The abandoned railway yard hiding in a Cambridgeshire city

The site has been overgrown for the last 20 years

In the past, small towns and villages across Cambridgeshire had their own railway stations. But as cars became more popular, many of these stations were no longer needed. Over the years, some of these stations have been turned into private homes whilst others have totally disappeared.

In Cambridge, there are three railway stations: Cambridge North, Cambridge and the newly opened Cambridge South. Cambridge North was built on part of Chesterton Sidings, which used to be part of the old Chesterton railway station.

Originally opened in January 1850, Chesterton railway station was a request stop on the line between Cambridge and Histon which closed less than a year later in October 1850. The station was on the north side of Fen Road just before the line crossed over the River Cam.

In November 1984, a signal box which used to control the junction and level crossing over Fen Road was removed. The area then became part of the marshalling and manufacturing yards for St Ives Railway.

Advertisement

From 1911, the triangle of land between the St Ives branch and the main line was used by the permanent way department to store materials, and consisted of several sidings. After the Second World War, a permanent way depot was built.

The depot was mainly used to assemble new track panels and concrete sleepers. It was also used for general freight before the area was abandoned, and by 2005, it had become heavily overgrown.

To this day, some of the buildings from the old Chesterton Junction Railway Yardare still standing. Behind the station car park is a large wooded area where you can find one of the buildings fully intact that sits close to the railway tracks.