The Engine Shed is a Grade II listed former railway building which was restored for the building of the new Univesrity of Northampton campus at Waterside, Northampton.
The Victorian Engine Shed was built in the early 1870s for the Midland Railway to service trains on the Bedford to Northampton line. The shed is of historic and aesthetic significance and is a rare and unusual example of Victorian railway architecture due to its small scale and polychrome brickwork.
The wider significance is that during the Second World War the railways help keep the country moving, sending equipment, food and soldiers around the country.
The Engine Shed was converted into a Civil Engineers Welding School by British Rail Engineering Ltd until its closure in 1998.
The University of Northampton agreed to restore the Engine Shed to use as the Students' Union and a £1.3 million Enterprise Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was given to help complete the work and transform it into the inviting student space you see today. The Engine Shed was chosen to be part of the Beyond 100 exhibition as it won the National Railway Heritage Awards in 2020. The project meant that a building which was on the verge of collapse was given a new lease of life as an important part of the fabric of the university and its life on a daily basis.
The Engine Shed is located on the Waterside Campus site. If you come to the site via the Beckett’s Bridge, walk in between the Learning Hub and Creative Hub, the Engine Shed will appear in front of you at the back of the campus.
The railway came to Northamptonshire in the mid-1800s with the Broad Gauge track of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway and a station at Aynho.
This tin can, 10.8cm tall, diameter 4.9cm, was discovered in the 1960s during the demolition of a row of houses in Burton Latimer called Wallis’s or Maycock’s Yard.
© Univesrity of Northampton
© University of Northampton
© University of Northampton
© University of Northampton
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NMAG
©
NMAG
©
NMAG