The Railway Buildings

The Clare line was opened in 1865 and remained in operation until the Beeching closures in 1967.

The line went westwards to Haverhill and  Cambridge, and eastwards to Long Melford and then either to Bury St Edmunds or Sudbury.  The Sudbury line went to Marks Tay where it joined the main line to London or Norwich and the East Coast towns.

Freight was as important as passengers, particularly in the second world war when supplies to the local airfields were transferred to lorries at the Clare depot. Freight services had ceased in 1966 with passenger services stopping on 6 March 1967, although as early as 1963, it had become an unmanned halt.

Road access to the Station was through Clare Castle’s outer bailey; this is now used as a tarmacked path leading from the Station Road entrance to the Park to the old station buildings.

Still in place are the Stationmaster’s house with its ticket office and waiting room (now ‘Platform One café), a smaller waiting room across the tracks (now a Visitor Centre), and the last known 1865 goods shed of its type (renovated in 2017). These three buildings together are very rarely found today, and this led them to be listed Grade II in 2013.

A crane of the type used to lift heavy goods was installed near the goods shed, although it was not part of the Clare railway site when it was an operating railway.

The Railway Walk towards Cavendish begins by passing under a picturesque viaduct that carries the roadway to the former site of Clare Mill, destroyed by fire in the 1970s.