Guilford Tramway

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Coordinates: 51°16′30″N1°20′20″E / 51.275°N 1.339°E / 51.275; 1.339

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Contents

Guilford Tramway
Locale England
Dates of operation 19031930
Successor Abandoned
Track gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Headquarters Sandwich

The Guilford Tramway was a narrow gauge industrial railway at Sandwich in Kent, England in the first half of the twentieth century.

Industrial railway type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics or a military site

An industrial railway is a type of railway that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics or a military site. In regions of the world influenced by British Railway culture and management practices, they are often referred to as tramways. Industrial railways may be connecting the site to public freight networks through sidings, isolated or located entirely within a served property.

Sandwich, Kent town in Kent, England

Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 4,985. Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings, including several listed public houses and gates in the old town walls, churches, almshouses and the White Mill. While once a major port, it is now two miles from the sea due to the disappearance of the Wantsum Channel. Its historic centre has been preserved. Sandwich Bay is home to nature reserves and two world-class golf courses, Royal St George's and Prince's. The town is also home to educational and cultural events. Sandwich also gave its name to the bread snack by way of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, and the word sandwich is now found in many languages.

Kent County of England

Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west. The county also shares borders with Essex along the estuary of the River Thames, and with the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. The county town is Maidstone.

History

A freight-only tramway was constructed to take freight from a wharf on the River Stour via Royal St. Georges Golf Club on onward to Sandwich Bay. The line was constructed by Thomas Jones and Sons in 1903. [1] The line was constructed at 3 ft 6in [1,067mm] gauge as although this was not common for light railways it was the gauge used by the Isle of Thanet Tramways and there was some possibility that it might have been incorporated into the Cinque Ports Light Railway, an abortive Electric Tramway Scheme [1] which planned a coastal tram route from Ramsgate to Hastings.

River Stour, Kent river in Kent, England

The River Stour is a river in Kent, England that flows into the North Sea at Pegwell Bay. Above Plucks Gutter, where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as the Great Stour. The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes known as the Upper Great Stour or West Stour. In the tidal lower reaches, the artificial Stonar Cut short cuts a large loop in the natural river.

Royal St Georges Golf Club

The Royal St George's Golf Club located in Sandwich, Kent, England, a golf club in the United Kingdom and one of the courses on The Open Championship rotation and is the only Open rota golf course to be located in Southern England. It has hosted 13 Open championships since 1894, when it became the first club outside Scotland to host the championship. Past champions include Darren Clarke, Ben Curtis, Greg Norman, Sandy Lyle, Bill Rogers, Bobby Locke, Reg Whitcombe, Henry Cotton, Walter Hagen, Harry Vardon, Jack White and John Henry Taylor. It has also hosted The Amateur Championship on 13 occasions.

Sandwich Bay is a long sweeping inlet of the sea between Ramsgate and Deal, on the east coast of Kent, England. The coastal area consists of sand flats with their associated salt marshes and coastal sand dunes. The Sandwich Flats stretch for about five miles (8 km) along the coast. The coastal habitats are of high ecological importance.

There was a single 250 foot riverside siding with a run round loop at Guilford Wharf on a section of the River Stour known as Bowling Green Reach. These sidings included a steam crane and a small engine shed located to the North East of the wharf. [2]

The line then passed in front of the Golf clubhouse where the rails could be seen on a level crossing of the clubhouse access road until as late as the 1970s. The line then continued to the North of Guilford Road until splitting and being aligned with King's Avenue and Waldershare Avenue at the end of which was the Guilford Hotel. The track can be clearly seen in this photo . On Waldershare Avenue there was a small passing loop or refuge siding [3]

The line was principally used to carry construction materials used to build the mansions that sprung up around the hotel. The line fell into disuse during the later part of First World War when some sleepers were reused to shore up defensive earthworks. [1] It was occasionally used to serve the various army camps in the area. The line is believed to have closed in 1930.

The line may have been used during WW2 as part of the First US Army Group distraction scheme called Operation Quicksilver in the run up to the D-Day landings. However, the 1940 Luftwaffe Aerial Photo Reconnaissance set does not appear to show any track in existence but does show the alignment of the short WW1 siding built for the School of Musketry to Old Downs Farm.

A photo of the locomotive Waldershare can be found at

The Tramway including the passing loop or refuge sidings are clearly shown on the 1908 6" Ordnance Survey map see:

Locomotives

NameBuilderTypeDateWorks numberNotes
Waldershare Park Manning Wardle 0-4-0ST19031611Survived the closure of the railway, scrapped around 1950

Related Research Articles

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sandwich Bay". www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  2. "Explore georeferenced maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland". maps.nls.uk. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  3. "View: Kent XLVIII.NE (includes: Sandwich; Worth.) - Ordnance Survey Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952". maps.nls.uk. Retrieved 2016-08-10.

See also