Maps and Topography
A series of maps and photographs of how the line looks today and how you can find it
Click on the thumbnail images to see the larger picture

The Louth end of the line began to disappear in rapid order fairly soon after closure. I remember as a boy walking along from the crossing gates at the bottom of Linden Walk in the direction of the junction with the main line, and finding that people whose houses bordered the line had begun to fence sections off to run their chickens on. The map below is taken from the OS 1 inch-1 mile edition of 1946.

The photograph is taken from the site of the level crossing (pink arrow on map)looking along the bottom of the cricket field. There was a bridge under the London Road, and a rake of steps up from the field to the road. The steps are long gone, and the bridge is indistinguishable from the embankment. The track west of the road was very quickly consumed by the municipal tip, but is now grassily landscaped. There was, to the south of the line, a natural pond which contained an excellent stock of Great-Crested Newts. There is very little visible of the route of the line until the Horncastle Road bridge is reached. The bypass cleared away a considerable section of the line leading up to the bridge, but the bridge itself still stands, despite showing alarming cracks in the brickwork. It is scarcely visible at road level and is best explored by climbing down onto the trackbed.

(above)The Horncastle Road bridge. The track is easily accessible from this point right up to the site of the station at Withcall. The line passes through Hallington and its station, home of the 'Phantom Goods' (see Herbert & Ludlam, page 36) The section leading up to Withcall is technically not a right of way, but the owner, Mr Henry Smith, is an enthusiast, and is unlikely to turn down any reasonable request for access. He has spent huge amounts of time and money maintaining the trackbed and the habitat around it. Between Withcall and the eastern entrance to the tunnel he has excavated a wildlife lake and put up nesting boxes to encourage bird life. Withcall itself is worth exploring. It sits in a hollow, and although it is dominated by the Home Farms complex of buildings, it is one of the most silent places I know. There is the site of a medieval village, and a rather grand Georgian house. The hamlet's silence illustrates graphically how the rural economy has changed since the railway line was built. According to Ludlam and Herbert's excellent booklet on the history of the line, the cuttings around Withcall were home to a unique crop of wild violets which were picked and bunched by local children and put on trains bound for the markets of London. Pine plantations, long since felled, were a valuable source of wooden props for the trenches in the Great War. There is a haunted air about Withcall, and I have an image in my mind of men in khaki waving through rain-flecked carriage windows as the Louth-bound train clanked away from the station, taking them away to God knows what torments.

(above) The line, looking back towards Louth from Withcall Station. (below)An extract from the OS Explorer 1:25000 map. The trackbed resembles nothing so much as a pleasantly green country lane, while the map shows the steepness of the hills around Withcall. The line runs from top upper right to lower left across the map. The tunnel west of Withcall will be dealt with elsewhere in this website, but it must be said that the stretch of line between the western mouth and Donington is a combination of the spectacular and the idyllically beautiful. Again, what impresses the lone walker is the immense silence and the sense of things past.

The section either side of Donington has the most spectacular scenery, and is relatively easy of access. In high summer, when larks are soaring in a blue sky and the grass under foot is scented with wild flowers there can be few better places on God's earth to be. There is a short break in access just before Donington Station, but the road is nearby, and the bridge under the Stenigot Road has long since been filled in anyway. Provided the usual courtesies are observed, it is then possible to walk as far as the lakes at Benniworth.

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(above left)East of Donington Station, and (right)Near Benniworth, looking back towards Donington There are several waymarked footpaths in this area which intersect with the line, and can make for several very satisfying circular walks. It is particularly disappointing that as the line reaches the fishing lakes at Benniworth, there is an abundance of barbed wire and aggressive notices making it clear that the walker is not welcome to go any further along the line. The law-abiding will take the footpath up the age of the lakes area and follow the road up to the High Street bridge, where a short scramble down the bank gets us to the line again for the short walk up to the entrance to the High Street Tunnel. It is a perfectly straightforward walk through the tunnel. It is 560 yards long, and even without a torch the fainthearted need not be too nervous, as there is always, literally, some light at the end of this particular tunnel. At the Willingham end at present is a cluster of pheasant-rearing coops and apparatus. To avoid this, a steep climb up through the trees to the left will bring us, eventually to the un-numbered road which leads from the B1225 (High Street) towards Panton. On the map below, the coloured "finger-points" show the positions from which the two photographs were taken.

From this point on, the route of the line becomes more of interest to railway detectives than walkers. The embankment near Willingham has been bulldozed at one point, and the bridge-over-road has long since been pulled down. Willingham Station is a private house not visible from the road. The line has become a private unmetalled road as far as East Barkwith Station and crossing, after which it has disappeared under tarmac and serves as the private drive to a rather grand house. It is no coincidence that the landscape has, by this point begun to flatten out considerably, thus allowing traces of the trackbed to disappear much more easily. The next point of interest is Wragby Station, but that will be fully covered in the section on stations.

Beyond Wragby, the line only appears in tantalising short stretches, which are easily found with the aid of an OS map, but offer little to the walker. A clearly visible but overgrown stretch of the line crosses a private farm track just off the B1202 Bardney Road (OS/121-134768) (below,left) The hawthorn blossom makes a pleasant reminder of spring as the line heads south towards Bardney. (below, left centre) There was a small halt at Kingthorpe but it had a shorter life than the line itself. The site of the station has been covered by what appears to be a scrapyard, but one of Mike Black's excellent archive photos(below, right centre) shows a J6 0-6-0 in fill steam past the site. The line is marked by its customary covering of bushes and decaying fences, and a rather watery dip where the track once crossed the road(OS/121-133749).(below, right)

The final few miles into Bardney are fairly undistinguished and undistinguishable from the ever-flattening Witham countryside. There is just-visible bridge under the Stainfield Road(0S-121-124713) (below,left)and a much better-preserved bridge taking the trackbed over a stream just a few yards south of the road.(below, left centre) The line has become a stony lane as it crosses the road which leads up to the ruins of Bardney Abbey(below, right centre)(OS/121-118700)but the little house where the crossing keeper lived still stands.(below, right)

There is nothing left of Bardney Station itself, but there are several excellent sets of photgraphs of it, and its decline and demolition elsewhere on the web(see links page In purely scenic terms, a journey that begins at Louth and quickly passes through some of England's most glorious scenery ends, it must be said, rather tamely.