We were all saddened to hear that Julia Prigg, station adopter at Wrabness, sadly passed away earlier this month.

The Community Rail Network team and board pass on their love and condolences to Julia’s colleagues, friends and family.

Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s stakeholder, community and customer engagement manager, has kindly provided the following short piece for all those across Julia’s wider community rail family to read and share in her memory.

“Julia was an incredible lady, 89 years old and still adopting! Small in height, but not in stature, she was someone who touched the lives of everyone who met her and interacted with her. She possessed the most incredible resourcefulness, resoluteness, and knowledge – and her commitment to station adoption in general, and more specifically to her dear Wrabness station garden, was simply awe inspiring. The world is a poorer place for her passing.

In 2022 she became our first, and to date, only station adopter ever to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List when she was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to community rail, and her care of the station’s garden and wildlife area, which was transformed from a neglected village eyesore to a haven for wildlife and the community. How she loved that garden, the formal area above it, and indeed the whole station.

Julia loved the social aspect of the garden area, and not only did she tend it, but she also encouraged local schoolchildren to take an interest and care for it, and wrote about it regularly in the local magazine. For her, it was a very special part of the Wrabness community, and the community loved her for it.

Julia won numerous accolades at Greater Anglia awards ceremonies over the years for the garden, her work and achievements, as well as being crowned one of the ‘Outstanding Volunteer Contribution’ winners at the 2022 Community Rail Awards. Her involvement in station adoption, village life, and her community, was quite simply inspirational, and will never be forgotten.

In short, she was a very special, dear lady who emanated happiness. Her smile, her love of life, her care for nature and order, and her love of volunteering will never be forgotten. We will miss her so much.”