The lost railway station named after one village despite being found in another

A photo of the old station platform
-Credit: (Image: Nigel Cox/Geograph)


Cambridgeshire is known for its great transport links to other parts of the country, including to its capital. The many train lines running through smaller towns and villages in the area make it an attractive place for families to live in the countryside while maintaining their links to the city.

However, there are many villages with railway lines and stations that have closed down for a variety of reasons. A lot of these stations have been left to become overgrown with shrubs and bushes but the building for this station still stands to this day.

Bottisham and Lode station was first opened in 1884 and can be found on the outskirts of Lode. Originally, the station was just called Bottisham station even though it was over a mile away from the centre of Bottisham.

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After Lode became a parish in 1897, the station was renamed to Bottisham and Lode possibly thanks to a little pushing from locals in the area, however the names on the oil lamps and signal box remained unchanged. The station was on the now closed Cambridge to Mildenhall line, which also served stations including Barnwell Junction, Quy, and Swaffham Prior.

The station was the only one that was built on a curve on the Mildenhall line. The down platform had an elaborate waiting room made out of brick that was decorated with woodwork and had a fireplace at either end of the room.

The up platform featured the station building and and stationmaster's house and there were also two staff cottages closer to the level crossing. In spite of the many buildings and money that was put into the station, it ended up closing to passengers in 1962 and to goods in 1964.

A photo from Google of a road in Lode
-Credit:Google

It is possible that the unstable population in the area led to the line and subsequent train stations closing. Before the opening of the station, Bottisham's population was around 1555 but it drastically dropped to just 975 by 1961.

Lode went through a similar drop with its population starting at 709 in 1881 before going through a period of increase and then dropping again down to 607 in 1961.

Both the populations of Mildenhall and Burwell increased over this period, but the falling populations of every other town on the line meant it was forced to close.