Paget Halt

Paget Halt

During the lifetime of the Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea railway company, they used the main line track and station at Wivenhoe. This all belonged to the Great Eastern Railway who had their eye on the W.A.B.R.C. which they wished to take over. So, in the 1880s, they suddenly announced that the the trains of the Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe railway could no longer use the Great Eastern tracks and station so trains had to stop some 200 yards short of the Wivenhoe station and to which passengers had to walk if they wished to catch a connecting train.

Two temporary platforms were erected by the Paget Road crossing, one 110 feet long and the other 75 feet long. On the Paget Road side, there was also a new road built called New Town Road (now called Hamilton Road) which was built at the junction with Brook Street to the new platform to carry freight from Brightlingsea. This inconvenience was too much for passengers and the freight business and the Wivenhoe and Brightlingsea Railway sold out to the Great Eastern Railway Company in 1893 for the grand sum of £31,000.

The old platforms eventually disappeared during the start of the depression years when the locals used the timber on the platforms for firewood.