NHER 24222 (Monument record) - Route of North Wootton Mineral Railway

According to [1], the embankment marked on the Ordnance Survey map as running eastwards from TF 6400 2415 is the line of a mineral railway starting at Church Farm, North Wootton, marked on the 1880 first edition 25 inch Ordance Survey map and running 'all the way to Leziate sandpits'. The latter point seems very doubtful, there are no traces on the Ordnance Survey map to the east of the short stretch which in fact on the new 1:25,000 map seems to be marked as a depression rather than an embankment: it is shown as a belt of trees on 1906 25 inch map. However, directly to the west 6 inch Ordance Survey marks a curving embankment crossing the Hunstanton railway at right angles and curving north to Estuary Cottages. This looks very like a railway.
E. Rose, 11 December 1987.

[1] corrects this to say it ran to a sand pit at Castle Rising about one mile east of the farm, but copies of the first edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey (in file) seem to indicate line as a ditch rather than a railway or tramway. Unfortunately no copy of map of North Wootton end. Farmer states it was working within his memory and he has sleepers etc. Information [1].
E. Rose (NAU), 6 January 1988.

October 2002. Norfolk NMP.
This railway was constructed to transport sand from extraction pits on Ling Common to a landing stage on the saltmarsh, where the sand was transferred into barges (S2). The railway was probably constructed at the beginning of the nineteenth century (S2), and appears to be cut through by the King’s Lynn railway (NHER 13591) of 1862, so a period of use within the first half of the nineteenth century is likely.
The course of the railway can probably be discerned as a straight, partially ditched feature from TF 6534 2383 to TF 6475 2399, although this stretch is under woodland cover. The railway then runs from east to west in a straight line from TF 6471 2400 to TF 6377 2420 to the south of North Wootton. This stretch appears to have been constructed on a low bank, with an intermittent ditch on either side. The line is visible as a raised embankment running westwards from TF 6421 2410. The line of the railway crosses saltern mound NHER 27093, where it turns towards the north-west and crosses the former saltmarsh. The line appears to terminate on top of a large medieval saltern mound (NHER 27102) at TF 6322 2468. To the immediate north-west is an elongated, sub rectangular parchmark with the possible remains of a structure within it. This may represent the site of the brick built landing stage or quay for the transferring of the sand into barges, although there is a break of 30m between the terminus of the track and the possible quayside.
The complete length of the line is probably 2.5 km, although the exact location of the eastern end is unknown, and indeed, may have moved location depending on extraction location. To the east the line is represented by a low embankment or just parallel ditches and only appears to be constructed on a raised embankment where it runs below the 5m contour, and presumably there was a risk of subsidence and flooding.
M. Brennand (NMP), 18 October 2002.