Most people would hesitate before snapping up a home this close to a railway line.
But although the clock’s hands are pointing to the arrival of the early commuter express and platform signs are still in place, trains have not stopped at this station since March 1967.
The Old Railway Station, formerly Long Melford Station, has now been converted into a family home boasting four bedrooms, a swimming pool and the possibility of transforming a waiting room into a holiday let.
On the market for £450,000 – equivalent to 65 annual season tickets from Ipswich to London – owners Anna Gudge and Mark Newton described their 20 years at the property as “very different.”
Ms Gudge added: “It’s fun because no one knows what is there. It looks slightly industrial at the front and then there is this enormous area at the back where there is Platform Two, where we have got another spare bedroom, which was the downline platform. The kitchen is the old waiting rooms – it’s really different.”
Despite their unique station home, Ms Gudge said she is not a huge fan of trains. “We bought it because it suited our lifestyle at the time; nothing to do with trains,” she added.
“Although in 1968 I lived in the level crossing next one down the line at Liston. I kind of got used to British Rail – I must have it in the blood.”
Ms Gudge, a communications officer for the World Bridge Federation, said the couple were moving to relocate to Orkney. “We just want a complete change; something totally different,” she added.
James Linnett, partner at Palmer & Partners of Sudbury, added: “You don’t see properties like this come on to the market. Having Platform Two is pretty amazing. When you’re out in the garden you can really imagine what it would have been like as a working railway station. You stand on the grass where the tracks would have been and you’re looking up at the waiting room and the ticket office the other side – it still feels like a railway station.”
The station, part of the Stour Valley Line from Sudbury to Cambridge, was closed as part of Dr Richard Beeching’s cuts.
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