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
THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES so don't go looking there (although there is a nice view). See below for how to find it, after a little bit of history...
About Wymondham Station
From Wikipedia...
The Bill for the Norwich & Brandon Railway (N&BR) received Royal Assent on 10 May 1844. Work started on the line in 1844 and the line and its stations were opened on 30 July 1845. Wymondham station opened with the line and was, when it opened, situated east of Spooner Row station and west of Spink's Lane station. The line ran from Ely to Trowse, in Norwich. The link into Norwich was delayed due to the need to build a bridge over the River Wensum that kept the river navigable.
One month before the N&BR opened a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway with the N&BR came into effect and so Wymondham station became a Norfolk Railway asset.
In November 1845 Spink's Lane station was permanently closed as the NR determined that having two stations in the village was excessive. With the closure of Spink's Lane the next station east of Wymondham became Hethersett.
On 15 February 1847 Wymondham became a junction station with the opening of the Wymondham to Wells Branch to Dereham and Wells-next-the-Sea. The first station on the branch after Wymondham was Kimberley Park, then known simply as 'Kimberley'.
An Act of Parliament on 7 August 1862 authorised the amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway, the Eastern Union Railway and others, which formed the Great Eastern Railway, which had taken place on 1 July 1862.
19 years after the GER was formed the GER promoted a Bill to build a cut-off line from Forncett via Ashwellthorpe on the Great Eastern Main Line to the Norwich-Ely line at Wymondham. Work started in 1880 and the line opened on 2 May 1881.
The difficult economic circumstances that existed after World War 1 led the Government to pass the Railways Act 1921 which led to the creation of the Big Four. The GER amalgamated with several other companies to create the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Wymondham became a LNER station on 1 January 1923. The line to Forncett closed in 1939.
On nationalisation in 1948 the station and its services were transferred to the Eastern Region of British Railways.
The Wells branch closed to passengers on 6 October 1969, with freight services continuing until 1989; the section of that line between Wymondham and Dereham forms the Mid-Norfolk Railway.
Upon privatisation the station and most of its services were transferred to Anglia Railways on 5 January 1997, with services towards the Midlands were transferred to Central Trains on 2 March 1997.
On 1 April 2004 the station and its services were transferred to National Express East Anglia, then known as "one". Three years later, on 11 Nov 2007 the Central Trains franchise was broken up and services between Liverpool and Norwich were transferred to East Midlands Trains. The station's ticket office reopened in 2005. On 5 February 2012 the station and its services were transferred to Abellio Greater Anglia.
Until 2009 there was a telegraph pole route still in operation between Wymondham and Brandon. This was removed gradually during the early part of 2009 and was the last section remaining in England and one of the last remaining in the United Kingdom. In 2012 the local signal box was closed and the semaphore signalling was replaced by lightweight LED signals controlled from Cambridge.
Wymondham is situated between Spooner Row and Norwich, 113 miles 72 chains (183.3 km) down-line from London Liverpool Street via Ely. The station is managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates most of the services calling at the station. Some East Midlands Trains also stop at Wymondham.
Part of the old station building is now a railway themed bistro where you can sit in old railway carriage seats to eat your meal, as you watch the trains go by!
To find the cache you need to solve a small jigsaw puzzle by clicking on the link below. It is recommended to log-in to the website so your progress is saved but as it's not a massive puzzle you should be OK if you chose not to!