Wells Next the Sea Branch

The subject of this book is the 43 miles of railway that linked Norwich (Thorpe) to Wells-next-the-Sea on the North Norfolk coast. The line was opened in stages and had a number of distinct parts; Norwich to Wymondham opened in 1845, and Wymondham to Dereham a year later. Continuation to Fakenham came in 1849 and Wells was reached in 1857. By 1862 the entire route was in the hands of the newly-formed Great Eastern Railway. The line ran to the seaside, but it never developed as a true 'seaside branch' because Wells only became a tourist centre in the 1950s and 1960s. This new edition of The Wells-next-the-Sea Branch contains two new chapters dealing with the route of the line, together with additional information on subjects such as the LNER steam railcars and the role of the railway in the two world wars.