Lord Willougby's private railway

The locomotive Havilah under steam at Edenham, taken from a rare
postcard published by The Locomotive Publishing Company

Opposite the Willoughby Arms at Little Bytham are the old station buildings, once the terminus of a private railway built, owned and operated during the 19th century by one man, Baron Willoughby de Eresby. It was one of Lincolnshire's most unusual and short-lived railways, designed to serve the Grimsthorpe Estate and known as Lord Willoughby's Private Railway, running from the nearest railway station at Little Bytham for a distance of just over four miles to Edenham.

The Willoughby Arms itself is a substantial stone-fronted building which dates from 1853 when it was used as a refreshment place and waiting room for the railway and was known as the Steam Plough Inn. Progress on the project was recorded by the Stamford Mercury on Friday 4th July 1856, soon after it opened for freight traffic:

Lord Willoughby de Eresby has announced that his branch line of railway from Edenham to Little Bytham station (in connection with the Great Northern main line) is now open for the conveyance of cattle, coals, corn, merchandise, parcels &c., upon a very liberal scale of rateage. The Government inspectors having traversed the line last Friday, pronounced it in every respect complete and ready for the immediate traffic of luggage trains, which commenced running on Tuesday. Although the works are not sufficiently finished for passenger trains, we hear that every effort has been made to enable his Lordship, if possible, to pronounce them safe for public use by the 1st of August.

This small chemin du fer, commenced about 18 months since, extends to about 4¼ miles over a portion of the most productive and picturesque parts of the county of Lincoln, and will undoubtedly provide a great boon and most desirable desideratum to the agriculturalists in the neighbourhood, more especially the tenantry of the praiseworthy projector and proprietor. The estimated cost, as near as we can learn, is about £3,500 per mile; but of course the outlay has been considerably curtailed by the preparation of sleepers and all heavy material from his Lordship's own estate at Grimsthorpe by steam machinery at the extensive wood-yard at Grimsthorpe.

In the event, passenger traffic did not begin until the following year by which time the line had replaced a road between the two termini that had been built three years earlier. The railway continued working at full capacity from 1856 to 1866 when services were reduced and finally closed down in 1873.

Three very primitive locomotives worked the railway on which there were several steep gradients and a speed limit of 15 m p h and the steam engines continued in use until 1872 from when the line was worked by horse traction. In addition to serving the needs of the estate, it also originally provided a link with Bourne, three miles to the east, but the town was reached by rail from Essendine in 1860 and this reduced the traffic at Edenham.

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