Rail enthusiast slashes cost of station home by £65,000
Owner Brian Read at his home, The Station House at Pulham Market, complete with its own platform, which is up for sale. He had hoped to sell it last year but has not yet found a buyer. - Credit: Copyright: Archant
A pensioner whose life's work was the conversion of a Victorian station is selling it for £400,000 after getting no buyers in a year.
Owner Brian Read at his home, The Station House at Pulham Market. - Credit: Copyright: Archant
A year ago, Brian Read excitedly put up for The Station House in Pulham Market, near Diss, for £465,000 but has still not found a buyer.
Owner Brian Read at his home, The Station House at Pulham Market, complete with its own platform, which is up for sale. - Credit: Copyright: Archant
"I feel sad, I pumped my heart and soul into it for 35 years," said Mr Read, a retired builder. "But last year we had bad weather then lockdown, it wasn't the best of starts."
The house is a remarkable conversion of a Victorian station complete with an original 32m platform and even the original train signals.
The building included not only the area for passengers waiting for a train but also an original parcel store, ticket office and the station master's accommodation.
The Pulham Market station opened in 1855 and served the Waveney Valley line, which went from Tivetshall station to Beccles. The station became unused after the line closed to passengers in 1953 and freight in 1966.
In its time the station boasted the longest platform on the line and provided facilities for troops when accessing the nearby Pulham airship station during the Second World War.
Owner Brian Read at his home, The Station House at Pulham Market, complete with its own platform, which is up for sale. - Credit: Copyright: Archant
Most Read
- 1 A-levels 2022: All the results from Norfolk and Waveney
- 2 Police treating huge north Suffolk field fire as arson
- 3 Fire crews spend eight hours tackling north Suffolk field blaze overnight
- 4 Man in 30s arrested on suspicion of drug dealing in rural village
- 5 Extra help offered to people struggling with cost of living
- 6 Suffolk barn in need of revamp set for auction with £30k asking price
- 7 Georgian vicarage with four bedrooms and two gardens on sale for £875k
- 8 Norfolk Restaurant Week returning for 2022 with discounts across county
- 9 Popular miniature steam railway unable to run following fire
- 10 Product sold at Tesco recalled due to risk of disease-causing bacteria
Mr Read, 67, started renovating the house for his home in 1985 and had hoped it would be bought by a fellow railway enthusiast. He became fascinated with model railways as a boy and then as a teenager worked helping pull down an almost identical station in the next village.
"When this one came up for sale, I thought the same would happen to it so I decided to buy it and preserve it. I was born in Pulham St Mary and we always used to play as children in the old station yard."
This room at the Station House at Pulham Market, was originally the waiting room and ticket office. - Credit: Copyright: Archant
The station building, now for sale with a different agent, Durrants, has been turned into a four-bedroom house.
Original features exist such as a tiny Victorian fireplace and a living room has been converted from the original waiting room and ticket office. Outside is room for parking, a patio area and a large workshop.
