The old railway station with a signal box that is now a home

The former Murrow West signal box is now a home
-Credit: (Image: Google)


If you've ever watched Grand Designs, you will know that homes can be created from the unlikeliest of buildings. One case in point is the home on the corner where Mill Road becomes Long Drove in the village of Murrow, just west of Wisbech.

Here, the unusual design of a house, with a strip of windows at the top, is down to the fact that is used to be a signal box for Murrow West railway station. This station on the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway line survived for nearly 90 years after its opening in 1867, finally closing due to a lack of passengers in 1982.

However, the line continued to be used for nearly 30 more years before it was closed by British Rail in November 1982. At a time when many people wish their region had just one railway station, it is hard to imagine that there was a time when a tiny village might have been served by two.

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That was the case in Murrow, as Murrow East joined Murrow West between the 1850s and the 1960s. Murrow East on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway line between Wisbech and Peterborough opened in 1866.

It closed for passengers in March 1959 and closed for freight in 1965.