At the 2022 National Railway Heritage Awards, announced at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London, the royal station at Wolferton – on the closed line from King’s Lynn to Hunstanton – was given the National Highways Award for the best restoration on a closed line.
On Thursday 3 August 2023, the station and the newly erected plaque were visited by Hélène Rossiter, the Head of the Historical Railway Estate at sponsors National Highways, and Andy Savage MBE, Chairman on the NRHA, who were cycling over the disused railway trackbed.
They were greeted at the station by owner, Richard Brown, whose purchase of the site in 2001 was the start of a programme of restoration work on the station that covered both the interior and exterior as well as the adjacent signalbox.
The station’s importance grew with Queen Victoria’s purchase of the Sandringham Estate and the station was rebuilt twice at the end of the 19th century to create a building worthy of the monarch and the visitors to the estate. This included a number of sumptuous interiors with those on the former Down platform now listed as Grade II*.
The recently installed plaque at Wolferton with, from the left, Hélène Rossiter, Head of the Historical Railways Estate at Highways England, Richard Brown, the station’s owner under whose ownership the station has been restored, and Andy Savage, Chairman of the NRHA.
The restored royal station at Wolferton; a superb entry that well justified its receipt of the National Highways Award at the 2022 National Railway Heritage Awards.