Explore a historic Royal station, 5 miles from King’s Lynn on the North Norfolk coast.

A jewel in the crown of train travel’s golden age, kings and queens, aristocracy and dignitaries have all passed through Wolferton Station on their way to Sandringham. It’s even said that the mysterious Russian mystic, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin turned up, urgently seeking an audience with the King. The short-sighted culling of Britain’s railway network, thanks to the infamous Dr Beeching, sadly means trains no longer run to this once busy station. The line was planned by Henry L’Estrange Styleman Le Strange to bring holidaymakers to Hunstanton and in its heyday 20 trains passed through daily each way, taking day trippers to and fro. With a little imagination you can almost hear them chattering, dressed in their glad rags, excited for a first glimpse of the sea and the prospect of fun and games on the sand. Transport yourself to this bygone age at the Victorian station museum where Royal luncheons were sometimes held in special occasion rooms.

Sir John Betjeman, poet and lifelong railway enthusiast who revelled in Norfolk’s church-dotted landscape, also visited Wolferton and recorded his journey there with British Transport films and BBC East Anglia in a charming ten-minute black and white film ‘John Betjeman goes by Train’, available from the BFI. Now restored as a family home, by prior arrangement it’s still possible to explore Wolferton’s beautifully maintained platform and grounds.