place

Wells Harbour Railway

10¼ in gauge railways in England1976 establishments in EnglandHeritage railways in NorfolkNorth NorfolkUse British English from March 2017
Wells-next-the-Sea
Wells Harbour railway geograph.org.uk 950199
Wells Harbour railway geograph.org.uk 950199

The Wells Harbour Railway was a 10+1⁄4 in (260 mm) gauge railway that ran at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, England. It was 1,200 yards (1,100 m) long, running between Wells Harbour and Pinewoods. The line operated for 45 years, from 1976 to 2021, when it was closed and replaced with a bus service.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wells Harbour Railway (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Wells Harbour Railway
Beach Road, North Norfolk

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Wells Harbour RailwayContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.968055555556 ° E 0.84833333333333 °
placeShow on map

Address

Pinewoods Holiday Park

Beach Road
NR23 1AS North Norfolk
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Wells Harbour railway geograph.org.uk 950199
Wells Harbour railway geograph.org.uk 950199
Share experience

Nearby Places

Holkham National Nature Reserve
Holkham National Nature Reserve

Holkham National Nature Reserve is England's largest national nature reserve (NNR). It is on the Norfolk coast between Burnham Overy Staithe and Blakeney, and is managed by Natural England with the cooperation of the Holkham Estate. Its 3,900 hectares (9,600 acres) comprise a wide range of habitats, including grazing marsh, woodland, salt marsh, sand dunes and foreshore. The reserve is part of the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the larger area is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar listings, and is part of both an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and a World Biosphere Reserve. Holkham NNR is important for its wintering wildfowl, especially pink-footed geese, Eurasian wigeon and brant geese, but it also has breeding waders, and attracts many migrating birds in autumn. Many scarce invertebrates and plants can be found in the dunes, and the reserve is one of the only two sites in the UK to have an antlion colony. This stretch of coast originally consisted of salt marshes protected from the sea by ridges of shingle and sand, and Holkham's Iron Age fort stood at the end of a sandy spit surrounded by the tidal wetland. The Vikings navigated the creeks to establish Holkham village, but access to the former harbour was stopped by drainage and reclamation of the marshes between the coast and the shingle ridge which started in the 17th century, and was completed in 1859. The Holkham estate has been owned by the Coke family, later Earls of Leicester since 1609, and their seat at Holkham Hall is opposite the reserve's Lady Anne's Drive entrance. The 3rd Earl planted pines on the dunes to protect the pastures reclaimed by his predecessors from wind-blown sand. The national nature reserve was created in 1967 from 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) of the Holkham Estate and 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres) of foreshore belonging to the Crown. The reserve has over 100,000 visitors a year, including birdwatchers and horse riders, and is therefore significant for the local economy. The NNR has taken steps to control entry to the fragile dunes and other areas important for their animals or plants because of the damage to sensitive habitats that could be caused by unrestricted access. The dunes are an essential natural defence against the projected rises in sea level along this vulnerable coast.