Railway station waiting room and yard in Cockfield, near Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury, up for sale for £350,000

A former railway station waiting room and yard in a Suffolk village is up for sale for £350,000.

Cockfield Station was on the Long Melford to Bury St Edmunds branch line before the line closed to passengers in April 1961 and completely shut four years later.

The waiting room and yard site, in the west of the village, is currently vacant and used for storage purposes and is now available with estate agents Lacy Scott & Knight.

The station had a single platform on the down side of the line, with a rectangular brick building which once featured a booking office, waiting room and ladies room, with a gentlemen’s toilet at the north end.

Goods were handled from the yard, with single siding and cattle dock opposite the platform.

The 2.82 acre-yard was previously used for the storage of coal and other various commercial uses. It includes a separate agricultural building used for storage purposes.

The trackbed (the foundation on which railway tracks are laid) was grassed most recently in the early 2000s.

A stationmaster's house, which sits opposite the site, is privately occupied.

The Long Melford to Bury line opened in August 1865, with intermediate stations at Bury Eastgate, Whelnetham, Cockfield and Lavenham.

During the period prior to World War One the line saw some of its best traffic. At its peak there were five or six trains a day between Bury and Long Melford, with two or three of these continuing to Marks Tey or Colchester.

When World War Two started, passenger services were reduced and the station was closed to passengers on April 10, 1961, although freight services remained active until April 19, 1965.