the Boston, Sleaford & Midland Counties Railway was incorporated on 20th august 1853 to construct a line from the junction with the Great Northern Railway at Barkstone to another junction with the Great Northern at Boston.  The first part of the line - from Barkstone to Sleaford - was opened on Tuesday 16th June 1857.  There were stations at Honington and Ancaster.  The line was built by Smith, Knight & Co and was 11 miles long.              The final section of the line from Sleaford to Boston was opened on Tuesday 12th April 1859 and was just under 17 miles long, with stations at Heckington and Swineshead.  In May 1860 an additional station was opened at Hubbert's Bridge, and an exchange station at Barkstone on 1st July 1867.            The Railway was taken over by the Great Northern Railway by an Act of 25th July 1864.          The line was at first only single, but was doubled between 1873 and 1880

The stations were..... Barkstone, Honington, Ancaster, Sleaford, Heckington, Swineshead, Hubberts Bridge. Thence to Boston.

In later years the line was used a lot for excursion traffic from the Midlands,  Nottingham and so on, to Skegness and Mablethorpe.

The nearby line from Sleaford to Spalding was part of a new route from Doncaster and Lincoln to March (in Cambridgeshire) and London which was promoted jointly by the Great Northern Railway and the Great Eastern railway to provide an alternative route for coal from Yorkshire and Derbyshire to London,

The first part of the line was from Spalding to Ruskington (just over 21 miles) and was double track.  This opened on the 6th March 1882 and the stations were Pinchbeck, Gosberton, Donington Road, Helpringham and Ruskington. The rest of the section from Ruskington to Lincoln was opened on the 1st July 1882.

Heckington Station