Rowfant railway station

Rowfant
Rowfant
	Rowfant station c1890
Location	Rowfant, Mid Sussex, West Sussex ; England
Grid reference	TQ325368
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Pre-grouping	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway ; Southern Region of British Railways
Key dates
9 July 1855	Opened
7 January 1961	Goods facilities withdrawn
2 January 1967	Closed to passenger traffic

Last updated February 08, 2022

Rowfant was a railway station on the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line in the parish of Worth, West Sussex.^[1] The line closed in 1967, a casualty of the Beeching Axe. The route of the railway line cut a path through the estate of Curtis Miranda Lampson, a wealthy American fur trader and vice-chairman of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, who agreed to sell his land cheaply to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) on condition that a station be provided, together with the right to stop trains on request. Apart from Lampson's Rowfant House the only other nearby residence was Worth Hall owned by John Nix, an LBSCR director. At Lampson's request a shelter was provided for his coachmen.^[2]^[3] Before and during World War Two an Air Force Reserve Storage Depot, was constructed adjacent to the station and railway line.^[4]

Train services

Rowfant, initially the only intermediate station between Three Bridges and East Grinstead, saw an initial service of six passenger trains per day, with two on Sundays. By 1859 this had increased to nine services with one early morning goods train, and four Sunday services. The opening of another intermediate station in 1860, Grange Road, saw passenger trains cut to six on weekdays. An additional siding and crossover were provided in 1878, the siding serving a nearby brickworks. The station was further enlarged in 1900-1901 when it became a crossing station with a new 500 ft. Up platform and footbridge. In 1906 the introduction of new motor carriages led to an increase in weekday services.^[5]

Closure

Nevertheless, Rowfant saw very little passenger traffic and jointly held with Kingscote the record for the least revenue for passenger journeys on the LBSCR.^[2] Although it saw a brief revival in terms of freight traffic when Gatwick Airport opened in the late 1950s and jet fuel was stored in the Petroleum Storage Depot, its days were numbered and it closed with the rest of the line in January 1967 under the programme of closures put forward by local resident and British Rail Chairman, Richard Beeching.

The site today

Today the majority of the station survives, with the station site and goods yard occupied by a company producing road-building materials, Colas Limited. The station building, stationmaster's house and part of the Down platform survive. The Worth Way, a public footpath following the line of the railway, runs alongside the north face of the station building which is currently disused with its windows and doorways bricked up.^[2]

Former fuel storage depot

Originally constructed by Shell-Mex & BP as an Air Force Reserve Depot during the war in two phases in 1938–9 and 1943–4 with two sites. Three 4,000 ton, ten 900 ton, one 450 ton white oil tanks; two 250 ton and two 500 ton lube oil tanks. Semi-buried fuel and lube oil tanks were built on both sides of the East Grinstead/Rowfant Railway Station road. there were road loading facilities for white and lube oils and a rail gantry about 300 metres east of the depot on sidings at the railway station. The site was handed over by the Air Ministry to the Ministry of Power in 1959. It was declared surplus in 1982, demolished in 1991 and sold in 1999.^[4]

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Three Bridges		British Rail Southern Region Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line		Grange Road

Related Research Articles

The Spa Valley Railway (SVR) is a standard gauge heritage railway that runs from Tunbridge Wells West railway station in Tunbridge Wells to High Rocks, Groombridge, and Eridge, where it links with the Oxted Line. En route it crosses the Kent and East Sussex border, a distance of 5 miles (8 km), along the former Wealden Line between Tunbridge Wells Central and Lewes. The railway headquarters is at Tunbridge Wells West railway station.

The Oxted line is a railway in southern England and part of the Southern franchise. The railway splits into two branches towards the south and has direct trains throughout to London termini.

Tonbridge railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line in England, serving the town of Tonbridge, Kent. It is 29 miles 46 chains (47.6 km) from London Charing Cross via Sevenoaks. Trains calling at the station are operated by Southeastern and Southern.

Lingfield railway station is on the East Grinstead branch of the Oxted line in southern England and serves Lingfield in Surrey. It is 26 miles 23 chains from London Bridge, although off peak trains run to and from London Victoria. The station is managed by Southern.

East Grinstead railway station is one of the two southern termini of the Oxted line in the south of England and serves East Grinstead in West Sussex. It is 30 miles 4 chains from London Bridge, although trains mostly run to and from London Victoria. The station is managed by Southern.

Pontypool and New Inn railway station is situated to the south east of Pontypool town centre between the town and the suburb of New Inn, Wales. The station was formerly called Pontypool Road until renamed just Pontypool in 1972 and then to the present name in 1994.

The Worth Way is a 7-mile (11 km) footpath and bridleway linking the West Sussex towns of Crawley and East Grinstead via the village of Crawley Down. Mostly following the trackbed of a disused railway the path is an important wildlife corridor. It is part of the National Cycle Network.

Tunbridge Wells West is a railway station located in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. It is one of two railway stations in Tunbridge Wells constructed by rival companies. The other, Tunbridge Wells Central was opened in 1845 by the South Eastern Railway (SER). Tunbridge Wells West was closed to mainline passenger services in 1985, but part of it still remains as a heritage railway line. Opened in 1996, it stands next to the original engine shed. The line is called the Spa Valley Railway.

Crawley Down is a small village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. There is one church, one school, and a number of social groups. It lies seven miles from Gatwick Airport. The next nearest railway stations are Three Bridges and East Grinstead. Crawley Down lies in the northeast corner of West Sussex, just one mile from the border with Surrey.

Ardingly was a railway station which served the West Sussex village of Ardingly in England. It was opened on 3 September 1883 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) closed eighty years later and is currently used as an aggregates depot. The Bluebell Railway owns the trackbed from just east of the station to Horsted Keynes and has long-term plans to rebuild the line.

Groombridge railway station is a station on the Spa Valley Railway (SVR) in Groombridge, East Sussex, England. Once a busy station serving four directions, it closed in 1985 to British Rail services. A new station the other side of Station Road bridge was opened by the SVR in 1997 as part of a standard gauge heritage railway to Tunbridge Wells West.

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 Eridge. Services continued through Eridge and onward via Groombridge to Tunbridge Wells.

Grange Road was a railway station on the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line. The station opened in 1860 and was rebuilt on an enlarged scale in 1876, with a footbridge added in 1897. The station and railway closed in 1967, a casualty of the Beeching Axe.

The Three Bridges–Tunbridge Wells line is a mostly disused railway line running from Three Bridges in West Sussex to Tunbridge Wells Central in Kent via East Grinstead in West Sussex, a distance of 20 miles 74 chains (33.7 km). Opened in 1855, the main section of the line was a casualty of the Beeching Axe – the last train ran on 1 January 1967. The remaining section to Tunbridge Wells closed on 6 July 1985, although the section between Groombridge and Tunbridge Wells West was reopened in 1997 under the auspices of the Spa Valley Railway.

Forest Row was a railway station on the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line which closed in 1967, a casualty of the Beeching Axe.

Withyham was a railway station on the Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line which closed in 1967, a casualty of the Beeching Axe. The station opened on 1 October 1866 and the buildings were designed by Charles Henry Driver. The station building survived the closure and is now a private residence named the "Old Withyham Station"; much of the trackbed as far as Groombridge and Three Bridges are part of the Worth Way and Forest Way cyclepath/footpaths.

The Wealden Line is a partly abandoned double track railway line in East Sussex and Kent that connected Lewes with Tunbridge Wells, a distance of 25.25 miles (40.64 km). The line takes its name from its route through the chalk hills of the North and South Downs of the Weald, England.

The Hellingly Hospital Railway was a light railway owned and operated by East Sussex County Council, used for transporting coal and passengers to Hellingly Hospital, a psychiatric hospital near Hailsham, from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's Cuckoo Line at Hellingly railway station.

The Cranleigh line was a linking railway line in England that connected Guildford on the Portsmouth-London line, the county town of Surrey, with the West Sussex market town of Horsham on another line to the south coast. The line ran through Cranleigh and measured 19.25 miles (31 km). The line closed on 14 June 1965 four months before its centenary, the only Surrey railway closure in the mid-1960s stripping out known as the Beeching Axe, officially termed "The Reshaping of British Railways".

Selsdon railway station was at the junction of the Croydon, Oxted and East Grinstead Railway and the now-closed Woodside and South Croydon Joint Railway. Opened in 1885 as "Selsdon Road" and it was 2 miles (3.2 km) from Selsdon village.

References

↑ "Parishes - Worth | A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7 (pp. 192-200)". British-history.ac.uk. 18 June 1935. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
1 2 3 "Rowfant railway station on Subterranea Britannica". Subbrit.org.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
↑ "Rowfant Grange". Early-lbscr.co.uk. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
1 2 Tim Whittle: Fuelling the Wars - PLUTO and the Secret Pipeline Network 1936 to 2015 published 2017 p219. ISBN 9780992855468
↑ Gould, David (1983). Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells. The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-299-5.

External links

Map showing Rowfant

Coordinates: 51°06′55″N0°06′35″W / 51.1152°N 0.1097°W / 51.1152; -0.1097

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Parishes - Worth | A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7 (pp. 192-200)". British-history.ac.uk. 18 June 1935. Retrieved 4 August 2013.

[subbrit-2] 1 2 3 "Rowfant railway station on Subterranea Britannica". Subbrit.org.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2013.

[3] "Rowfant Grange". Early-lbscr.co.uk. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2013.

[Tim_Whittle_p219-4] 1 2 Tim Whittle: Fuelling the Wars - PLUTO and the Secret Pipeline Network 1936 to 2015 published 2017 p219. ISBN 9780992855468

[gould-5] Gould, David (1983). Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells. The Oakwood Press. ISBN 978-0-85361-299-5.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]