Brandon (Suffolk)

[Kite159]

So knocking down an old disused building to allow the car park to be expanded, allowing for more potential customers to be able to park?

Sounds sensible.

 

[Lemmy99uk]

Friends of Brandon Station wanted to make use of them again but found working with GA difficult, I think the gist of the problem is they wanted to Friends of Brandon to renovate them at their time and cost once the job was complete they were gonna knock the volunteers out

It’s more likely an instance of the Friends group having unrealistic expectations.
I have been involved in several adoption schemes and there are generally 2 ways to proceed.

The first option is to take the buildings on at a peppercorn rent. Using this method involves setting up a tri-partite agreement with the owner (Network Rail), the TOC (Greater Anglia), and the Friends group. In this case, the Friends would be responsible for renovating and maintaining the building in return for a very low rent (often £1/month or something similar). The Friends would still be responsible for all their legal costs but there would be covenants in the agreement to prevent the TOC or NWR taking the building back without due compensation.

The other method is for the TOC or NWR (or both) to renovate the buildings themselves and then lease them at a commercial rent.

Either way, the Friends group needs to have a good business case and to have secured significant funding if they are to embark on a station renovation project.

Sadly, some of the groups I have dealt with have expected to have everything handed to them on a plate with no time, energy, or financial investment from themselves. However, those who are prepared to make an effort can create a successful regeneration project that benefits both the railway and the local community. There are plenty of these scattered around the network.

 

[LowLevel]

There is a lot of work going on inside Attleborough station, I suspect there is no danger of it being demolished, it looks like it is being prepared for some sort of use. You can see it through the windows.

Brandon however is derelict and has been for decades, the station site has found new life with the freight traffic, put it out of it's misery and use the site for something more beneficial.

 

[jfollows]

Private Eye No. 1528 14 August to 27 August 2020 reports that the permission to demolish the station building has been quashed:

GOOD NEWS CORNER: The high court has quashed permission for the train company Greater Anglia to demolish the 1845 station building at Brandon on the Cambridge to Norwich line (see Eye 1525).

Breckland district council had issued a lawful development certificate allowing the rail company to tear down the former ticket office,
waiting room and station master’s cottage (some of the earliest railway architecture in the world) in order to construct a new car park. Campaigners are now waiting for a decision on whether the building should be listed.

 

[James H]

The station has now been listed

Brandon Railway Station, Weeting-with-Broomhill - 1471392 | Historic England

List entry 1471392. Grade II Listed Building: Brandon Railway Station. May include summary, reasons for designation and history.

historicengland.org.uk

Brandon railway station, built between 1844 and 1845 to designs attributed to John Thomas, and extended in the 1870s and 1880s, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest: * for its attribution to John Thomas, a prolific architectural sculptor and architect, who has a number of listed sculptures, memorials, and buildings to his name, many of which are listed at high grades; * for its quality craftsmanship and materials, which directly relate to the vernacular architectural traditions of the area and Brandon in particular, which is rich in the quarrying and workmanship of knapped flint; * for the survival of the majority of the original plan form, which remains clearly legible despite minor alterations in the late C20.

Historic interest: * the connection of the Norwich and Brandon Line and Eastern Counties Railway Line at Brandon in 1845 was a pivotal moment in regional railway and communications history, allowing Yarmouth and Norwich to be connected through to London by rail for the first time; * for the historic relationship Brandon Station holds with the other four principal stations of Norfolk’s Norwich to Brandon Line; Trowse, Wymondham, Attleborough, and Thetford.