This is Horam station on the famous Cuckoo line, which ran from Polegate to Eridge and was closed in 1965, apart from the section from Polegate to the large town of Hailsham which survived until 1968.
In retrospect this was a particularly stupid closure. Hailsham is far too large to not have a railway service and is certainly paying for it now! But the line also provided an excellent alternative route from Eastbourne to London, and also served several other small towns en route. It may well be sooner rather than later that reopening of this route takes place, for the reasons listed abiove, and also because of the coming revival of British seaside resorts as more and more people choose to holiday at home rather than bear the strain (and soon prohibitive cost!) of flying to more exotic destinations. One of the big advantages of this route is that it will take some of the pressure off the current sole connection between Eastbourne and London (via Lewes and Haywards Heath) which becomes particularly congested where it joins the Brighton to London line.
Generally the closure of rail routes to British seaside resorts in the 1960s was clearly a huge mistake. It is barely believable that important seaside towns such as Ilfracombe, Bude, Padstow, Lyme Regis and a host of others are currently struggling with roads (LOL!) instead of having modern transport drop thousands of visitors on their doorsteps. This will have to change, and fast!
History
The station was opened by the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway on 5 April 1880 and was originally named
Horeham Road for Waldron. It was on the line extension from
Hailsham to
Eridge. It was renamed several times: on 1 June 1890 it became
Horeham Road and Waldron; on 1 April 1900
Waldron and Horeham Road; on 1 January 1935
Waldron and Horam; and it finally became
Horam on 21 September 1953.
The station closed to passenger traffic on 14 June 1965 but freight trains continued to pass through until 1968 when the line was closed completely.
Present day
The
Cuckoo Trail foot and cycle path runs over one of the platforms. Sections of the two platforms including a concrete nameboard,some lamp posts and seats are preserved. The rest of the station site is now a housing estate and a car park.
More info on the Cuckoo Line (from Wikipedia)
The
Cuckoo Line is an informal name for the now defunct
railway service which linked
Polegate and
Eridge in
East Sussex,
England, from 1880 to 1968. It was nicknamed the Cuckoo Line by drivers, from a tradition observed at the annual
fair at
Heathfield, a station on the route. At the fair, which was held each April, a lady would release a
cuckoo from a basket, it being supposedly the 'first cuckoo of spring'. The railway line served the following Sussex communities:
Polegate,
Hailsham,
Hellingly,
Horam for
Waldron,
Heathfield,
Mayfield,
Rotherfield and E
ridge. Services continued through Eridge and onward via
Groombridge to
Tunbridge Wells.
The Hailsham-Eridge section closed in 1965, the Polegate-Hailsham branch surviving until 1968. Eridge-Tunbridge Wells closed in 1985, and this line has been resurrected as the
Spa Valley Railway.
History[edit]
The line from
Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells (via
East Grinstead High Level and
Groombridge) opened on 1 October 1866, with the connecting line from
Uckfield via Eridge opening on 3 August 1868. The final part of the route opened on 1 February 1876: a connection between the LBSCR station at Tunbridge Wells West and Tunbridge Wells Central, the station operated by the
South Eastern Railway (SER). This single-line section passed through the short Grove Tunnel to Grove Junction, sited a little south of the SER station on its
Hastings Line. In 1881 a new track alignment was built between Polegate and Hailsham allowing trains to run into Polegate at the west end of the station and direct to Eastbourne.
Following the
Beeching Report in 1963, the line was recommended for closure. The section from Eridge to Hailsham was closed to passenger traffic in 1965 (the section between Heathfield and Hailsham remaining open for freight until 1968), whilst the short branch from Polegate to Hailsham remained open until 8 September 1968. The closure of this section was hotly disputed – even British Railways itself agreeing that Hailsham was a growing town and that buses would be unable to cope with the demands of the increasing population.
The line between Eridge and Tunbridge Wells West remained open until 1985. Despite having survived 'Beeching', no money was spent on the line and British Rail regarded a track and signalling upgrade to be unviable. Closure was announced in February 1985, and the last passenger trains ran on 6 July 1985. Grove Junction was removed the day after closure, but the depot at Tunbridge Wells West remained in use for another month.
The Cuckoo Line today
Today, the Cuckoo Line remains a closed railway – a footpath and cycleway known as The
Cuckoo Trail runs along much of the route from Polegate to Heathfield. Polegate retains a railway station, albeit on a different site to that formerly used by Cuckoo Line trains, whilst the site of the station in Hailsham is now occupied by a housing estate and a public car park. Hellingly station survives as a private residence. At Horam the platforms are preserved including a nameboard. Heathfield station building is now a shop selling kitchen utensils but the site of the platforms is now occupied by industrial units. At Mayfield the station building survives as a private residence but the trackbed has now been removed and replaced by the
A267 Mayfield bypass. Rotherfield and Mark Cross station is a private residence. Soon after closure of the Eridge to Tunbridge Wells West section, a preservation society was formed with the intention of reinstating the passenger service on the line. The
Tunbridge Wells and Eridge Railway Preservation Society (TWERPS) acquired the line in March 1996 and by December 1996 had started to run a steam-hauled passenger service along part of the route. The line has been marketed as the
Spa Valley Railway and it has gradually extended services with the final section to Eridge opening on the 25th of March 2011.
Accidents[edit]
D1 Class No. 297
Bonchurchand train, derailed at Tooth's Bank, North of Heathfield, September 1897.
The line had a good safety record: there was only one reported accident on the line. On 1 September 1897 at Tooth's Bank, 2 miles north of
Heathfield, the 08:18am service from Eastbourne was running around 4 minutes late and was trying to pick up time in order to meet a connecting train at Groombridge. As the train entered the curve at around 40 mph it left the tracks.
Driver James McKinlay was killed and
Fireman Lewis Minns seriously injured, whilst 30 passengers suffered minor injuries. At the subsequent inquiry,
Lt. Col. G. W. Addison reported that the main cause of the accident was excessive speed as the driver was attempting to make up lost time in order to make a connection at
Groombridge. The track itself was in poor shape with many rotten sleepers and "curves having irregular elevation" which contributed to the accident. Following the inquiry, much of the track was relaid and the train scheduling was altered.
In April 1968 a lorry collided with a low road bridge under the line at Horsebridge north of Hailsham damaging the bridge causing immediate closure of the line. As the freight train service between Hailsham and Heathfield was due to be withdrawn the following month it was not considered worthwhile repairing the bridge so the line was prematurely abandoned forthwith. Some wagons isolated at Heathfield goods yard were cut up on site.
Route description
The Cuckoo Line diverged from the main
Eastbourne to London line at
Polegate, and ran northwards on a single track to the market town of
Hailsham, which was the terminus for 31 years until the line through to
Eridge had been completed. The line then passed through the villages of
Hellingly (where a link to the
Hellingly Hospital Railway joined the route, worked by overhead electric traction),
Horam,
Heathfield,
Mayfield,
Rotherfield & Mark Cross, then via Redgate Mill Junction to join the
Oxted Line for Eridge. The route continued north-eastwards, leaving the Oxted Line at Birchden Junction heading for
Groombridge, High Rocks Halt and eventually Tunbridge Wells West. Through trains could continue on the single-track connection through Grove Tunnel to join the
Hastings Line (heading towards Tunbridge Wells Central) at Grove Junction.
Name changes
Horam station was originally built as
Horeham Road. In 1900 it was renamed
Waldron & Horeham Road. Over the years,
Horeham changed to
Horam as the hamlet grew around the station, prompted by growth including an
Express Dairies depot, and the name changed again in 1935, before becoming simply
Horam in September 1953.
