Our old shop at Station House really looks blitzed now that the counter has gone.

But here it is, neatly adapted and installed in our new shop at the old Black Horse. All we need are some beer pumps and racks of sparkling glasses.

We are now ready to have the phone system moved; this is scheduled for 15 December – please note that this will not be a good day to phone us. But if all goes well you’ll be able to reach us at the new premises using our old number – 01780 766266 – from the 16 December. There’ll usually be someone around, but if there is no reply try later or send us an e-mail.

Here’s the Guvnor tidying up after the installation. As you can tell from the background, we’ve already got most of the shelves moved and installed, and much of the stock unpacked and arranged. There’s a little more tidying and arranging – for example finishing off the cut end nearest the camera – and then we’ll be ready for the carpet fitter.

So when shall we open? Sadly it doesn’t really look like being before Christmas, and probably not till the new year. Watch this space!

Stamford Station in 1987, the year we opened the shop here. © Robert Humm.

The epic of Stamford Station canopy continues – Network Rail have submitted revised plans for listed building consent. The new design gives a narrower canopy, with the supporting columns set further back from the platform edge. Network Rail say that “this alteration is necessary to achieve required clearances from trains and elements of operational infrastructure”. Electrification perhaps?

The new application was submitted last month, on 16 September, but we only spotted the official notice yesterday, and by coincidence the Stamford Mercury reported on it in today’s issue (9 October); the application is still open to public representations, but the period is not likely to last much longer. The application can be found here, the accompanying images are here and for comparison the images for the original application are here. Or they were, for some reason the image links stop working as soon as my back is turned. No matter, the link to the application itself continues to work, so use that, scroll down to the Additional Documents section and choose Proposed Conceptual Views. The other documents may also be of interest. For the images of the original application click here, scroll down to Additional Documents and choose BDG0321-DRG-A103 Conceptual Views. Here you will also find our paltry list description (under Listing); it dates from the days when list descriptions were typewritten and Victorian buildings were described as Gothic and dismissed in three and a half lines.

In my first post on this topic I wrote that we had ourselves instigated the removal of the canopy by alerting NR to the motion of the canopy when a container train passed, but from their application it seems that this was not so. They explain : The need for the works resulted from an incident in August 2014 in which a stone corbel from the Station Building fell to the platform surface. On investigation it appeared that this was as a result of excessive movement of the canopy beams caused by wind uplift as freight trains passed through the Station. The effect of this on the canopy roof was observed to cause vibrations and movement of the canopy structure. As a result a large section of the corrugated canopy roof structure was removed in order to prevent further damage to the station or risk to users of the building.

Harrumph.

Here is a nice picture, taken by the Guvnor when a mere lad, in 1968, showing the old canopy keeping the rain off a deserted platform. There is an odd ramp-like structure on the roof towards the far end of the canopy (it is more visible if you click on the picture to enlarge it). Has anyone any idea what it might have been for? Other photos show no indication of it from the underside of the canopy.

Stamford Station from the footbridge, June 1968. © Robert Humm.

Wells-next-the-Sea Harbour

By good fortune the Guvnor’s significant birthday fell on his day off, so we wheeled out our speedy motor and headed across the fens and along the north Norfolk coast to Wells. The weather was grey and indifferent, but we found a harbourside café for lunch and strolled along the quay. We even found the miniature railway to the beach (north Norfolk is adept at tucking its beaches out of sight), but there was no train in view and we needed to be elsewhere for another train.

Wells upon Sea Signal Box

On the A149 east of the town there can be found the longest 10¼ inch gauge railway in the world. This is the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway which operate two superb little Garratts over a line about 4 miles long. They also have a rather nice signal box.

Norfolk Hero

We rode behind Norfolk Hero. The Guvnor’s luck ran out here : the two engines work alternate days and his big day was not Norfolk Heroine’s. Heroine is the newer locomotive which we have not seen before and yesterday only glimpsed darkly at the back of the forbidden shed. We’ll have to go back! Oh dear. Maybe next time we can see the beach railway as well.

The WWLR line is along the trackbed of the old Great Eastern from Wells to Walsingham. It is entirely rural, running alternately in shady cuttings and across rolling cornfields. The gradients give the locomotive the opportunity to show its paces, and the trackside is bright with wild flowers.

Yesterday the management had a problem with an owl; a juvenile owl apparently, which not only hadn’t got to grips with being nocturnal, but had chosen as its favoured haunt a spot far too close to the line for comfort. The train had to approach it cautiously, and we saw it lying doggo at the edge of the ballast. One hopes that it will grow up to be a wise owl, but if so it will have to learn pretty soon not to play chicken on the railway.

On our return we had a welcome cup of tea and scone at the signalbox tea shop. In defiance of the weather forecast the sun came out; we sat outside enjoying the warmth and watching Hero being watered for the last run of the day.

Preparing for the last run of the day.

Some things are never certain, and those of us who have waited – tripods steadied, cameras focussed – for a rumoured special working, know instinctively that, should the train appear at all, it will not, under any circumstances appear at the time that rumour predicts.
So there’s not a lot of point in being at Stamford station at 11:40 on Monday 22 June.
But if, for once, rumour proves true, a shaky, unfocussed picture of 46233 will appear here later in the day.
If you prefer to take the chance of getting your own superior photos, or even if you simply fancy seeing Stanier’s finest doing her stuff in the elegant surroundings of Stamford’s lovely station, do call in at the shop to say hello, or even to buy a book. We’re still here, open and selling books, despite all the hard work going on at the new premises. Unlike a special working our move is certain, but alas the timing is proving just as vague.
And please don’t blame us if the Duchess fails to appear; if we get further details we’ll add them.

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See? I was right. 11:40 would have been too late : she came through at 11:30, a fine sight. As promised here is the shaky picture. The chap on the other platform is the Guvnor. His picture will be far superior to mine, but it is on film, and we shall not see it for some while.

Progress at the new premises continues apace. We have moved most of the shelving from the Aviation Room and upstairs areas of Station House and Robert has been fitting them into the non-sales parts of the new building. My office overlooking the traffic lights (how I shall miss the railway) is all shelved up and Robert has been fitting out the windowless room he will use for cataloguing if he doesn’t asphyxiate in it. He calls it “The Snug”, which it may well have been when the building was the Black Horse.

The Office

Back catalogues in the office

The shop front door

View through the shop from the front door.

Part of the main shop room. Counter will be by the window.

Hard at work in the Snug

 Later in the summer we shall have to start removing the shelving from the shop area of Station House and when we reach that point we’ll have to close until early autumn when we’ll re-open in our splendid new shop.
But don’t wait till then to come to Stamford. If you have never been to visit Station House, come now – this old shop in one of England’s finest small railway stations is still well worth seeing. We have a full stock of new and second-hand books and intend to keep it like that until we close here. We also have an hourly train service and are five minutes from the A1.

The bell tower on Stamford Station.

We’ve been at Station House since 1987 and now our long lease is drawing to a close. Maybe when we signed up to it we thought we should have had enough of bookselling by the time it ended, but no – bookselling is a habit which dies hard. So we are going to move. The process will take most of this year; we hope to be fully established in our new shop by the start of October. There will be a spell during the summer when neither Station House nor the new shop will be open, but we mean to continue trading through the web site, as long as we can keep tabs on where the stock is.

So – where are we going? Not very far. We have bought an odd little house (it used to be a pub) at the main crossroads at the northern edge of the town centre. It’s about 10 minutes walk from the station. The building has needed a lot of work, which as can be seen from the picture still has a way to go. The front door is still in its undercoat, the builders have to work out how to tackle the upstairs windows and oh, that buddleia!

We intend to keep our customers informed on the progress of our move, and – very importantly – to reassure them that we are still open at Station House. It seems that you only have to say you are moving for people to believe you have closed. No, we are not closed. Yes, we shall close for a few weeks in the summer. But yes, we’ll continue to trade online. And yes, yes, yes, we’ll be opening at our new address in autumn 2015.