Melton Constable: Parkland and Railway History

A Place Between Parkland and Railway History

Melton Constable has a distinctive character: the settlement has a predominantly linear structure, whose core is shaped by railway infrastructure and nineteenth-century houses. Melton Constable Works is regarded as a railway village, not a railway town. This gives families and other travellers who want to discover history not only in museums but also in streetscapes, buildings and landscapes several different perspectives.

The combination of a country house park and landscaped garden is particularly appealing. The South Park of Melton Constable Hall slopes down to a curving lake with a round island. A late-eighteenth-century tea house stands on its western shore. The terraces of Melton Constable Hall date from the mid-nineteenth century; they include terracing, retaining walls, balustrades and urns in the Italian style. From there, visitors can look out over the park designed by Capability Brown. The grounds also include a raised balustrade terrace, open parkland and a lawn enclosed by yew hedges, now known as the Croquet Lawn.

The architecture around Melton Constable Hall also tells the story of different periods. The east wing of the stable courtyard dates from 1810 and has a lantern positioned centrally on the roof ridge. Church Lodge in Melton Constable Park features a Greek Doric portico, an attached stable block and a courtyard wall. Church of St Peter combines religious and regional family history: the parish church is also a mausoleum for the Astley family, who formerly lived at Melton Constable Park. Its fabric suggests that it originated before 1066. Inside are eighteenth-century family monuments to the Astleys and painted coats of arms spanning the period from the Norman Conquest to the present day.

Following the Trail of the Railway Village

The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway established its works at Melton Constable as a central hub of its network. The works operated from 1883 until October 1936. They included a carriage works, a locomotive works and a forge with 30 hearths and a 25-hundredweight Massey steam hammer. The surviving structures include a railway water tower with a cast-iron tank holding 125,000 gallons; its 256 exterior plates bear the initials M&GN.

The local history can also be read in the residential streets. Melton Street was the first street built in Melton Constable, in 1882, and preserves continuous, closed-looking rows of terraced houses on both sides. Astley Terrace was created in 1886 as a row of railway company houses near the former works and station. The regular row of square chimneys survives there. Nearby stands Burgh Parva: St Mary, a corrugated-iron church built in 1903 for the new railway village, which is still in use.

Further details complete the picture of the former railway community: for local traffic, the goods station included a large goods shed by Wilkinson & Jarvis, while the gasworks supplied the station, railway works and company housing with light and fuel. The war memorial, erected in 1922, commemorates the First World War and was supplemented with an addition for the Second World War. It was designed in the office of Mr W Marriott, the engineer and traffic manager of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Company, and manufactured in the local railway works. Melton Constable Hall and its estate also formed the focus of a film and served as a filming location and production headquarters.

Which Stay Suits Your Plans?

If you would like to combine parkland, historic architectural forms and railway history, Melton Constable is an interesting base for planning your trip. A holiday apartment in the village focuses your stay on the described streetscapes and the history of the hall, church, streets and works site. Those seeking above all a peaceful time in a landscaped setting can instead make the park and garden elements the focus. What matters is less a long list of individual attractions than whether you would like to get to know the distinctive character of a historic railway village with a country house park and regional architectural history.

For further searches for suitable destinations, you can also view Honingham, Binham, Coltishall, Gorleston-On-Sea, Narborough, Runcton Holme, Watton and Stiffkey.

To the higher-level travel overview: Norfolk.