SEX61943 - Flitch Way: an Archaeological Assessment of the The Bishop's Stortford, Dumow and Braintree Branch Railway

The railway branch line which ran for almost 18 miles between Bishop's Stortford and Braintree was opened by the Great Eastern Railway in 1869 in response to the need to move agricultural produce eastwards out of Essex. Although never a great commercial success, the line survived for just over 100 years. From the early 1990s the part of the former line from Start Hill to Braintree has formed a country park known as the Flitch Way, owned and managed by Essex County Council. The survey identified significant remaining elements relating to the railway. The most obvious of these is the linear nature of the route itself and the bridges. There are also numerous brick culverts channelling streams beneath the embankment. Excluding the working station at Braintree, all the main station buildings, with the exception of Great Dunmow, survive. Evidence of the impact of the railway on the pre-industrial landscape also survives in the form of crossing points, typically signified by gaps in the hedge line with concrete posts for hanging the gates, in some cases the wooden ground surfaces at level crossings also remain. Other remnants along the line include concrete signal cable conduit, and gradient posts, which are likely to date to a later phase of the railway. The report makes a number of specific recommendations, with the overarching message that significant remains survive and that all efforts should be made to repair these, with demolition, and/or replacement, only to be considered as a last resort.