The lost Cambridgeshire railway station that only served passengers for three years

Over the years, Cambridgeshire has lost many of its railway stations for one reason or another. Some of them shut in the 1960s as a result of the Beeching cuts, while others closed sooner than that.

The majority of these stations served passengers for well over a century and some of their remnants are still visible to this day. However, a small handful only lasted for a few years and have largely been forgotten in time.

A perfect example of the latter is Balsham Road Railway Station, which opened on April 4, 1848. It served the villages of Balsham and Fulbourn, but is rarely talked about these days.

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Balsham Road was one of four intermediate stations on the main line of the Newmarket and Chesterford railway. It was located four miles north west of the village and was the stop in between Six Mile Bottom and Abington.

It is unknown if the station had any platforms, although it is believed that they would have been short and low, with trains only stopping on request. There are no records of any goods facilities, but there are rumours of a siding as well as a booking office comprising of a tea room.

The station closed on July 1, 1850, but reopened two months later. It closed again on October 9, 1851 when the line between Six Mile Bottom and Cambridge opened, meaning it was only in use for three years.

The track through the station was quickly lifted and the nearby cottage was sold, although it remained in private occupation in the 1980s. It has since been demolished and the site has now returned to agriculture.

Nowadays, there is no evidence that the station existed, although there is a field boundary hedge that follows the trackbed on both sides of Balsham Road. It is still located half-a-mile north of the station and can be tracked to its junction with the Cambridge line one mile west of Six Mile Bottom station.

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