The Railways Act in 1921 set the way for a grouping system which the GER was to become part of a new company, called London and North Eastern Railway. GER became a part of this on 1st January 1923 with the CV&HR following on 1st July of the same year. Haverhill CV&HR Station was closed in 1924 to passengers and renamed to Haverhill South in 1925, with the GER station becoming Haverhill North.

It was becoming clear during this period that road competition was beginning to effect the Stour Valley Lines and between 1925 and 1937 many changes were made to make savings.
In 1925 Pampisford ceased to become a crossing place, Marks Tey Junction and East signal boxes were closed. 1926 saw Bartlow Station and Welnetham signal boxes closed.
1931 saw the closure of Stoke and Sturmer boxes, and in 1933 the Haverhill North Station box was closed and the work transferred to the Haverhill Junction box.
On 9th April 1934 Sudbury Station Box was closed and transferred to Sudbury Goods, Long Melford Yard Box also closed on this day with the work being taken over by Long Melford Junction.

At the same time however, the passenger working were largely unaffected, with a similar number of trains operating on the lines as previous years with trains beginning back at either Clacton, Harwich or Colchester, the through services from London to Sudbury no longer ran - most of these were withdrawn during the first war.
There was a slip coach working to and from London, this ended on the 1st July 1939.

During the 2nd War the passenger service on the line was cut as there was an increased need for freight trains to run to move fuel and troops. The passenger trains which did run at this time were strengthened to deal with the additional passengers and once again the Colne Valley Line Trains ran separately to the Stour Valley Trains between Chappel and Marks Tey. There was however a service each day from October 1943 onwards between London and Sudbury in both directions.

The line was intensively used during the war for the delivery of rubble for an aerodrome at Wormingford and a Petrol for aircraft to the new depot at Chappel and Wakes Colne.
The line also played its part in the evacuation of children London in 1939 and the movement of troops.

By the end of the war, the railways in Britain were not in a good state, engines had been worked into the ground and tracks were in a poor way.

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