Westerham railway station
Encyclopedia
Westerham
Westerham is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, in South East England with 5,000 people. The parish is south of the North Downs, ten miles west of Sevenoaks. It covers 5800 acres . It is recorded as early as the 9th century, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book in a...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
from 1881 until its closure in 1961.
History
No railway was ever constructed all the way between SevenoaksSevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
and Redhill
Redhill, Surrey
Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, England and is part of the London commuter belt. Redhill and the adjacent town of Reigate form a single urban area.-History:...
to parallel what is now the A25 road
A25 road
The A25 road is one of the three cross-country two-digit numbered roads in the southeast of England, the others being the A26 from Newhaven to Maidstone and the A27 along the south coast. It carries traffic from Guildford in Surrey through Dorking, and thence eastward along the southern edge of the...
and the Pilgrims' Way
Pilgrims' Way
The Pilgrims' Way is the historic route supposed to have been taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent...
. Reasons for this may include: a) the Redhill to Tonbridge Line
Redhill to Tonbridge Line
The Redhill to Tonbridge Line is a railway line running from Redhill, Surrey to Tonbridge, Kent in southeast England. It branches off the Brighton Main Line at Redhill station and, after 20 miles, joins the South Eastern Main Line at Tonbridge station....
had been built quite early in railway history and served the settlements between Redhill and Godstone
Godstone
Godstone is a village in the county of Surrey, England. It is located approximately six miles east of Reigate at the junction of the A22 and A25 major roads, and near the M25 motorway.-History:...
, b) the difficult choice between boggy land in the valley bottom and the gradients encountered on the A25 route at Limpsfield
Limpsfield
Limpsfield is a village and parish in the east of the county of Surrey, England near Oxted at the foot of the North Downs. It lies between the A25 to the south and the M25 motorway to the north, near the Clackett Lane service station...
and Nutfield
Nutfield, Surrey
Nutfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey. It has a population of 2,728The village lay within the Reigate hundred....
, c) the "pull" of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
which meant that the emphasis was on radial routes from the capital.
However in 1881 the Westerham Valley Railway Company built the Westerham Valley Branch Line from the South Eastern Main Line at Dunton Green
Dunton Green railway station
Dunton Green railway station serves the village of Dunton Green, on the outskirts of Sevenoaks in Kent. Train services are provided by Southeastern.There is no ticket office or ticket machine. There is a Permit to Travel machine...
to Westerham with one intermediate station at Brasted
Brasted railway station
Brasted is a disused intermediate railway station on the closed Westerham Valley Branch Line in Kent.The station was built by the Westerham Valley Railway Company and soon taken over by the South Eastern Railway which became the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899...
. The branch was built as 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....
with provision for double track
Double track
A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...
as an ambitious extension to Oxted
Oxted railway station
Oxted railway station is a relatively busy interchange station and terminus located in Surrey, in the South East region of England. At present, all train services are provided by Southern. The station is the busiest suburban station on the Oxted Line and is a terminus for some services on the...
was envisaged. The South Eastern Railway
South Eastern Railway (UK)
The South Eastern Railway was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury and other places in Kent...
took over the company soon after construction, itself becoming part of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway
South Eastern and Chatham Railway
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee , known by its shorter name of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Eastern Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway , that operated services between...
in 1899. The Southern Railway
Southern Railway (Great Britain)
The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...
took over responsibility for the line upon the railway grouping
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
in 1923, followed by the Southern Region
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...
of 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...
ways upon nationalisation in 1948.
The line was ostensibly closed in 1961 due to low patronage and was the subject of a revival/preservation attempt which was scuppered by plans for the M25
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
which called for the use of much of the line. The Westerham Valley Railway Association had succeeded in obtaining a lease of Westerham Station from British Rail in April 1962 and had carried out maintenance works. However, this was no avail when, faced with the determination of Kent County Council to realise the construction of the M25, the Association was unable to meet the costs of constructing an overbridge for the motorway at Chevening
Chevening Halt railway station
Chevening Halt is a now-closed intermediate railway station on the Westerham branch line in Kent.The line was built as single track with provision for double track. The station was built by South Eastern and Chatham Railway and opened on either 16 or 19 April 1906...
and the Council promptly in-filled the section, effectively cutting the line in two. The station buildings were swept away and the track lifted by March 1967, with construction of the motorway commencing in 1976.
Present day
The Westerham Flyer, the Class H 0-4-4T No. 31518SECR H Class
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway H Class is a class of 0-4-4T steam locomotive originally designed for suburban passenger work, designed by Harry Wainwright in 1904...
locomotive which pulled the morning trains on the last day of service on Saturday 26 October 1961, is remembered in the name of the industrial estate which covers the footprint of the former station site and goods yard. "The Flyers Way Industrial Estate", served by "The Flyers Way" road, is made up of six light industrial units and backs on to original railway cottages. There is no plaque to commemorate the station's history, the only reminder of it being the base of the goods yard crane which is situated on a grass verge near the entrance to the site. It is, however, possible to trace the line of the trackbed eastwards around the site, past the railway cottages on an embankment
Embankment (transportation)
To keep a road or railway line straight or flat, and where the comparative cost or practicality of alternate solutions is prohibitive, the land over which the road or rail line will travel is built up to form an embankment. An embankment is therefore in some sense the opposite of a cutting, and...
and into nearby allotments.
Other stations
- BrastedBrasted railway stationBrasted is a disused intermediate railway station on the closed Westerham Valley Branch Line in Kent.The station was built by the Westerham Valley Railway Company and soon taken over by the South Eastern Railway which became the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899...
- Chevening HaltChevening Halt railway stationChevening Halt is a now-closed intermediate railway station on the Westerham branch line in Kent.The line was built as single track with provision for double track. The station was built by South Eastern and Chatham Railway and opened on either 16 or 19 April 1906...
- Dunton GreenDunton Green railway stationDunton Green railway station serves the village of Dunton Green, on the outskirts of Sevenoaks in Kent. Train services are provided by Southeastern.There is no ticket office or ticket machine. There is a Permit to Travel machine...