Victorian ledger found at March railway station

The ledger dropped out of the unused loft when contractors were removing rotten woodwork

A Victorian ledger has been discovered at a railway station by contractors after it fell through a ceiling they were repairing.

The luggage ledger dated back to April 1885, when March Railway Station in Cambridgeshire first opened.

Other Victorian items found in the unused loft included a Great Eastern Railway sack and three small log books.

Greater Anglia customer service manager Anita Stuart said it was "lovely to have uncovered this link to the past".

The ledger will go on display at March railway station

The contractors were removing rotten woodwork when the hand-written ledger, detailing entries of all the passenger luggage and parcels sent from the station, dropped out of the loft.

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Other finds included another ledger, a series of British Rail Red Star consignment notes and documents more than 100 years old detailing all the goods trains which passed through the station.

It highlighted the "pivotal nature of March station to the area", according to Mike Lamport, historian and board member of the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board.

The Great Eastern Railway company's system extended from London Liverpool Station out to East Anglia

He said the station had "senior staff based there, along with a loco shed and sidings, from which managers could draw locomotives and rolling stock from to run special services as demand arose".

March station is being remodelled as part of a regeneration of railway stations between Ely and Peterborough, supported by a £9.5m package of funding from the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority.

The ledger - known in the 1800s as a day book - will be put on display in the new station.