Steyning Line
Encyclopedia
The Steyning Line was a railway
line
that connected the West Sussex
market town
of Horsham
with the once bustling south-coast port of Shoreham-by-Sea
, with the possibility of an onward connection to Brighton
. Covering a distance of 20 miles (32.19 km), the line closed on 7 March 1966, a casualty of the Beeching Axe
.
just to the north, the Steyning Line was a consequence of the fierce competition between two railway companies, the London and Brighton Railway
(LBR) and the London and South Western Railway
(LSWR), for the lucrative South Coast traffic. In 1844 the LSWR's engineer, Robert Stephenson
, drew up plans to construct a line through the Mole Gap, the point at which the River Mole
cuts through the North Downs
, to Chichester
via Horsham
and Dorking
. At Horsham, a branch was to head south to the then important port of Shoreham-by-Sea
. Hearing of this proposed encroachment into its territory, the LBR acted quickly in promoting its own scheme for a line to Horsham and Shoreham. The London and Brighton (Steyning Branch) Railway Act received royal assent
on 18 June 1846 and the company's engineer, R. Jacomb-Hood, was instructed to survey the line. Later that year the LBR was to merge with the London and Croydon Railway
, creating the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
(LBSCR).
In late 1847, however, the LBSCR's incentive to proceed rapidly with the line was removed when, amidst growing financial difficulties and the economic recession of the 1840s, the LSWR ordered a halt to its plans for the line. This, and the LBSCR's own financial problems, led to Jacomb-Hood being instructed to down tools by the LBR, an order which prompted his resignation in January 1848. As the LBR's chairman, Samuel Laing
, explained to a Parliamentary Inquiry in 1858, new lines "were abandoned during the crisis of 1847 and 1848 when Railway property was almost irretrievably ruined and it was absolutely impossible to raise money."
Although the LBSCR did proceed to connect Horsham with its main line between London and Brighton
in 1848, it was to be a further eight years before it revisited the idea of a line to Shoreham.
. A meeting was held at The White Horse Hotel in Steyning on 23 June in that year, at which it was agreed that representatives of the company would approach the LBSCR with an offer to construct the line and thereafter to lease it to the LBSCR. Terms were agreed with the railway company which would pay an annual rent equivalent to 4% of the Steyning Company's construction costs. Jacomb-Hood, who had since been re-engaged by the LBSCR, was once again dispatched to survey the route. His report was delivered on 21 August and contained an estimate of the likely costs of construction as well as the goods and cattle traffic that the line could usefully hope to carry. Jacomb-Hood projected costs of £39,000 based on a route which would be constructed on the west bank of the River Adur
with a station at Applesham Farm near the recently-opened Lancing College
.
Before the Steyning Company could begin construction works, it had first to raise at least 75% of the total expenditure. By 4 December it was still £7,890 short and approached the LBSCR to see whether it would contribute the outstanding balance. In order to determine whether such expenditure was justified, the LBSCR's chairman, Leo Schuster, and another director, Admiral Laws, personally examined the route on 12 December. Their report concluded against helping the Steyning Railway Company, stating "that the project was not of sufficient importance as should induce [the LBSCR] to deviate from the terms which they have already undertaken to enter into." This refusal led to the Steyning Company abandoning their project, although without ruling out re-examining it again in the future.
of the Steyning Company, a new enterprise called the "Shoreham Horsham and Dorking Railway Company" would promote an independent scheme for the line which was supported by local landowners and residents. The new company engaged the services of Joseph Locke
as chief engineer and Thomas Brassey
as principal building contractor, both giants in their respective fields.
Hearing of the new proposals, the LBSCR reacted by applying for Parliamentary authorisation for a new line from Shoreham-by-Sea to Steyning and Henfield
with an option of a further extension to join the LBSCR's Mid-Sussex Line
at Billingshurst
. At the same time, the Shoreham Horsham and Dorking Railway Company applied to Parliament for authorisation of its route.
In order to determine which line should proceed, a Parliamentary Inquiry was held to determine their respective merits. Amongst the witnesses called to give evidence was Walter Barsteller, a magistrate and director of the Mid-Sussex Railway, who explained that the reason why the LBSCR was putting forward its own route was "the probability of the extension of the proposed line towards Guildford
". This was confirmed by another magistrate, William Cory, who said that from Billingshurst the preferred route to Guildford was via Loxwood
. The outcome of the Inquiry was that the LBSCR's line would be approved and that proposed by the landowners was rejected.
, were now likely to be realised. Therefore, instead of going towards Billingshurst, a route was chosen which deviated just north of Partridge Green
to join the Mid-Sussex line near the southern end of the Horsham to Guildford line in the parish of Itchingfield. Jacomb-Hood was yet again dispatched to survey this new route, a task which he had completed by summer 1859 when construction works were initiated by the contractor, Mr Firbank. The first section between Shoreham and Partridge Green was opened to traffic on 1 July 1861.
A few days prior to the railway's opening, the Government Inspector of Railways
, Colonel Tyler, carried out an inspection of the line, testing in particular the strength of several bridges across the River Adur. In order to test the bridge at Beeding near the cement works four engines with their tenders were placed on it. Following the successful inspection, the Colonel and his party adjourned to celebrate at The White Horse in Steyning.
In order to connect the Steyning Line with the Mid-Sussex and Cranleigh Lines two spurs were planned by Jacomb-Hood. From the triangular junction at Itchingfield, one spur would lead south to join the Mid-Sussex Line, while another 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) long spur would be constructed near Christ's Hospital at Stammerham Junction (also known as Itchingfield South Fork) which would allow through-running to Guildford and Shoreham or Portsmouth without the need to reverse through the junction.
After the opening of the second phase of the line on 16 October 1861, the daily service between Brighton and Horsham consisted of four stopping trains and one express. Early days saw regular traffic on the line, so much so that the frequency of services was increased leading to the doubling of the track between Itchingfield Junction and Horsham during 1878-1879. Fortunately Jacomb-Hood had foreseen this eventuality when planning the line and had ensured that all bridges were capable of carrying two tracks. This frequency of services was to the detriment of engine drivers and firemen who went on strike in 1867 to call for a maximum 10 hour working day or a run of 150 miles (241.4 km). Engine drivers earned at most seven shillings per day whilst firemen were on four shillings and sixpence. Itchingfield Junction was the location of the line's first accident on 11 August 1866 when two passenger trained collided resulting in one fatality.
Traffic on the line during this period consisted mainly of agricultural produce, with goods being sent to the Brighton and Steyning markets and for auction. Indeed, after the line opened Steyning's weekly market relocated from the High Street to a field adjacent to the railway station where cattle, sheep, poultry and other produce were transported to and from it for more than a century. Examples of what was being delivered can be drawn from the records of inward freight at Steyning station during 1874 and 1875; from Littlehampton
10 sacks of maize, from Brighton 10 sacks of wheat, from Horsham 14 bundles of timber, from Lancing
2500 bricks and 5 tons of beach pebbles and from Arundel
one consignment of cement.
In addition to normal daily passenger workings, excursions began operating soon after the line up to Partridge Green had been opened. One of the first was in July 1861 to Portsmouth
; the fare charged was two shillings and there were 185 passengers on the service. Another excursion followed in August, this time to Crystal Palace
via Hove
.
From 1923 the Steyning Line became part of the Southern Railway following the grouping ordered by the Railways Act. The line continued to be alive during summer weekends with a variety of excursions to Brighton and Hove from places as far afield as Wolverhampton
, Banbury
, Oxford
and Reading
, travelling via Guildford and Horsham. In addition, during the football season specials would be laid on to ferry supporters to see Brighton and Hove Albion when they were playing at home. The Southern Railway also promoted use of the line by ramblers and nature-lovers, such as scheduling late-night and early-morning services to observe the sun rising.
On 31 October 1946 the Southern Railway announced a scheme to electrify the Steyning Line, but this was abandoned following nationalisation in January 1948. The line now fell under the aegis of the Southern Region of British Railways
. One of the first changes made was the end of the old method of counting passenger numbers on the railway network. Whereas previously a system of "clearing" was employed whereby the revenue from a passenger's ticket was redistributed to the railway companies in proportion to the distance travelled by the passenger on their line, this now changed to a system of "global accounts" whereby each station in a British Rail
(BR) region submitted to their line manager monthly returns of all business conducted.
Nevertheless, the statistics of passenger tickets issued and collected at Steyning Line stations show a steady rise in passenger traffic from 1948 to 1965, the year prior to closure. In 1948, 58,086 tickets were sold and 90,076 collected, ten years later these figures had respectively risen to 106,110 and 126,272 and by 1965, they were 120,016 and 140,129 respectively. Although there was a slight decline in traffic in the early 1960s, this reflected a similar dip which had occurred twelve years previously and was modest when compared with the subsequent increase in numbers.
On Saturday 7 October 1961 a group of senior boys attending Steyning Grammar School
organised an exhibition in the waiting room at Steyning station which celebrated the line's 100th anniversary. Both the station and signalbox were decorated in bunting to mark the occasion and trains carried special headboards.
of that year. Farmers realised how much more convenient it was to use road transport which collected the churns directly from their farm and took them directly to their destination. Once the Strike ended the milk traffic remained transported by road thereby depriving the railway of a major source of freight. This pattern was to be repeated during the strike of 1955 when more freight traffic, particularly coal, was diverted to road, much of it never to return. The freight losses contributed to British Rail
's decision to close goods yards on the Steyning Line as elsewhere on the rail network.
Nevertheless, the line continued to serve two important industrial enterprises - the cement factory at Beeding and the brickworks
at Southwater
. The cement works in particular received gypsum
from Robertsbridge
and coal
from Dover, whilst once a week cement was transported from the works to the British Portland Cement depot at Southampton
via Shoreham and the South Coast main line
. During the course of 1960, for example, the cement works received 7000 coal wagons, 2300 gypsum wagons and 100 wagons of general stores; it sent out 7670 cement wagons and 240 flints wagons. Traffic continued beyond the Steyning Line's closure until 1981 via a single line linking the works with the South Coast main line. The cement works finally closed in 1991 after more than 100 years of operations at Beeding.
Unfortunately, Itchingfield Junction was the site of the last accident on the line, as well as the first. Early in the morning of 5 March 1964, a goods train from Brighton to Three Bridges which had been diverted to the Steyning line, overran the signal before the junction and collided with a down goods from Three Bridges to Chichester
which was at that moment traversing the junction. The two members of the up goods, apparently asleep possibly due to diesel fumes, were both killed.
. During the Second World War it was particularly convenient for access to Wiston House, Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarters near Steyning which Winston Churchill
visited towards the end of June 1940. It also provided access to Martin Lodge on Station Road at Henfield which was used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
; the 1st Canadian Infantry Division
also had a large encampment close to the airfield at Shoreham and on the playing fields of Lancing College.
Chairman, Richard Beeching
, which put forward a vision of a smaller and more efficient rail network. Entitled "The Reshaping of British Railways
", the report advocated the closure of numerous lines and railway stations, amongst which figured the Steyning and Cranleigh Lines which, it was claimed, "carried in 1962-3 fewer than 5,000 passengers weekly."
BR officials also examined season ticket sales on the line - in 1948, 993 quarterly and long-term season tickets were sold, this had increased to 1,628 by 1959, but declined to 1,215 in 1965. One author has explained this decline by, firstly, the dissuasive effect that the 1963 closure proposal would have had on passengers and, secondly, the fact that cheap-day returns from Monday-Friday would have been more cost-effective alternative for those working a five day week.
, the Conservative
Minister of Transport
, a proposal to close the Steyning Line. As goods traffic was virtually nil on the line (with the exception of the Beeding Cement Works), the Minister gave his consent, leaving BR the choice of closing the line immediately or keeping it in service. Choosing to defer their decision, the next two years saw a public enquiry take place into the proposed closure and the obligatory Transport Users' Consultative Committee Report to the Minister.
, an address to which objections could be sent. 289 such objections were received and a public enquiry was called for Wednesday 26 February 1964 in Steyning and was chaired by Captain E.H. Longsdon R.N.
(Ret'd). Objectors argued that the replacement of trains with buses would lead to increased travel times, for example, the additional time spent travelling to and from Bramber and Brighton during the 40-week school year would amount to the equivalent of 34 eight-hour working days. The recommendation of the Transport Users' Consultative Committee for the South East Region (TUCC) was that replacement buses would not alleviate the hardship caused by the line's closure. The line therefore remained open while the Minister undertook further enquiries.
The Ministry of Transport therefore contacted BR to see if the line's losses which had already been reduced by the introduction of diesel units, could be reduced still further by increasing rail fares and by closing Bramber station. BR rejected any suggestion that economies could be made, stating that fares would have to be increased to 6d per mile (i.e. doubled) and all cheap day fares withdrawn.
victory in the 1964 General Election
saw a new Minister of Transport. In September 1965 he gave fresh authorisation for the closure of the Steyning Line. He made this decision on the basis of a cost/revenue analysis (excluding freight revenue) which showed that the financial saving which would be made by closure was £173,200 for steam operation of the line, reduced to £43,200 if diesel units were introduced. One author estimates that the real saving made was actually a mere £14,000 since the track and signalling costs had been over-estimated and took into account the main line between Itchingfield Junction and Horsham. He goes on to suggest that the line might in fact been in profit due to over-estimation of the costs of the permanent way
and failure to consider converting the line to single-track
working.
, Henry Kerby
, who contacted Barbara Castle
, Fraser's replacement as Minister of Transport. She replied on 16 March 1966 stating that she had considered the evidence and thought it was necessary to lay on extra services for passengers travelling at peak-times. This would be done by varying the closure decision to include a condition that replacement bus services should be provided. Provided by Southdown Motor Services
, the buses were hardly patronised and eventually withdrawn. They had been introduced on the mistaken assumption that rail commuters would automatically switch to bus transport to travel long distances, whereas in the event only those travelling to Shoreham or Brighton patronised the services. What actually transpired was revealed in a survey conducted in 1968 which showed that former rail users had arranged to share cars with friends or colleagues in the short-term, before eventually acquiring their own cars, taking early retirement or moving closer to their workplaces.
After eighteen months of diesel working on the line, passenger services were withdrawn with effect from Monday 7 March 1966. The last train to use the line on the Sunday evening was the 21.28 from Brighton to Horsham. The track was lifted soon afterwards and the signalboxes demolished, with the stations going the same way in 1969. Partridge Green station and goods yard were let to industrial concerns and was eventually sold.
, notably heavy freight traffic from the Port of Shoreham. This led to calls for the construction of a bypass
. The idea of a bypass linking the A2037 with the A283 to the north-west of Steyning had already been floated in 1962 and had been included in the West Sussex Village plan for the three communities involved. The route of the bypass would have avoided the railway line altogether, requiring merely a bridge over King's Barn Lane in Steyning. However, with the closure of the line, the County Council proposed re-using the trackbed of the Steyning Line between the two stations at Bramber and Steyning (a distance of about 1 miles (1.61 km)), a cheaper alternative that would cost £3 million. This was accepted by the Ministry of Transport and funding was granted.
, a 30 mile long footpath and bridleway connecting the North
and South Downs
National Trails. The Link was opened on 9 July 1984 by the Mayor of Waverley, Anne Hoath, at Baynards station
; it subsequently received a commendation in the National Conservation Award Scheme jointly organised by The Times
newspaper and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
.
The second factor was the limited service which could be operated on the Cranleigh Line which was single-tracked throughout the greater part of its length and resulted in inevitable timetabling constraints. Clearly, the doubling of the track and the reinstatement of the track on the south spur would have gone some way to alleviating this problem and allow fast or semi-fast services. However, given the state of the economy after the Second World War, such investment was never a realistic possibility for perceived railway backwaters such as the Cranleigh and Steyning Lines. This links to the third factor which was the perception by British Rail managers of the two lines; managers failed to appreciate the potential usefulness of the lines if co-ordinated effectively. Once Beeching had announced his programme of closures, it was taken as a given that the lines would close and services were gradually run down.
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
line
Branch
A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...
that connected the West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
with the once bustling south-coast port of Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
, with the possibility of an onward connection to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
. Covering a distance of 20 miles (32.19 km), the line closed on 7 March 1966, a casualty of the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
.
Historical context
As was the case with the Cranleigh LineCranleigh Line
The Cranleigh Line was a short railway line that connected Guildford, the county town of Surrey, with the West Sussex market town of Horsham, via Cranleigh, a distance of 19¼ miles...
just to the north, the Steyning Line was a consequence of the fierce competition between two railway companies, the London and Brighton Railway
London and Brighton Railway
The London and Brighton Railway was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway runs from a junction with the London & Croydon Railway at Norwood - which gives it access from London Bridge, just south of the River Thames in central London...
(LBR) and the London and South Western Railway
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...
(LSWR), for the lucrative South Coast traffic. In 1844 the LSWR's engineer, Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of...
, drew up plans to construct a line through the Mole Gap, the point at which the River Mole
River Mole, Surrey
The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows north west through Surrey for to the Thames near Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey district of Mole Valley...
cuts through the North Downs
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...
, to Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
via Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
and Dorking
Dorking
Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...
. At Horsham, a branch was to head south to the then important port of Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
. Hearing of this proposed encroachment into its territory, the LBR acted quickly in promoting its own scheme for a line to Horsham and Shoreham. The London and Brighton (Steyning Branch) Railway Act received royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
on 18 June 1846 and the company's engineer, R. Jacomb-Hood, was instructed to survey the line. Later that year the LBR was to merge with the London and Croydon Railway
London and Croydon Railway
The London and Croydon Railway was an early railway which operated between London and Croydon in England. It was opened in 1839 and in July 1846 it merged with other railways to form a part of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway ....
, creating the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
(LBSCR).
In late 1847, however, the LBSCR's incentive to proceed rapidly with the line was removed when, amidst growing financial difficulties and the economic recession of the 1840s, the LSWR ordered a halt to its plans for the line. This, and the LBSCR's own financial problems, led to Jacomb-Hood being instructed to down tools by the LBR, an order which prompted his resignation in January 1848. As the LBR's chairman, Samuel Laing
Samuel Laing (science writer)
Samuel Laing, , was a British railway administrator, politician, and influential writer on science and religion during the Victorian era.He was born at Edinburgh on the 12th of December 1810...
, explained to a Parliamentary Inquiry in 1858, new lines "were abandoned during the crisis of 1847 and 1848 when Railway property was almost irretrievably ruined and it was absolutely impossible to raise money."
Although the LBSCR did proceed to connect Horsham with its main line between London and Brighton
Brighton Main Line
The Brighton Main Line is a British railway line from London Victoria and London Bridge to Brighton. It is about 50 miles long, and is electrified throughout. Trains are operated by Southern, First Capital Connect, and Gatwick Express, now part of Southern.-Original proposals:There were no fewer...
in 1848, it was to be a further eight years before it revisited the idea of a line to Shoreham.
Steyning Railway Company
In 1856 a group of local residents clubbed together to form the "Steyning Railway Company" with the intention of bringing to fruition the LBSCR's plans for a line through SteyningSteyning
Steyning is a small town and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, four miles north of Shoreham-by-Sea...
. A meeting was held at The White Horse Hotel in Steyning on 23 June in that year, at which it was agreed that representatives of the company would approach the LBSCR with an offer to construct the line and thereafter to lease it to the LBSCR. Terms were agreed with the railway company which would pay an annual rent equivalent to 4% of the Steyning Company's construction costs. Jacomb-Hood, who had since been re-engaged by the LBSCR, was once again dispatched to survey the route. His report was delivered on 21 August and contained an estimate of the likely costs of construction as well as the goods and cattle traffic that the line could usefully hope to carry. Jacomb-Hood projected costs of £39,000 based on a route which would be constructed on the west bank of the River Adur
River Adur
The Adur is a river in Sussex, England; it gives its name to the Adur district of West Sussex. The river was formerly navigable for large vessels up as far as Steyning, where there was a large port, but over time the river valley became silted up and the port moved down to the deeper waters nearer...
with a station at Applesham Farm near the recently-opened Lancing College
Lancing College
Lancing College is a co-educational English independent school in the British public school tradition, founded in 1848 by Nathaniel Woodard. Woodard's aim was to provide education "based on sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly grounded in the Christian faith." Lancing was the first of a...
.
Before the Steyning Company could begin construction works, it had first to raise at least 75% of the total expenditure. By 4 December it was still £7,890 short and approached the LBSCR to see whether it would contribute the outstanding balance. In order to determine whether such expenditure was justified, the LBSCR's chairman, Leo Schuster, and another director, Admiral Laws, personally examined the route on 12 December. Their report concluded against helping the Steyning Railway Company, stating "that the project was not of sufficient importance as should induce [the LBSCR] to deviate from the terms which they have already undertaken to enter into." This refusal led to the Steyning Company abandoning their project, although without ruling out re-examining it again in the future.
Two rival schemes
One year later, new proposals were published for a line through Steyning. This time the route to be followed by the line was that put forward by Stephenson in 1844 for the LSWR. According to a memorandum published in Steyning on 5 September 1857 by John Ingram, the company secretaryCompany secretary
A company secretary is a senior position in a private company or public organisation, normally in the form of a managerial position or above. In the United States it is known as a corporate secretary....
of the Steyning Company, a new enterprise called the "Shoreham Horsham and Dorking Railway Company" would promote an independent scheme for the line which was supported by local landowners and residents. The new company engaged the services of Joseph Locke
Joseph Locke
Joseph Locke was a notable English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with railway projects...
as chief engineer and Thomas Brassey
Thomas Brassey
Thomas Brassey was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built one...
as principal building contractor, both giants in their respective fields.
Hearing of the new proposals, the LBSCR reacted by applying for Parliamentary authorisation for a new line from Shoreham-by-Sea to Steyning and Henfield
Henfield
Henfield is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, northwest of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester at the road junction of the A281 and A2037. The parish has a land area of . In the 2001 census 5,012...
with an option of a further extension to join the LBSCR's Mid-Sussex Line
Arun Valley Line
The Arun Valley Line, also known as the Mid Sussex Line, is part of the Southern-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards...
at Billingshurst
Billingshurst
Billingshurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies thirteen kilometres south-west of Horsham, and nine kilometres north-east of Pulborough....
. At the same time, the Shoreham Horsham and Dorking Railway Company applied to Parliament for authorisation of its route.
In order to determine which line should proceed, a Parliamentary Inquiry was held to determine their respective merits. Amongst the witnesses called to give evidence was Walter Barsteller, a magistrate and director of the Mid-Sussex Railway, who explained that the reason why the LBSCR was putting forward its own route was "the probability of the extension of the proposed line towards Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
". This was confirmed by another magistrate, William Cory, who said that from Billingshurst the preferred route to Guildford was via Loxwood
Loxwood
Loxwood is a small village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village....
. The outcome of the Inquiry was that the LBSCR's line would be approved and that proposed by the landowners was rejected.
Construction
Following the authorisation, the LBSCR decided to change the route of the line in view of the fact that just to the north their plans for a connection from Horsham to Guildford, the Cranleigh LineCranleigh Line
The Cranleigh Line was a short railway line that connected Guildford, the county town of Surrey, with the West Sussex market town of Horsham, via Cranleigh, a distance of 19¼ miles...
, were now likely to be realised. Therefore, instead of going towards Billingshurst, a route was chosen which deviated just north of Partridge Green
Partridge Green
Partridge Green is a village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2135 road 2.4 miles northwest of Henfield....
to join the Mid-Sussex line near the southern end of the Horsham to Guildford line in the parish of Itchingfield. Jacomb-Hood was yet again dispatched to survey this new route, a task which he had completed by summer 1859 when construction works were initiated by the contractor, Mr Firbank. The first section between Shoreham and Partridge Green was opened to traffic on 1 July 1861.
A few days prior to the railway's opening, the Government Inspector of Railways
HM Railway Inspectorate
Established in 1840, HM Railway Inspectorate was the British organisation responsible for overseeing safety on Britain's railways and tramways...
, Colonel Tyler, carried out an inspection of the line, testing in particular the strength of several bridges across the River Adur. In order to test the bridge at Beeding near the cement works four engines with their tenders were placed on it. Following the successful inspection, the Colonel and his party adjourned to celebrate at The White Horse in Steyning.
In order to connect the Steyning Line with the Mid-Sussex and Cranleigh Lines two spurs were planned by Jacomb-Hood. From the triangular junction at Itchingfield, one spur would lead south to join the Mid-Sussex Line, while another 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) long spur would be constructed near Christ's Hospital at Stammerham Junction (also known as Itchingfield South Fork) which would allow through-running to Guildford and Shoreham or Portsmouth without the need to reverse through the junction.
1861 - 1899
The LSWR's control of the railway network around Guildford ensured that the 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) long spur remained little used with few scheduled services. The LBSCR therefore decided to close the section from 1 August 1867 amid concerns that the LSWR might take advantage of the spur to seek greater access to the south coast. No sign of the south-facing branch remains today as the area has been ploughed over.After the opening of the second phase of the line on 16 October 1861, the daily service between Brighton and Horsham consisted of four stopping trains and one express. Early days saw regular traffic on the line, so much so that the frequency of services was increased leading to the doubling of the track between Itchingfield Junction and Horsham during 1878-1879. Fortunately Jacomb-Hood had foreseen this eventuality when planning the line and had ensured that all bridges were capable of carrying two tracks. This frequency of services was to the detriment of engine drivers and firemen who went on strike in 1867 to call for a maximum 10 hour working day or a run of 150 miles (241.4 km). Engine drivers earned at most seven shillings per day whilst firemen were on four shillings and sixpence. Itchingfield Junction was the location of the line's first accident on 11 August 1866 when two passenger trained collided resulting in one fatality.
Traffic on the line during this period consisted mainly of agricultural produce, with goods being sent to the Brighton and Steyning markets and for auction. Indeed, after the line opened Steyning's weekly market relocated from the High Street to a field adjacent to the railway station where cattle, sheep, poultry and other produce were transported to and from it for more than a century. Examples of what was being delivered can be drawn from the records of inward freight at Steyning station during 1874 and 1875; from Littlehampton
Littlehampton railway station
Littlehampton railway station is in Littlehampton in the county of West Sussex. The station and the trains serving it are operated by Southern....
10 sacks of maize, from Brighton 10 sacks of wheat, from Horsham 14 bundles of timber, from Lancing
Lancing railway station
Lancing railway station is in Lancing in the county of West Sussex, England. The station is operated by Southern.The station has short platforms; passengers are required to listen to on-train announcements when alighting and must alight from the front four coaches of the train.Platform 1 is for...
2500 bricks and 5 tons of beach pebbles and from Arundel
Arundel railway station
Arundel railway station serves the market town of Arundel in West Sussex.The station is on the eastern side of the town, about 500m from the High Street, across the River Arun.-History:...
one consignment of cement.
In addition to normal daily passenger workings, excursions began operating soon after the line up to Partridge Green had been opened. One of the first was in July 1861 to Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
; the fare charged was two shillings and there were 185 passengers on the service. Another excursion followed in August, this time to Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace, London
Crystal Palace is a residential area in south London, England named from the former local landmark, The Crystal Palace, which occupied the area from 1854 to 1936. The area is located approximately 8 miles south east of Charing Cross, and offers impressive views over the capital...
via Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
.
Passenger traffic
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, travelling via Guildford and Horsham. In addition, during the football season specials would be laid on to ferry supporters to see Brighton and Hove Albion when they were playing at home. The Southern Railway also promoted use of the line by ramblers and nature-lovers, such as scheduling late-night and early-morning services to observe the sun rising.
On 31 October 1946 the Southern Railway announced a scheme to electrify the Steyning Line, but this was abandoned following nationalisation in January 1948. The line now fell under the aegis of the Southern Region of British Railways
Southern Region of British Railways
The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992. The region covered south London, southern England and the south coast, including the busy commuter belt areas of Kent, Sussex...
. One of the first changes made was the end of the old method of counting passenger numbers on the railway network. Whereas previously a system of "clearing" was employed whereby the revenue from a passenger's ticket was redistributed to the railway companies in proportion to the distance travelled by the passenger on their line, this now changed to a system of "global accounts" whereby each station in a British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
(BR) region submitted to their line manager monthly returns of all business conducted.
Nevertheless, the statistics of passenger tickets issued and collected at Steyning Line stations show a steady rise in passenger traffic from 1948 to 1965, the year prior to closure. In 1948, 58,086 tickets were sold and 90,076 collected, ten years later these figures had respectively risen to 106,110 and 126,272 and by 1965, they were 120,016 and 140,129 respectively. Although there was a slight decline in traffic in the early 1960s, this reflected a similar dip which had occurred twelve years previously and was modest when compared with the subsequent increase in numbers.
On Saturday 7 October 1961 a group of senior boys attending Steyning Grammar School
Steyning Grammar School
Steyning Grammar School is a state comprehensive school in Steyning, West Sussex, England. It is the only state school in West Sussex which caters for boarders...
organised an exhibition in the waiting room at Steyning station which celebrated the line's 100th anniversary. Both the station and signalbox were decorated in bunting to mark the occasion and trains carried special headboards.
Freight traffic
Until 1926 the line transported milk in 17-gallon churns, but this was switched to road haulage during the General Strike1926 United Kingdom general strike
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 May 1926 to 13 May 1926. It was called by the general council of the Trades Union Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening...
of that year. Farmers realised how much more convenient it was to use road transport which collected the churns directly from their farm and took them directly to their destination. Once the Strike ended the milk traffic remained transported by road thereby depriving the railway of a major source of freight. This pattern was to be repeated during the strike of 1955 when more freight traffic, particularly coal, was diverted to road, much of it never to return. The freight losses contributed to British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
's decision to close goods yards on the Steyning Line as elsewhere on the rail network.
Nevertheless, the line continued to serve two important industrial enterprises - the cement factory at Beeding and the brickworks
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....
at Southwater
Southwater
Southwater is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England with a population of roughly 10,000. The village is administered from the Horsham District Council Offices. Much of the population of Southwater originated from the brick industry which thrived in the...
. The cement works in particular received gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
from Robertsbridge
Robertsbridge railway station
Robertsbridge railway station is on the Hastings Line in East Sussex in England, and serves Robertsbridge. Train services are provided by Southeastern.- History :...
and coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
from Dover, whilst once a week cement was transported from the works to the British Portland Cement depot at Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
via Shoreham and the South Coast main line
West Coastway Line
The West Coastway Line is a railway line in England, along the south coast of West Sussex and Hampshire, between Brighton and Southampton, plus the short branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis....
. During the course of 1960, for example, the cement works received 7000 coal wagons, 2300 gypsum wagons and 100 wagons of general stores; it sent out 7670 cement wagons and 240 flints wagons. Traffic continued beyond the Steyning Line's closure until 1981 via a single line linking the works with the South Coast main line. The cement works finally closed in 1991 after more than 100 years of operations at Beeding.
Unfortunately, Itchingfield Junction was the site of the last accident on the line, as well as the first. Early in the morning of 5 March 1964, a goods train from Brighton to Three Bridges which had been diverted to the Steyning line, overran the signal before the junction and collided with a down goods from Three Bridges to Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
which was at that moment traversing the junction. The two members of the up goods, apparently asleep possibly due to diesel fumes, were both killed.
War years
As with the Cranleigh Line, the value of the Steyning Line was fully realised during the two world wars when it acted as a useful conduit for men and munitions to the port of NewhavenNewhaven, East Sussex
Newhaven is a town in the Lewes District of East Sussex in England. It lies at the mouth of the River Ouse, on the English Channel coast, and is a ferry port for services to France.-Origins:...
. During the Second World War it was particularly convenient for access to Wiston House, Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarters near Steyning which Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
visited towards the end of June 1940. It also provided access to Martin Lodge on Station Road at Henfield which was used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
; the 1st Canadian Infantry Division
1st Canadian Infantry Division
The 1st Canadian Infantry Division was a formation mobilized on 1 September 1939 for service in the Second World War. The division was also reactivated twice during the Cold War....
also had a large encampment close to the airfield at Shoreham and on the playing fields of Lancing College.
Decline and closure
The Steyning Line's days were effectively numbered following the publication in 1963 of a report by the British RailBritish Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
Chairman, Richard Beeching
Richard Beeching
Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching , commonly known as Doctor Beeching, was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer...
, which put forward a vision of a smaller and more efficient rail network. Entitled "The Reshaping of British Railways
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
", the report advocated the closure of numerous lines and railway stations, amongst which figured the Steyning and Cranleigh Lines which, it was claimed, "carried in 1962-3 fewer than 5,000 passengers weekly."
Passenger traffic surveys
The closure of the line was based on figures taken from surveys carried out in November 1962 and July 1963 of the number of passengers actually using the services provided. The two surveys measured passenger traffic over the course of one week - one during summer and the other during winter; importantly, they only measured one type of traffic - the outward-bound passengers who purchased tickets at Steyning Line stations and not inward traffic in the shape of tickets collected from passengers alighting at stations. Had the two forms of traffic been taken into account, the survey would have revealed that on average 12,615 passengers travelled the line (both Up and Down) over the course of seven days during winter and 12,649 during summer. A significant proportion of the traffic, at least 1,000 journeys, was made up of schoolchildren. A further survey was carried out during half-term week in November 1964 following the change from steam to diesel traction on the line. Without the schools' traffic the survey showed an arithmetical fall in passenger numbers to 9,225, a perceived loss of traffic which was to play a role in the decision to close the line.BR officials also examined season ticket sales on the line - in 1948, 993 quarterly and long-term season tickets were sold, this had increased to 1,628 by 1959, but declined to 1,215 in 1965. One author has explained this decline by, firstly, the dissuasive effect that the 1963 closure proposal would have had on passengers and, secondly, the fact that cheap-day returns from Monday-Friday would have been more cost-effective alternative for those working a five day week.
Closure proposal
In 1963 BR submitted to Ernest MarplesErnest Marples
Alfred Ernest Marples, Baron Marples PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Postmaster General and Minister of Transport. After his retirement from active politics in 1974 Marples was elevated to the peerage...
, the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Minister of Transport
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
, a proposal to close the Steyning Line. As goods traffic was virtually nil on the line (with the exception of the Beeding Cement Works), the Minister gave his consent, leaving BR the choice of closing the line immediately or keeping it in service. Choosing to defer their decision, the next two years saw a public enquiry take place into the proposed closure and the obligatory Transport Users' Consultative Committee Report to the Minister.
TUCC enquiry
The notice of proposed closure gave, as required by the Transport Act 1962Transport Act 1962
The Transport Act 1962 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854", it was passed by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government to dissolve the...
, an address to which objections could be sent. 289 such objections were received and a public enquiry was called for Wednesday 26 February 1964 in Steyning and was chaired by Captain E.H. Longsdon R.N.
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
(Ret'd). Objectors argued that the replacement of trains with buses would lead to increased travel times, for example, the additional time spent travelling to and from Bramber and Brighton during the 40-week school year would amount to the equivalent of 34 eight-hour working days. The recommendation of the Transport Users' Consultative Committee for the South East Region (TUCC) was that replacement buses would not alleviate the hardship caused by the line's closure. The line therefore remained open while the Minister undertook further enquiries.
The Ministry of Transport therefore contacted BR to see if the line's losses which had already been reduced by the introduction of diesel units, could be reduced still further by increasing rail fares and by closing Bramber station. BR rejected any suggestion that economies could be made, stating that fares would have to be increased to 6d per mile (i.e. doubled) and all cheap day fares withdrawn.
Labour election
The LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
victory in the 1964 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...
saw a new Minister of Transport. In September 1965 he gave fresh authorisation for the closure of the Steyning Line. He made this decision on the basis of a cost/revenue analysis (excluding freight revenue) which showed that the financial saving which would be made by closure was £173,200 for steam operation of the line, reduced to £43,200 if diesel units were introduced. One author estimates that the real saving made was actually a mere £14,000 since the track and signalling costs had been over-estimated and took into account the main line between Itchingfield Junction and Horsham. He goes on to suggest that the line might in fact been in profit due to over-estimation of the costs of the permanent way
Permanent way
The permanent way is the elements of railway lines: generally the pairs of rails typically laid on the sleepers embedded in ballast, intended to carry the ordinary trains of a railway...
and failure to consider converting the line to single-track
Single track (rail)
A single track railway is where trains in both directions share the same track. Single track is normally used on lesser used rail lines, often branch lines, where the traffic density is not high enough to justify the cost of building double tracks....
working.
1965 passenger survey
In a last ditch attempt to save the line, the parish councils along the Adur Valley initiated a passenger card survey to provide an updated picture of traffic on the line. Fifteen hundred postcard-sized cards were to distributed to passengers over a two-week period in October 1965. The scheme did not receive BR's official authorisation, but staff in station booking offices as well as parish councillors and regular commuters helped in the distribution of the cards which had to be posted back to be recorded. In the event, 450 cards were returned and the results passed on to the local MPMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, Henry Kerby
Henry Kerby
Henry Briton Kerby was a British Conservative Member of Parliament for Arundel and Shoreham. He won the seat in a 1954 by-election, and served until his death at the age of 56 in Chichester in 1971. For a time he was associated with the National Fellowship group.Before joining the Conservative...
, who contacted Barbara Castle
Barbara Castle
Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn , PC, GCOT was a British Labour Party politician....
, Fraser's replacement as Minister of Transport. She replied on 16 March 1966 stating that she had considered the evidence and thought it was necessary to lay on extra services for passengers travelling at peak-times. This would be done by varying the closure decision to include a condition that replacement bus services should be provided. Provided by Southdown Motor Services
Southdown Motor Services
Southdown Motor Services Ltd operates bus and coach services in East and West Sussex and parts of Hampshire, in southern England. It was formed in 1915 and had various owners throughout its history, being purchased by the National Bus Company in 1969...
, the buses were hardly patronised and eventually withdrawn. They had been introduced on the mistaken assumption that rail commuters would automatically switch to bus transport to travel long distances, whereas in the event only those travelling to Shoreham or Brighton patronised the services. What actually transpired was revealed in a survey conducted in 1968 which showed that former rail users had arranged to share cars with friends or colleagues in the short-term, before eventually acquiring their own cars, taking early retirement or moving closer to their workplaces.
Closure decision
The axe was finally to fall in 1966 when it was clear that the new Labour administration would not reverse the closure policies put in place by the previous Government. As reported by the West Sussex Gazette of 10 February: "a meeting between the Railways Board and the Ministry of Transport last Wednesday seemed certain to result in putting off yet again the fateful deed, but a firm decision to go ahead with the closure came in the late afternoon...So brings down the curtain on a service that undoubtedly was 'borderline' if it should be closed or not. Certainly those who used the line regularly fought hard to save it, and even the Railways Board admitted to many misgivings as to whether their decision was the right one in all the circumstances."After eighteen months of diesel working on the line, passenger services were withdrawn with effect from Monday 7 March 1966. The last train to use the line on the Sunday evening was the 21.28 from Brighton to Horsham. The track was lifted soon afterwards and the signalboxes demolished, with the stations going the same way in 1969. Partridge Green station and goods yard were let to industrial concerns and was eventually sold.
Steyning Bypass
The Steyning Line's closure resulted in a build-up of road traffic on the A283 running through Steyning, Bramber and Upper BeedingUpper Beeding
Upper Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the northern end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs four miles north of Shoreham-by-Sea and has a land area of 1877 hectares...
, notably heavy freight traffic from the Port of Shoreham. This led to calls for the construction of a bypass
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
. The idea of a bypass linking the A2037 with the A283 to the north-west of Steyning had already been floated in 1962 and had been included in the West Sussex Village plan for the three communities involved. The route of the bypass would have avoided the railway line altogether, requiring merely a bridge over King's Barn Lane in Steyning. However, with the closure of the line, the County Council proposed re-using the trackbed of the Steyning Line between the two stations at Bramber and Steyning (a distance of about 1 miles (1.61 km)), a cheaper alternative that would cost £3 million. This was accepted by the Ministry of Transport and funding was granted.
Downs Link path
In 1984, the local authorities along the route of the Steyning and Cranleigh Lines, working together with other authorities and the Manpower Services Commission, established the Downs LinkDowns Link
The Downs Link is a 36.7-mile footpath and bridleway linking the North Downs Way at St. Martha's Hill in Surrey with the South Downs Way near Steyning in West Sussex and on via the Coastal Link to Shoreham-by-Sea.- History :...
, a 30 mile long footpath and bridleway connecting the North
North Downs Way
The North Downs Way is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Godalming, Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Kent Downs AONB.East of Boughton Lees, the path splits...
and South Downs
South Downs Way
The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern England, and is one of 15 National Trails in England and Wales...
National Trails. The Link was opened on 9 July 1984 by the Mayor of Waverley, Anne Hoath, at Baynards station
Baynards railway station
Baynards was a railway station on the Cranleigh Line. The line was single-tracked and opened on 2 October 1865.The station comprises the stationmaster's house, two waiting rooms, covered platforms, storesheds, a booking hall, a porch and a large goods shed. The station covers in all...
; it subsequently received a commendation in the National Conservation Award Scheme jointly organised by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is an independent, representative professional body which regulates property professionals and surveyors in the United Kingdom and other sovereign nations....
.
Retrospective
Although initially conceived as a useful conduit for services to the south coast, the worth of the Steyning Line was ultimately restricted to the small villages which it served. That its full potential was never realised can be explained by three interlinked factors. Firstly, the through connection between Brighton and Guildford was rendered difficult by the inconvenient timetabling of connections. Passengers changing at Horsham from a Cranleigh Line service to a Steyning Line service and vice versa usually had a tiresome wait before their connection arrived. For example, the 1964-65 British Rail timetable reveals that a passenger taking the 0625 from Brighton would arrive in Horsham at 0728 to find that the next service to Guildford was 25 minutes later. Worse off still was the passenger arriving in Horsham at 1221 to find out that connecting train had departed 12 minutes earlier. The timetabling in this case is particularly difficult to understand as the service was scheduled to wait 10 minutes at Cranleigh due to congestion at Guildford.The second factor was the limited service which could be operated on the Cranleigh Line which was single-tracked throughout the greater part of its length and resulted in inevitable timetabling constraints. Clearly, the doubling of the track and the reinstatement of the track on the south spur would have gone some way to alleviating this problem and allow fast or semi-fast services. However, given the state of the economy after the Second World War, such investment was never a realistic possibility for perceived railway backwaters such as the Cranleigh and Steyning Lines. This links to the third factor which was the perception by British Rail managers of the two lines; managers failed to appreciate the potential usefulness of the lines if co-ordinated effectively. Once Beeching had announced his programme of closures, it was taken as a given that the lines would close and services were gradually run down.