no heating. Straw was strewn on the third class carriage floors to keep passengers’ feet warm in winter. The seats were unupholstered bare wood but First class passengers had the luxury of carpeted seats and the option of a carpet-covered copper hot water bottle for their feet.

A model of a Southwold steam locomotive with passenger and goods rolling stock.

Initially it was a highly successful enterprise. The year after opening it carried 65,000 passengers and 5,000 tons of assorted freight. This rose to 108,600 and 13,8000 respectively by 1913 but this proved to be the peak. After that there was a slow, inexorable decline. In 1928 there were only 60,000 passengers.

By the 1920s the rolling-stock and equipment were old and worn, the speed restriction and need to transfer the goods between different gauges were commercial handicaps and motor transport was eroding traffic. All of these created serious financial problems. The final nail in the coffin came in 1928 when bus operators were licensed to pick up passengers in the town. The railway closed in 1929. There were some attempts to reopen it but in 1940/1 the whole railway was broken up for scrap to aid the war effort.

Use the links below to explore the history of Southwold’s other forms of transport:

By Road
By water

The piers for this original railway swing-bridge, pictured in the early 1900s, are still there, supporting the present pedestrian Bailey Bridge - a shortcut to Walberswick. P017

Click the picture to enlarge