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 Horncastle Station
Horncastle station had a single platform with a run round loop and a large brick building that incorporated the stationmaster's house, booking office, waiting rooms and other offices; the entrance to the booking office was through a stone porch. The platform was extended in 1874 and a new larger waiting room was built in 1900. In its final form it had a short bay platform and an overall roof (later removed).
There was an extensive goods yard which included a number of private sidings serving Sutcliffe’s Malt Kiln, Harrison’s (for corn and grain), Roberts and Sons and Threlfalls (Maltings). All the usual facilities were provided including coal drops, a 5-ton crane, cattle pens, water tank and a wagon turntable which was situated in front of the weigh office, opposite the main station platform. This was used for turning wagons and sending them across the road to Harrison’s the corn merchants. The turntable was operated by a shunting horse which was stabled at the far end of the yard and in front of the signal box. Horncastle’s engine shed was a brick structure of 65 feet length with a single road and a pit. It was opened with the station, closed by LNER in 1924 and quickly demolished
There were two additional goods roads to the west, one of these was connected to the run-round loop by means of the wagon turntable, the other was a dead-end siding serving a long loading bank. The goods shed was at right-angles to the terminal roads and reached by using the wagon turntable, the shed was enlarged in 1874. The short siding which entered the goods shed actually crossed the passenger line on the level (an unusual feature). There was an additional goods siding on the far side of the loading bank and others on a lower level beyond the bay platform. Unusually, the northern end of the passenger platform ended in a short flight of steps to the ground, instead of the usual ramp. In a sense this was illegal under Board of Trade regulations, but as this end of the terminus was classed as a goods area, the usual regulations regarding passenger facilities presumably did not apply.
The 1897 Ordnance Survey map shows a ticket platform to the south of the station close to the engine shed, this had gone by later maps. The last steam train into Horncastle was the RCTS Notts & Lincs Railtour on 12th September 1964. After closure to passengers in 1954, the station remained open for freight traffic until 6th April 1971.
The station remained largely intact and in good condition until January 1985 when it was demolished by B. A. Bush, a tyre company that now occupies the goods yard. The station site is now lost under a new housing development.
It is rumoured recently, in local news reports that a historical society has pointed out that a train could be buried under part of Horncastle!