1) The Norfolk County School
The Watts Naval Training School which is now demolished, stood on the summit of the wooded hill overlooking the station from the other side of the Wensum. It overlooked the Wensum Valley, with excellent views and was surrounded by 60 acres of land in Bintry parish in the Bintry (or Bintree as it is sometimes written) Hills. The site is some quarter of a mile on from the County School station up the track heading towards the river.
It was originally The Norfolk County School, a public school set up to serve the educational needs of the 'sons of farmers & artisans'. The foundation stone was laid on Easter Monday 1873 by Edward Prince of Wales (later to become King Edward VII). The school opened in 1874, but it was closed in July 1895, and re-established by E H Watts Esq. in June 1901. Following his death, it was turned into a home for orphans and destitute boys under the charge of Dr T J Barnardo and was opened informally on 9th March 1903. The establishment was then used for the training of selected Barnardo's boys for a life at sea in the Royal Navy or mercantile Marine. The cost of furnishing the institution for 300 boys and the necessary staff was entirely defrayed by Fenwick S Watts Esq. in memory of his father. The school was opened by the Earl of Leicester G.C.V.O., C.M.G., T.D. (and then Viscount Coke) on April 17th 1906.
The buildings consisted of a central hall, school rooms, dining hall, library & nautical class rooms. A chapel was erected in 1883 and consecrated on 16th October that year. It was built of Bath stone, and later enlarged in 1926 with trancepts added. The chapel seated all 300 boys and masters. The pulpit was a memorial to B Watson Esq, and two stained glass windows were added in memory of Frederick Humby, an old Watts boy who lost his life in the Titanic disaster. (The windows were later removed by Barnardos and subsequently disappeared - anyone know where they are?)
The School closed in 1953, with the remaining boys being transferred to other Barnardos training ship establishments, mostly on the south coast. The school was demolished, the site returned to nature, and the station was left with only a handful of houses to serve. Some of the remaining buildings still exist as ruins today, others have been renovated and restored to domestic use. For some years a chicken farm was run on the site of the main school building, but following the closure of the poultry operation , and demolishing of the chicken sheds, the school site has gained some new inhabitants, with the building of four 5 bedroom properties on the site by a local farmer/developer.
2) County School Station
The railway line from Wymondham to Wells was started in 1845, however due to financial wranglings, the line was not completed all the way to Wells until 1857. The various companies involved in building different parts of the route merged into the Great Eastern Railway Co in 1862 and subsequently a branch line was built running to Wroxham via Aylsham from a newly built 3 platform station at County School. This opened in 1882 and subsequently the Wymondham/Dereham line was dualled, in part to cope with additional traffic.
In fact the real junction for the railway was at Broom Green, some 1/2 mile further north, and the Wroxham and Wells lines out of County School ran parrallel to that junction. School children travelling on the line later recalled how the engine drivers would often appear to 'race' the two trains to the junction - much to the delight of their smaller passengers! Looking through the deeds and reading between the lines it is apparent that some pressure had been brought to bear by the owners of the Norfolk County School to site the station where it would best serve the school, rather than the local population. Indeed the former school gate house, then positioned next to a small tributary of the Wensum, was acquired by GER to become the Stationmasters House. The tributary was diverted and now runs in a tunnel under the station, however the original watercourse was uncovered next to the house during recent building works.
The line passed from GER to LNER then finally to British Rail. County School to Wroxham closed in 1952 (the Wroxham-Aylsham part of that trackbed now forms the narrow gauge Bure Valley Railway). The station became virtually redundant, and closed altogether following the Beeching report, which closed the Dereham-Wells section in 1964. Freight from Fakenham and Gt Ryburgh Maltings kept the line functioning until 1989, although the Station and Stationmasters House were sold into private hands in 1966, with the Station being used as a workshop for some time before both buildings eventually fell into disrepair.
Following various smaller societies attempts (occasionally successful) to preserve various sections of the line, in 1986 Breckland DC enquired of the enthusiasts if there was interest in a railway presence at their proposed Heritage site at County School, where they had recently acquired the station. The various societies promptly amalgamated into the Great Eastern Railway Co (an echo of the past?!), and moved into County School. The House and Station were derelict and in 1989 attention was turned to rebuilding them - the house in the hands of an enthusiasts' company, the station by GER Co.
The intention was for GER Co to drive a privately funded line downwards towards Wymondham from County School. Internal disagreements and financial problems caused GER Co to cease in 1994, leaving Breckland District Council to pick up the pieces. The Station was once again derelict, and the Council even had to provide 24 hour site security at one point to stop station hardware and rolling stock 'evaporating'!
The enthusiasts tried again, with Mid Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust taking over the Dereham station and successfully completing the re-opening of the the Dereham-Wymondham section in 1998. County School Station has been in the hands of MNRPT since that date and in October 2002, the station was finally sold to MNRPT by Breckland DC for the nominal sum of £1!
Permission for the re-opening of the track north from Dereham to North Elmham has been given, and over the coming seasons, MNRPT will be pushing northwards from Dereham. Once a station base has been established at Elmham, the attention will turn towards acquiring and relaying the North Elmham - County School leg.
The Wensum Valley Project have done sterling service in recent years developing the wildlife aspects of the site in conjunction wirh Breckland DC and MNRPT, but since the formal acquisition of the site by MNRPT, this involvement appears to have ceased, or at the least appears to have been downgraded.
Meantime, County School Station has a tiny band of volunteers who operate the tea rooms in summer and do occasional maintenance (often out of their own pockets). However, with the huge amount of work needing to be done elsewhere on the line, where there is the added lure of actual working trains and a decent (EU funded) renovation budget for Dereham station, volunteers up here are rather thin on the ground.
The access road is suffering badly too - please use care when driving up to visit, potholes and fallen/falling branches are now commonplace...
3) Hyperlink to Training Ships website and their County School history page. Well worth a look!
