Old Buckenham's railway carriage

Trains of thought

This article written by Tom Walshe tracks a railway carriage journey through this description of more local history: Old Buckenham is not an obvious place to find a railway carriage. So you may be surprised to learn the story of a coach that began its journey on the commuter lines of Victorian London and now lies derelict in woodland at Old Buckenham Hall.

It came to its current resting place in the late 1980s following an intriguing contribution to local history - first as a unusual family home and then as an unlikely addition to the village sporting scene. 

Built by the Great Eastern Railway at its Stratford Works around 130 years ago, the carriage was one of many redundant vehicles sold off by the railway companies in the 1920s and 30s for domestic use. When and why it first came to Old Buckenham is unclear but, from the 1940s, it was situated on a large piece of land beside Hargham Road. It was lived in by Mr Horace Hilton, his second wife Florence and their young son David, born in 1948. 

Horace was the brother of Herbert Hilton and an uncle of Clifton who farmed at Mill Farm. He and his first wife had a cottage on the opposite side of Hargham Road (or Old Mill Road as it was then known). But after her death in 1939 and his marriage to Florence the following year, the newlyweds moved into the carriage, granting occupancy of the house to his daughter Ella and her husband Fred Lancaster.

As I remember the carriage in the 1960s, it had only basic amenities with a bedroom and kitchen extension on the side - as with most living accommodation in the village at that time - an outdoor plank-and-pail toilet. Other features included a solid-fuel stove, a harmonium (on which David honed his considerable skills as an organist) and Mr Hilton's trusty Windsor chair.

To some degree, young David adopted the quirkiness of the living arrangements. If the actual accommodation was a little inhibiting, the extensive piece of land it occupied widened his horizons. And both helped inspire his interest in railways and gardening. He even set out an imaginary train line via garden paths, complete with semaphore signals connected by string to wooden levers. Friends on their bicycles would ride along the “track” obeying the signals that David operated. Later in life he realised his boyhood dream to become a signalman and worked the box at Attleborough station (see below) for a decade before going on to supervise signalling on the North Yorkshire Moors heritage line.

Back in the early 1970s, after his parents had died, David and his sister Ella decided to sell the land for development. But what to do with the railway carriage? Old Buckenham Cricket Club needed somewhere as an equipment store and part-time pavilion and he generously gifted the carriage to the club, a crane and low-loader being hired to relocate it to the Hall grounds. 

It served its purpose well for around fifteen seasons until the present brick clubhouse was built, after which it was moved to the edge of a nearby meadow and used as a hay store for horses. There it remains, rather sad but still recognisable, among the trees that frame its resting place.

The fate of the carriage has only become known to the family following David’s death late last year. His son Tom, who taught music at the High School for a number of years, says: "Following Dad's passing, it has been fascinating to learn the full story of the Hilton railway carriage. Having had a lifelong association with Old Buckenham - attending the Primary School, teaching at the High School, and playing the organ at All Saints' Church - I am proud of my ancestors' small but unique contribution to village history."