Lydd Town railway station

Lydd Town
Lydd Town
	Lydd Town railway station in the 1900s
General information
Location	Lydd, Folkestone & Hythe ; England
Grid reference	TR050215
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Pre-grouping	Lydd Railway Company ; South Eastern Railway ; South Eastern and Chatham Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway ; Southern Region of British Railways
Key dates
7 December 1881	Opened as Lydd
4 July 1937	Renamed Lydd Town
6 March 1967	Closed to passenger traffic
4 October 1971	Closed to regular goods traffic

Last updated November 06, 2023

Lydd Town was a railway station which served the town of Lydd in Kent, England. Opened on 7 December 1881 by The Lydd Railway Company. It closed to passengers in 1967 but the line through the station remained open for freight.

History

The Lydd Railway Company (LRC) obtained authorisation to construct a standard gauge single track line from Appledore to Dungeness with intermediate stops at Lydd and Brookland. Having opened the line to traffic on 7 December 1881, the railway company subsequently decided on 16 February 1882 that the line would be worked and maintained by the South Eastern Railway, whose chairman, Edward Watkin, was the father of Alfred Watkin, chairman of the LRC. On 24 July, the company was authorised to extend the line by building a branch from Lydd to New Romney which opened on 19 June 1884. The LRC was taken into the South Eastern in January 1895, itself becoming part of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway four years later.^[2]

Lydd, situated 7 miles (11 km) from Appledore, was the principal station on the line, with a considerable goods yard and a long siding to the nearby military firing range (Lydd Ranges) via the 6-mile (10 km) Lydd Military Railway (1883 - c1926).^[3] The approach to Lydd from Brookland saw the line travel over nine level crossings before passing under the line's sole overbridge carrying the B2075 Station Road, before reaching a final level crossing just before the station. The station had two platforms as well as a passing loop and a signal box on the down side.^[2]

Following the opening of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in 1927, the extra holiday traffic generated persuaded the Southern Railway (who had taken over the line upon the railway grouping) to realign its branch to New Romney by moving it nearer to the sea and opening two new halts - Lydd-on-Sea and Greatstone-on-Sea - in 1937. The opening of Lydd-on-Sea Halt led to the renaming of Lydd station as "Lydd Town" to avoid any confusion. The station closed on 6 March 1967 in the face of dwindling passenger traffic and insignificant freight returns, although the line remained open through Lydd Town as far as a siding near Dungeness for freight traffic to serve the BNFL nuclear power plant at Dungeness.^[4]

Preceding station	Disused railways	Following station
Brookland Halt Line open, station closed	Southern Railway New Romney branch	New Romney and Littlestone-on-Sea Line and station closed
	BR Southern Region New Romney branch	Lydd-on-Sea Halt Line and station closed
	Southern Railway Dungeness branch	Dungeness Line and station closed

Present and future

The main station building and goods yard remain in an empty and derelict state, having been used as a vehicle repair workshop until the mid-1980s, which led to some internal walls being removed. The up platform has also survived, but the down platform and signal box were demolished in the early 1970s, and the original passing loop was lifted after 1993. The station has suffered from vandalism, with a recent fire destroying a modern shed on the site and lightly damaging the southern end of the main building.^[5] In May 2006, British Rail put the site on the market for redevelopment.^[6] In March 2008, planning permission was granted to Kent County Council to use the goods yard for the temporary storage of refuse collection vehicles.^[7] In July 2013, a new passing loop was added.

The future reuse of the station as a "rail transport interchange" has been written into Shepway District Local Plan which safeguards the route against development prejudicial to the reopening of the line from Appledore to the public.^[8] Although reopening of the line to passengers has been mooted from time to time – particularly with regard to improving public access to Lydd Airport ^[9] – the plans have never materialised. One obstacle in the way of reopening is the 13 level crossings and occupational farm crossings between Appledore and Lydd, which would have to be converted to automatic full-barrier crossings with obstacle detection. Furthermore, neither the line through Lydd nor the Ashford to Hastings line is electrified, requiring passengers to change at Ashford International to diesel railcars.^[10]

On 7 November 2022 the station building was severely damaged by a fire.^[11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway</span> Light railway in Kent, England

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) is a 15 in gauge light railway in Kent, England, operating steam and internal combustion locomotives. The 13+1⁄2-mile (21.7 km) line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney Sands to Dungeness, close to the Dungeness nuclear power stations and Dungeness Lighthouse. The line is double track north of New Romney and single track south.

Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 square miles (260 km²). The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the 18th century. Due to its location, geography and isolation, it was a smuggler's paradise between the 1600s and 1800s. The area has long been used for sheep pasture: Romney Marsh sheep are considered one of the most successful and important sheep breeds. Criss-crossed with numerous waterways, and with some areas lying below sea level, the Marsh has over time sustained a gradual level of reclamation, both through natural causes and by human intervention.

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Folkestone and Hythe is a local government district in Kent, England, in the south-east of the county. Its council is based in the town of Folkestone. The authority was renamed from Shepway in April 2018, and therefore has the same name as the Folkestone and Hythe parliamentary constituency, although a somewhat narrower area is covered by the district.

Dungeness is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of a cuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh. Dungeness spans Dungeness Nuclear Power Station, the hamlet of Dungeness, and an ecological site at the same location. It lies within the civil parish of Lydd.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appledore railway station</span> Railway station in Kent, England

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London Ashford Airport is 1 NM east of the town of Lydd and 12 NM south of Ashford in the district of Folkestone and Hythe, in Kent, England. Originally named Lydd Ferryfield, it is now also known as London Ashford Airport, despite being 60 mi (97 km) from London and actually closer to France and over 20 mi (32 km) from Ashford. The airport is operated by London Ashford Airport Ltd, controlled by Saudi businessman Sheikh Fahad al-Athel.

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Transportation needs within the county of Kent in South East England has been served by both historical and current transport systems.

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Greatstone is a beach-side town, the third town up from the "point" of the Romney Marsh area of Kent. It is situated near the largest town there, New Romney in Kent, England. Although permission was given for a company to construct large numbers of homes and facilities in the 1920s, only a small number were actually built. There was widespread development in the 1960s and 1970s, however, leading to a sizable community. The church of St Peter's, built in the 1960s, is a daughter church of All Saints, Lydd, in which parish half of Greatstone is situated. It is in the civil parish of Lydd. There is a small group of shops at one end of the town, and the other end simply melds into Lydd-on-Sea. The local school is the Greatstone Primary School, from which most students either go on to The Marsh Academy, the Folkestone School for Girls or the Harvey Grammar School.

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Greatstone-on-Sea Halt was a railway station which served the modern village of Greatstone-on-Sea in Kent, England. The station opened in 1937 and closed in 1967.

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References

↑ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 151.
1 2 Harding, Peter (1983). The New Romney Branch Line. Woking, Surrey: Peter A. Harding. pp. 5–8, 12. ISBN 0-9523458-8-9.
↑ White, H.P. (1987). Forgotten Railways: Vol. 6 South-East England. Newton Abbot, Devon: David St John Thomas. p. 98. ISBN 0-946537-37-2.
↑ Oppitz, Leslie (2003). Lost Railways of Kent. Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-85306-803-4.
↑ Subterranea Britannica, "Lydd Town".
↑ Kent Rail, "Lydd Town".
↑ Kent County Council, Planning Applications Committee, 18 March 2008. ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
↑ Shepway District Local Plan (March 2006), Policy TR3.
↑ "Lydd: the airport that roared". Airport Operators Association. 31 October 2005. Archived from the original on 30 June 2007.
↑ "Proposals for the erection of a terminal building and the construction of a 294m runway at London Ashford Airport". Stanford Parish Council. 28 February 2007. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011.
↑ Weller, Chantal (9 November 2022). "Lydd's derelict railway station destroyed in fire". Kent Online. Retrieved 17 November 2022.

Marshall, Chapman F. D. (1963). A History of the Southern Railway. I. Allen. p. 531. OCLC 8610529. Lydd Town (Opened as 'Lydd')...7 Dec., 1881

External links

Lydd Town Station at Subterranea Britannica
Lydd Town at Kent Rail.co.uk

50°57′24″N0°55′03″E / 50.9567°N 0.9174°E / 50.9567; 0.9174

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[1] Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 151.

[Harding-2] 1 2 Harding, Peter (1983). The New Romney Branch Line. Woking, Surrey: Peter A. Harding. pp. 5–8, 12. ISBN 0-9523458-8-9.

[3] White, H.P. (1987). Forgotten Railways: Vol. 6 South-East England. Newton Abbot, Devon: David St John Thomas. p. 98. ISBN 0-946537-37-2.

[4] Oppitz, Leslie (2003). Lost Railways of Kent. Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-85306-803-4.

[5] Subterranea Britannica, "Lydd Town".

[6] Kent Rail, "Lydd Town".

[7] Kent County Council, Planning Applications Committee, 18 March 2008. ^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[8] Shepway District Local Plan (March 2006), Policy TR3.

[9] "Lydd: the airport that roared". Airport Operators Association. 31 October 2005. Archived from the original on 30 June 2007.

[10] "Proposals for the erection of a terminal building and the construction of a 294m runway at London Ashford Airport". Stanford Parish Council. 28 February 2007. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011.

[weller-11] Weller, Chantal (9 November 2022). "Lydd's derelict railway station destroyed in fire". Kent Online. Retrieved 17 November 2022.

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