The Goods Shed

The Goods Shed stands in the middle to the site, the picture on the left shows the condition it was in when the society took tenancy of the site in 1970.

Restored to its 1891 condition, this historic building demonstrated the reason for the early railways, the handing of freight and trans-shipment of goods. Now it is used for a wide range of special events, displays (including railway signs and photos/information about various lines in the area. There is also the former clerks office (the small building on the front) which now houses the small exhibits museum of various railway items.

The wooden crane inside, which came from Saffron Walden Goods Shed, was rebuilt by a museum member, and completed in 1992.
The Goods Shed was used to store items before being unloaded from road vehicles and reloaded by hand or using the crane in the shed.
A daily freight train - sometimes more than one ran - would arrive at Chappel and Wakes Colne and various waggons would be attached and detached. This was known as pickup freight.
Loaded trains ran between the main marshalling yards - where the waggons were sorted depending on their final destination before going forward on other trians. The two best known marshalling yards in the East of England were at Temple Mills (near Stratford in East London - now a Eurostar servicing depot) and at Whitemoor near March in Cambridgeshire (now a GBRf yard).

The Goods shed is available for private hire, for more information on this please see our Private Hire section.