"John Betjeman Goes By Train" is a short documentary film made by British Transport Films and BBC East Anglia and describes a journey made by Betjeman from King's Lynn to Hunstanton. In 1962 it was still possible to make this journey by train, but no longer, as the branch-line between the two towns was closed in 1969. Although the distance between the towns is only about 13 miles, Betjeman does not cover it in a single trip, but stops off twice, to introduce us to the architecture of the stations at Wolferton and Snettisham.
Wolferton station takes its name from a small nearby village, but it is unusually elaborate for a rural station as it is the nearest station to the royal residence at Sandringham. (The original stationmaster was a member of my family; his daughter, my great-great-aunt, lived to be over 100, and I remember from my childhood her telling me and my sisters her own childhood memories of meeting the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra all those many years ago). Snettisham station, lacking the same Royal connections, is a more typical village station. (Strangely, although Betjeman was a noted ecclesiologist, he does not point out that the village has one of the finest churches in West Norfolk).
Betjeman used a similar idea in his 1973 documentary "Metro-land" about the railways of North London, although that was much longer, nearly an hour in length, and allowed him to go into the history, architecture and peculiarities of the area in much greater detail. At only 10 minutes long this film is not really a documentary of that sort, but it has a lot of charm and today conjures up a nostalgic picture of rural Norfolk in the early sixties.