Steam Back to the Forties

Sat 19 & Sun 20 September 2025

Swing back in time!

  • Fabulous live music all day

  • Historic displays at each station

  • Beautiful vintage vehicles and full size replica Spitfire

  • Find vintage treasures at the trade stands

  • Get a 1940s makeover

  • Intensive steam train service with five historic locomotives

Steam Back to the Forties

We’ll meet again… on September 19 and 20!

Our famous Forties weekend is back! Swing back in time for a weekend of all day live music, stunning classic vehicles, vintage trade stands, historical displays, and wartime fashions at all three of our stations, all accompanied by a frequent steam service.

Please note that ticket booths, station buffets and most traders accept both cash and cash payments.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a ticketed event – travel tickets are required to access stations. Our best value tickets  are travel tickets providing unlimited travel, entry to all three stations and the exhibition field.

Exhibition only tickets will be available to purchase on the day for the main display field at Holt – these will not be valid for travel or for access to station areas.

Timetable

To be announced.

Parking and Public Transport

A variety of parking options will be available for this year’s Steam Back to the Forties – please see the options below.

Usual station parking at Holt and Weybourne will be closed for event activities. The NNDC car park next to Sheringham Station will remain open but is likely to fill up early in the day.

Temporary Car Parks will be sign posted from A148.

Alternatively you can travel by public transport, either by rail via Greater Anglia services or by bus with Sanders Coaches.

Limited Blue Badge parking will be available on the Exhibition Field at Holt.

Sheringham Golf Club Park & Walk, NR26 8HG

  • Open 8am, last entry at 4pm
  • Capacity is approximately 250 cars
  • Park & Walk charge is £5 per car, payable by cash or card – all proceeds to Rooprai Spinal Trust and Hillside Sanctuary

Directions from A148, Holt Road:

  1. Turn right onto A1082, Holway Road and continue for approx. 1 mile
  2. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto A149, Cromer Road
  3. After 0.5 miles turn right onto Sweetbriar Lane

 Please be careful when crossing railway line here, paying attention to safety signage at the crossing. 

Cookies’ Field Park & Ride, NR27 9NG – Saturday Only

  • Operated by Carnival Committee, Park & Ride Charge is £5 per car (cash only) plus Sanders’ bus fee (cash or card)
  • Open 8.30am until 6.00pm
  • Please note all buses drop into Sheringham Town

Directions from A148, Holt Road:

  1. Turn onto Britons Lane and continue for approx. 1 mile
  2. Turn right onto A149, Cromer Road
  3. Car park entrance will be directly on your left

Beeston Common Park & Ride, NR26 8EU – Sunday Only

  • Operated by Carnival Committee, approx. 15 minute walk
  • Park & Ride Charge is £5 per car (cash only)
  • Open 8.30am until 6.00pm

Directions from A148, Holt Road:

  1. Turn onto Britons Lane and continue for approx. 1 mile
  2. Turn right onto A149, Cromer Road and continue for approx. 0.5 miles
  3. Turn right onto Beeston Common and follow parking signage to entrance

Gresham’s School Park & Walk, NR25 6EY

  • Open 9.00am until 5.00pm
  • Capacity is approximately 200 cars
  • Park & Walk recommended donation is £5 per car

Directions from A148 Holt Town Roundabout:

  1. Follow A148, Holt Road towards Cromer and NNR
  2. Take 1st exit at roundabout, continuing along A148 for approx. 0.5 miles
  3. Turn left onto Cromer Road and continue for approx. 0.5 miles following parking signage to entrance

Bodham Playing Field Park & Ride, NR25 6QG

  • Open 9am – 6pm
  • Capacity is approximately 200 cars
  • Toilets available onsite including accessible facilities
  • Refreshments available to purchase
  • Parking charge is £5 per car, all buses free to travel on*

Directions from A148 Holt Town Roundabout:

  1. Follow A148, Holt Road towards Cromer and NNR
  2. Take 1st exit at roundabout, continuing along A148 past NNR for 2.4 miles
  3. Car park entrance will be on your right

*Please note all buses drop to and from Holt Station only. Public Sanders buses are available to travel on between Bodham and Sheringham.

Fares

Get involved with everything  and enjoy unlimited hop on hop off travel with event tickets, or simply experience the displays, music and trade stands at Holt with a Holt Exhibition ticket. More information coming soon!

Explore

There’s so much to see at the stations and in the surrounding area . . .

HOLT

Holt is the western terminus of the railway and is around a mile from the town centre. The station is easy to reach by road,  just off the A148 at High Kelling, and has ample parking (for which we request a small donation) so is an ideal staring point for passengers wishing to travel to Sheringham and visit the town and seaside.

The What Three Words code for Holt Station’s main entrance is saturate.atlas.dumplings

The town’s original station closed in 1964 and was demolished and part of the trackbed used for the A148 Holt Bypass – discover more about the original station here. The current station is a faithful recreation of an Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway country station, using buildings recovered from various locations in East Anglia. The station decor and artefacts are presented to give a flavour of the period shortly after  1936 when the London & North Eastern Railway took over full ownership of the M&GN.

The station boasts a small buffet and gift shop and a painstakingly created model railway. The William Marriott Museum, which tells the story of the M&GN, and the Railway Cottage – a small home made shortly after World War I by reusing a redundant railway carriage – are open on most days that trains run Easter to October (subject to volunteer availabilty).

The town of Holt is well worth a visit. Energetic passengers can stroll into the town centre – the walk will take around 25 minutes – while many will prefer to hop on a one of the buses that stop on the road opposite the station entrance for a short five minute trip into town.  The town features many Georgian buildings and a wide Market Place.

Weybourne’s atmospheric station is a a real gem. There is very limited parking, so the best way to arrive is by train! If you are arriving by car the What Three Words code for the main entrance is huddling.rots.bound

Hop off and soak up the period atmosphere or take a walk to Weybourne village a mile or so away or to the nearby Sheringham Park. For those not wanting to venture too far, the footbridge affords panoramic views back towards Sheringham and down to the sea and is a good spot to watch trains approaching.

Originally built to capitalise on the “Poppyland” holiday boom, the station served a nearby hotel that was demolished in World War II . It oozes Edwardian charm and has been restored to close to it’s original condition sporting the tan and cream colour scheme used by the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway at the time. Discover more of about the history of Weybourne station and village.

The former parcels office has been converted into a small period style souvenir shop and buffet. Historic goods vehicles in the bay platform add to the atmosphere and one, a Southern Railway parcels van, houses a model railway.

Most trains will pass another here, so you make the most of your rover ticket by changing from one to another.

Kelling Heath

Kelling Heath Park is a small halt stop on the North Norfolk Railway, used mostly by hikers. It was not on the original British Rail line, but was opened after the line was preserved.

The station was opened in 1983 as part of the Railway’s extension to Kelling; a very short half coach-length halt was constructed principally to serve the nearby caravan park. Upon the completion of the extension to Holt in 1989, ‘Kelling Camp Halt’ was demolished and a new longer platform was constructed, ¼ of a mile further up the hill to the west; the station was also renamed “Kelling Heath Park”.

The Halt stop backs onto Kelling Park itself and also provides access to Kelling Heath Holiday Park, a popular campsite set amongst 300 acres of woodland and rare open heathland. The campsite has a wide variety of accommodation including luxury wooden lodges, holiday homes and camping & touring pitches, all available to book online or over the phone via 01263 588181.

Sheringham’s imposing station houses the booking office, waiting room and buffet. The Old Luggage Office buffet is in an area which was used to store the many suitcases and trunks that the Victorian tourists travelling to Sheringham required. Today, it offers the chance to relax over a drink or light lunch and watch the trains come and go.

The station has been restored to close to its 1955 appearance, when British Railways were responsible for the line. The distinctive blue station totems and matching enamel signs are evocative of that period. The footbridge provides an excellent vantage point from which to watch trains arrive, or the engine “run round” to the other end of its train ready for the next trip to Holt.

Passengers starting their journey here can arrive by Great Anglia trains from Cromer and Norwich (the mainline station is just across Station Road), by bus (they stop right outside) or by car (there is a large pay and display car park adjacent to the station). The What Three Words code for the car park entrance is stables.case.blip

For those arriving on one of our historic trains, there’s a chance to visit the town’s many independent shops, stroll to beach and promenade or take a slightly longer walk to join the Norfolk Coastal Path and enjoy a cliff top walk or climb Beeston Bump (a distinctively-shaped local hillock). The town museum includes a Windfarm Visitor Centre where you can discover more about the arrays that have been built offshore.

Find out more about Sheringham station and town.