File:Dismantled railway bridge over the River Nar - geograph.org.uk - 1638940.jpg

English: Dismantled railway bridge over the River Nar What at first sight appears to be short sections of a hedge are the remaining overgrown brick piers of a dismantled railway bridge which carried the former King's Lynn to Dereham line - part of the Great Eastern Railway - over the River Nar. The Lynn & Dereham Railway, which weaved a 42 kilometre route to East Dereham via Narborough and Swaffham, was opened in stages between 1846 and 1848. The line to Dereham closed in 1968. Part of it is now a Norfolk Wildlife Trust Railway Line Nature Reserve, with the car park being situated about one kilometre south of Narborough village. The unique strip of chalk grassland here was created when engineers who built the railway line exposed the underlying chalk as they dug a borrow pit to build up the embankment. The River Nar is a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises near Litcham > https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/504461 and flows 15 miles west through the villages of Castle Acre > https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/686490 and Narborough > https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1637659. When in the mid 18th century the Industrial Revolution gathered pace the River Nar was already a major navigation. At that time it was owned by the Marriott family, Lords of the Manor from 1857 - 1875, and used to bring in timber, coal, grain, malt and bones from Kings Lynn by horse drawn lighters or barges, carrying up to 10 tons. Return cargoes included sand and gravel from Pentney pits and bonemeal fertilizer from Narborough Bone Mill > https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/630814. The river was canalised to connect the village of Narborough to King's Lynn and beyond: the Nar system included one pound-lock, and ten staunches were built in the five miles below the village. Navigation to Narborough ended in 1884, although steam tugs and barges still used the lowest reaches of the river until well into the 20th century, notably those of the West Norfolk Farmers Manure Company which brought ammonia-rich gas water to their factory from Cambridge gasworks until 1932.