The station booking office

Anyone taking the train from Bourne from 1866 onwards needed to visit the booking office to buy a ticket before they could travel. This facility was situated first at the Red Hall and then from 1892 from the north platform but closed when the last passenger train ran in 1959.

The booking office was always well staffed and fortunately its operation was within living memory and in October 2008, a lady who worked there remembered those happy times.

Mrs Dorothy Riley, aged 82, of Willougby Road, Bourne, was employed as a booking clerk from 1945 until 1952. She had moved to Bourne in 1940 with her father who worked on the railways as an engine driver and later a station manager.

"My job was to sort the tickets", she said. "I worked there for about seven years and they were really happy days. I made lots of friends and stayed on until I got married and started a family."

REVISED APRIL 2016