Historic England new listings

[Magdalia]

As part of Rail 200 Historic England have announced new listings for 7 rail related buildings and structures:

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/new-sites-listed-200-years-railway/

Five heritage railway stations, alongside 2 other railway sites, have been listed at Grade II by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England, in recognition of their historic and architectural interest and to mark 200 years of the modern railway.

The buildings/sites are:

Sheringham and Weybourne stations on the North Norfolk Railway
The locoshed and Northbrook Road bridge on the Swanage Railway
Haven Street station on the Isle of Wight Railway
Woody Bay station on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway
The Cleveland Bay public house next to the Stockton and Darlington Railway

 

[Djgr]

As part of Rail 200 English Heritage have announced new listings for 7 rail related buildings and structures:

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/new-sites-listed-200-years-railway/

The buildings/sites are:

Sheringham and Weybourne stations on the North Norfolk Railway
The locoshed and Northbrook Road bridge on the Swanage Railway
Haven Street station on the Isle of Wight Railway
Woody Bay station on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway
The Cleveland Bay public house next to the Stockton and Darlington Railway

Just another excuse to say how much I love the North Norfolk Railway

 

[Jan Mayen]

Do such listing's help or hinder heritage railways?
Or pubs?

 

[EveningStar]

As part of Rail 200 English Heritage have announced new listings for 7 rail related buildings and structures:

For information, and mostly because spend my days telling my students not to get the two organisations mixed up, Historic England are the non-departmental government body responsible for listing, amongst many other things, while English Heritage is a charity that has custodianship of various historic sites (akin to National Trust). They used to be one, and English Heritage were effectively privatised in 2015, so easy to mix up. So it would be Historic England making the announcement.

That said, thank you Magdalia for starting the thread. It is an interesting and, in my building conservationist opinion, a worthy addition to sites protected for historic reasons. One site that jumped out was the engine shed at Swanage, that has always struck me as somehow iconic.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Sep 2025 ==

Do such listing's help or hinder heritage railways?
Or pubs?

Moot. However, listings open the door for conservation funding streams denied to unlisted buildings.

 

[Titfield]

That said, thank you Magdalia for starting the thread. It is an interesting and, in my building conservationist opinion, a worthy addition to sites protected for historic reasons. One site that jumped out was the engine shed at Swanage, that has always struck me as somehow iconic.

Seems odd that they havent also listed Swanage Railway Station!

 

[StoneRoad]

Do such listing's help or hinder heritage railways?
Or pubs?

Listing can help, Yes, in terms of getting funding and other support ...

But can also hinder, because of the entanglements & pitfalls within the planning system.

 

[Barclay]

Seems odd that they havent also listed Swanage Railway Station!

Swanage Station is quite altered, the canopy is post-war and the interior is probably of the same era. Whereas the engine shed is relatively unaltered.

 

[Gloster]

Swanage Station is quite altered, the canopy is post-war and the interior is probably of the same era. Whereas the engine shed is relatively unaltered.

…except for the work done by an M7 in 1958.

 

[Titfield]

Swanage Station is quite altered, the canopy is post-war and the interior is probably of the same era. Whereas the engine shed is relatively unaltered.

But even so it is still redolent of an earlier era and worthy of being listed. There are properties in Swanage only a few hundred metres from the station that have been listed for their external appearance.

 

[Barclay]

I know that HE did look at Swanage Station and ruled it out, probably for the reasons I gave. It's in a Conservation Area, and that probably gives it an appropriate level of protection against inappropriate development proposals.

 

[DelW]

Listing can help, Yes, in terms of getting funding and other support ...

But can also hinder, because of the entanglements & pitfalls within the planning system.

In general terms, it may also offer protection against undesirable events in the future. The railways listed above are unlikely to be at risk, but there have been instances of small preservation operations coming under the control of people who want to promote their own interests, not those of the organisation.

One example was the Teifi Valley Railway:

Teifi Valley Railway - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

By 2014, the railway had suffered a loss of trained and managerial personnel, as well as volunteers essential for the line's operation. The condition of the railway declined to a state where an Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) inspection raised significant concerns about the safety of the track. As an alternative, the railway provided a licence agreement to a local businessman which delegated certain functions of the railway and the Henllan station site. In response, the licensee lifted the track between Henllan and Pontpren****w and ran a 'land train' (tractor-hauled carriages).[19] During this time, several items of rolling stock left the railway. The businessman performed a significant amount of tree felling and sale of timber from beyond the Pontpren****w station site, the use of timber carrying lorries for this operation caused significant damage to sections of track still in place. Eventually, the businessman was made subject to a bankruptcy order and he left the railway.

Again, I'm not suggesting that any of the railways listed are at all likely to suffer such an event, but it is an extra layer of protection.

(Edit: the forum software objects to that station name - the asterisks have replaced s h i & t)

 

[StoneRoad]

There are a number of preservation societies & other organisations - and not *just* in the railway world, sadly - that ought to have their governance overlooked, as they have become almost a private fiefdom and it leaves those people with too much control over direction and general activities.
And that is despite their charitable status ...

 

[John Webb]

…except for the work done by an M7 in 1958.

Ran the opposite way to this loco in 1963?:

 

[Magdalia]

For information, and mostly because spend my days telling my students not to get the two organisations mixed up, Historic England are the non-departmental government body responsible for listing

Thanks for this. I have amended the title and original post.

 

[Gloster]

Ran the opposite way to this loco in 1963?:
View attachment 188967

To get to the shed from the station a loco had to run onto the turntable, which was then turned a small amount to allow it to run on in to the shed, and v.v. to come off shed. The 1958 one kept going when going on shed and hit the wall next to the door; this one appears to have been too eager to start work when leaving the shed. The original entrance was a narrow door with a curved top and end walls each side.

 

[WesternLancer]

As part of Rail 200 Historic England have announced new listings for 7 rail related buildings and structures:

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/new-sites-listed-200-years-railway/

The buildings/sites are:

Sheringham and Weybourne stations on the North Norfolk Railway
The locoshed and Northbrook Road bridge on the Swanage Railway
Haven Street station on the Isle of Wight Railway
Woody Bay station on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway
The Cleveland Bay public house next to the Stockton and Darlington Railway

Nice short video featuring @timmydunn embedded in that Historic England Link - thanks for posting!

 

[30907]

Swanage Station is quite altered, the canopy is post-war and the interior is probably of the same era. Whereas the engine shed is relatively unaltered.

Pedantically, according to W---p---- the building extension dates from 1937, which agrees with my memory (second-hand of course, I'm not that old!).