Snape Maltings, located on the banks of the River Alde in Suffolk, are famed as the venue for the internationally acclaimed Aldeburgh Festival of Music and Arts, held annually each June in the famous concert hall and surrounding galleries. In addition thousands of people visit the complex all year round for river trips, painting and craft courses, and exhibitions as well as browsing in the quality retail outlets and enjoying a drink in the local Plough and Sail public house. With such a success story it is easy for the visitor to overlook that the Festival would never have been held at Snape had not a certain entrepreneur, Newson Garrett, taken over an area of huts at the navigable head of the River Alde in 1840 and developed the site into a vast maltings, which ultimately continued as an active industry for almost 120 years. Although Garrett initially relied on water and primitive road transport, much of the imports and exports were conveyed by rail along a short branch line opened in 1859.To ensure his commodities reached as wide a market as possible Garrett had, with great foresight, negotiated with the East Suffolk Railway for the building of the branch, and for just over a century the Eastern Counties Railway, which worked the ESR, and later the Great Eastern Railway, London and North Eastern Railway and British Railways (Eastern Region) operated a weekdays - only goods train to serve the maltings and surrounding area.
The railway thus had a great part to play in the development of Snape and its maltings, ensuring the complex can be enjoyed by present and future generations. This book tells the fascinating story of this relatively unknown Suffolk goods line from inception to closure, with details of the route, civil engineering, staff, timetables, traffic, and locomotives and rolling stock used on the branch. The 120 pages of text include 115 photographs, line drawings and plans.