Twenty Six Signal Boxes Given Grade II Listed Status

This is a good time to be a railway enthusiast. Having only just recovered from seeing the A4 class steam locomotive “Bittern” hitting 94 mph just outside Grantham earlier this month, they now have the news that twenty-six of the "rarest" signal boxes in England have been granted Grade II listed status by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

In accepting that interest in trains and railways was one of the country's "most endearing and enduring national preoccupations", Culture minister Ed Vaizey made the grant at a time when there is a joint venture, between English Heritage and Network Rail, to modernise the railways.

A number of mechanical boxes are being replaced by regional operating centres. "These are very special buildings, at one time a familiar sight on our railway system," said English Heritage's senior investigator John Minnis. The preservation of 26 "highly distinctive" signal boxes would provide a "window into how railways were operated in the past," he added.

One of the “jewels in the crown” Hebden Bridge signal box, which was built in 1891, will be preserved as it has a "time warp quality" and has retained its original 1914 signage. English Heritage would not be against some of the listed buildings being "rejuvenated" as cafes or museums, such as the 1923 signal box in Totnes, Devon.

Such is the speed with which signalling has changed over the years, that the 10,000 or so boxes that functioned in 1940 have now been reduced to about 500 according to Network Rail. Signal platforms were first introduced in the 1840s, but British engineer John Saxby first created a building housing levers in 1857.

Because there were so many different railway companies in the early days of the railway system, as a consequence, there were a huge variety of designs.

Those signal boxes achieving the status are as follows:

•    Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire
•    Hensall, Selby, North Yorkshire
•    Bournemouth West Junction, Poole, Dorset
•    Lostwithiel, Restormel, Cornwall
•    Marsh Brook, Shropshire
•    Par, Restormel, Cornwall
•    Totnes, S Hams, Devon
•    Brundall, Broadland, Norfolk
•    Bury St Edmunds Yard, St Edmundsbury, Suffolk
•    Downham Market, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk
•    Skegness, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire
•    Thetford, Breckland, Norfolk
•    Wainfleet, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire
•    Wymondham South Junction, South Norfolk, Norfolk
•    Aylesford, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent
•    Canterbury East, Kent
•    Cuxton, Medway, Kent
•    Eastbourne, East Sussex
•    Grain Crossing, Medway, Kent
•    Littlehampton, West Sussex
•    Liverpool Street, City of London
•    Maidstone West, Maidstone, Kent
•    Rye, Rother, East Sussex
•    Shepherdswell, Dover, Kent
•    Snodland, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent
•    Wateringbury, Maidstone, Kent