Skegness Magazine

Source: Skegness Standard 2nd December 1953

Photo: Mrs Wrate Skegness

Bad news for the Victorian train station built in circa 1873:

The name on the signal box says ‘Seacroft’ and standing on the observation platform is porter-signalman Ted Green. Soon, this tiny station is to close down and Mrs Wrate secured this photo of one of the last passenger trains to call at Seacroft.

One mile fourteen chains along the railway line out of the Skegness terminus lies the tiny passenger station of Seacroft. For almost eighty years it has stood thee; two shorter than usual platforms and limited accommodation, bleak and isolated to the cold winds blowing over from the North sea. Never has the station been a particularly bust spot, for the simple reason that there are so few houses nearby. And now comes the long-expected news that it is to be closed.
But do not pity the inhabitants of Seacroft itself, who number several hundreds. Their houses, nearly all large and luxuriously equipped, are a good distance away from the station of the name. They are better served by the Skegness station.
Think instead of such men as Ted Green and Aubrey Cram, the two porter-signalmen at Seacroft. Ted lives at the station house with his wife, while Aubrey travels out from Skegness daily.
Together they work a twin shift system – from 5.45am to 10.45pm Only five trains daily have been on the habit of stopping at Seacroft in recent years – two on the ‘up’ line (out of Skegness) and three on the ‘down’ line (into Skegness).
“Before the war they nearly all used to stop here.” Ted told us. “One was knocked off only last year.”

(The article uses the old imperial measurement ‘a chain’ which is 22 yards)

Photo below: steam train at Seacroft station near Skegness