Monument record SUF 077 - Breckland Railway line

With the abandonment of the Northern and Eastern Company's line North of Bishop Stortford in 1840, (see Linear 1090), the East Anglian Line was proposed using part of the N&E's authorised route from South of Cambridge to Thetford via Newmarket. The Southern approach to Cambridge was also threatened by a route from Hertford. To forestall these threats to its route, the N&E gained authorisation to extend the London - Bishop's Stortford line to Newport, but faced with an Eastern Counties Railway's monopoly on lines East of Cambridge, the N&E agreed to lease its line to the ECR in 1844 for 999 years. In late 1844 the ECR obtained powers to extend from Newport to Brandon, where it would meet the Norwich and Brandon Railway thus linking both Norwich and Cambridge to London The route was completed in 1845, both companies later being absorbed into the Great Eastern Railway Company.