About SideTracked Caches
This cache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breath taking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveller, but anyone else can go and find it too. More Information can be found at the SideTracked Website
About New Bollingbroke Station
New Bolingbroke station was sited at the southern end of a long straggling village. The station had two brick-faced platforms each with a brick-built waiting room with a canopy. A single-storey red brick booking office stood adjacent to the level crossing on the up side of the line. It was similar in design to the others on the New Line and much larger than required for a station serving such a small community.
A typical GNR signal box stood on the opposite side of the track; this controlled access to the level crossing and goods yard. The entrance to the yard was behind the booking office; a weigh office just inside the entrance can still be seen today. A single short single siding ran behind the up platform into a loading dock. There was another siding east of the crossing which is not shown on the 1948 map below, so perhaps out of use by this date. The main products handled were cattle, corn and scrap metal from a local engineering firm which was transported to Lincoln. The stationmaster's house still stands on the far side of the entrance to the goods yards.
The station was closed in 1915 as a wartime economy measure re-opening on 9th July 1923. New Bolingbroke lost its goods facilities on 30th March 1964. The station became unstaffed on 7th October 1968 and the final closure was on 5th October 1970.
The up platform and its building are extant. The booking office is now an antiques shop called Junktion with larger items of architectural salvage on display on the down platform. A brick building has been built on the trackbed with the demolition of the west end of the down platform. The weigh office still stands at the entrance to the goods yard with the stationmaster's house in private occupation alongside the yard entrance.