The Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership together with the Lowestoft Central Project are once again supporting this September’s Heritage Open Day’s events in and around Lowestoft by hosting exhibitions, sponsoring printed material and promotion as well as hosting and staffing the Festival Information Hub.
From September 11 to 20 numerous free to enjoy events and activities will take place which both celebrate and provide a unique insight into the fascinating history of the town and neighbouring villages.
The Parcels Office exhibition space at Lowestoft railway station will host two exhibitions; one featuring the former Lowestoft – Yarmouth railway line and A Thousand Kisses – Stories of the kindertransport. In addition, a walking tour of the station surrounds on September 20 with aviation historian Bob Collis will retell events over two World Wars in which the station came close to destruction through bombing which also saw the former Great Eastern Railway stables become the first railway premises in the World to be bombed by high explosives dropped from a Zeppelin air raid in 1915.
Volunteers from the Wherry Lines Community Rail Partnership and Lowestoft Central Project have been busy behind the scenes preparing printed listings for the festival and the timetable for a free heritage bus service which will link museums and other locations with the railway station on September 12. Volunteers will also host the Festival Information Hub inside Lowestoft station’s Community Rail Shop and Tourist Information Office.
The station history panels featuring the Lowestoft School’s Evacuation of 1940, the Kindertransport arrival in 1938 & a timeline of the first 175 years of the railway in Lowestoft will all be available to view throughout.
Community Rail development officer Martin Halliday said; “We are pleased to continue our association with the Lowestoft Heritage Open Day’s Festival again this year, hosting the information hub, exhibitions, a railway themed walk and supporting promotion of the festival by preparing and sponsoring publicity material. “We are particularly pleased to be working with the East Anglia Transport Museum who will again be running their hugely popular heritage bus service on September 12, connecting the railway station with the towns museums and other heritage events as well opening the transport museum free of charge for the day.”
Full details of Heritage Open Day’s nationwide events including those in and around Lowestoft are available by searching locations at www.heritageopendays.org.uk
