The railway opened in Surfleet in the 1850s with the completion of the
Great Northern Railway's
Grimsby to
Peterborough section of the
Lincolnshire loop line.
Surfleet railway station was situated to the east of the village in Surfleet Seas End. The station was a brick building with two platforms and sidings. Its
signal box controlled the station, line points and signals. A small hotel, the Great Northern Hotel, was built and its name survived until the late 1980s, when it was renamed the Riverside Hotel. Surfleet station was the first station north of the then much busier station in Spalding.
Spalding was once a mainline station with lines from the north and west; now only the line from the north remains. It also had a line to Peterborough, which still exists, and a line from
Norwich in the east, which was the first to be closed in the 1960s. Regular trains linked Spalding to
Boston and other destinations. The River Glen was used to transport goods from around Surfleet to the station, where they were transported throughout the country by rail. Goods consisted mostly of farm produce such as wheat, potatoes, flowers and barley, with
sugar beet transported to Spalding's sugar beet factory. Fish and shellfish, caught in
The Wash and landed at Surfleet Reservoir, were transported from Surfleet station, mostly on an early train to
Billingsgate Market in London, for sale the same day. The line was owned and operated by the
Great Northern Railway Company until the line was absorbed by the
London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1927.
British Railways closed the railway in Surfleet. The LNER disappeared with the
nationalisation of British Railways by the 1948 Labour Government. The station was one of many lines across the country that was closed on recommendation of the
Beeching Report—it closed to passengers in 1961 and to goods in 1963. The railway line between Spalding and
Boston survived until late 1970 when, after more than 100 years of service, it was removed, leaving only station buildings.
Spalding station was closed, but re-opened a year later to service areas that had lost their railway service. The station buildings in Surfleet stood until 1994, when they were demolished to accommodate the building of the
A16 Spalding Bypass. The A16 is built on the route of the old railway line from Boston to just beyond Surfleet, where it turns away to the left to avoid Spalding. The only remaining part of the station is the Riverside Hotel public house, which is on the original route of Station Road, itself re-routed to accommodate the A16. == Education ==