M&GNJR was a Midlands to East Anglia railway linking towns and villages like a patchwork knitted together by clever business entrepreneurs. It started in the 1850s when there was intense rivalry between railway companies and two rich and powerful companies – MR and GNR – were behind the project. ‘Joint,’ added by a Special Act of Parliament in 1893, confirms this patchwork was the amalgamation of several small independent railway companies plus the MR and GNR. The company was especially interested in stealing a march on the Great Eastern Railway (GER) which believed it was the principal railway serving East Anglia. Poppyland was the nickname created for the Cromer area of the Norfolk coast by Clement Scott, an influential poet, author and drama critic of The Daily Telegraph who first visited in 1883. He claimed that ‘...clean air laced with perfume of wild flowers was opiate to his tired mind.’ Scott publicized his delight and many rich families, and their servants, visited too; the railway business entrepreneurs saw a growing market for their patchwork. The M&GNJR grew eastwards to Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and attracted passengers from the Midlands and London. The M&GNJR grew – then withered as cars, buses, overseas travel offered new holiday options. Closure came on 28 February 1959 but North Norfolk Railway – the Poppy Line – has survived as a heritage line so the Joint is not forgotten!

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Principal reference sources, acknowledgements, thanks
• CHAPTER 1 Foreword to a nineteenth century railway patchwork
• CHAPTER 2 Why ‘Poppyland’?
• CHAPTER 3 Knitting the patchwork together
• CHAPTER 4 Competition – towns with two or more stations and major railway companies believing East Anglia needed more railways.
• CHAPTER 5 The patchwork becomes Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR)
• CHAPTER 6 Working together or more competition – Norfolk & Suffolk Joint Railway
• CHAPTER 7 Operating the M&GNJR – Engineering and permanent way; signalling; stations; goods sheds and traffic; locomotives, rolling stock, Melton Constable Works
• CHAPTER 8 Railway Grouping in 1923 leading to: administration by LNER in 1936, Nationalisation in 1948 but M&GNJR survives as a separate entity until closure on 28 February 1959
• CHAPTER 9 Exploring parts of the patchwork: King’s Lynn, Sutton Bridge, Melton Constable, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft
• CHAPTER 10 Patchwork people: Ronald Clark; William Marriott; Richard Hardy, Alan Baker
• CHAPTER 11 Past history and some new beginnings: East Suffolk Light Railway (2ft gauge); North Norfolk Railway – The Poppy Line (standard gauge); Whitwell & Reepham Station (standard gauge) and the Marriott Way (part of M&GNJR trackbed).
• CHAPTER 12 The M&GN Circle – founded 1959: The study group for anyone interested in the former M&GNJR.
• Illustrations
• Select Bibliography