Condition of the old Stour Valley Line formation

A survey of the old Stour Valley Line route between Shelford and Sudbury with the aid of a number of web based map channels featuring mapping and picturing of the old railway formation.

The course of the old railway line is marked out surprisingly clearly on O/S maps - and on other sources such as Google Earth.

The formation is mostly intact between Shelford and Long Melford where it is used as farmland and the course of the railway is lost to agriculture - but not obliterated by any re-development.

The Crossing of the A11 at Pampisford station site WILL be a MAJOR challenge. Tunneling will be needed from point some distance to the West and East of the site of Pampisford station.

At Linton a factory occupies a short length of the track bed of the former railway line, but there is clearance to route a reinstated railway to the South of the factory and the former railway station now used as offices.

East of Bartlow station the deep cuttings through Bartlow Hills have been filled in, to cross a monument ''cut and cover'' tunneling will be required.

The old railway track bed through Haverhill and on towards Sturmer is intact, with no public right of way created that would impede railway restoration. Even behind Tesco space has been left for a single track railway line.

There are a few patches of re-development along the route that will need minor deviations at Stoke, Cavendish, Glemsford station and at / near to Long Melford station.

The track bed between Long Melford and Sudbury is used as a footpath.

AT Sudbury the Waitrose Supermarket and the condemned Swimming Pool occupy the old track bed necessitating a deviation on a viaduct to the South.