Westerham | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Westerham, Sevenoaks England |
| Grid reference | TQ448544 |
| Platforms | 1 |
| Other information | |
| Status | Disused |
| History | |
| Pre-grouping | South Eastern Railway SECR |
| Post-grouping | Southern Railway Southern Region of British Railways |
| Key dates | |
| 3 July 1881 [1] | Opened |
| 30 October 1961 [1] | Closed |
Westerham railway station served the village of Westerham in Kent from 1881 until its closure in 1961.
No railway was ever constructed all the way between Sevenoaks and Redhill to parallel what is now the A25 road and the Pilgrims' Way. Reasons for this may include: a) the Redhill to Tonbridge Line had been built quite early in railway history and served the settlements between Redhill and Godstone, b) the difficult choice between boggy land in the valley bottom and the gradients encountered on the A25 route at Limpsfield and Nutfield, c) the "pull" of London 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 to Westerham with one intermediate station at Brasted. The branch was built as single track with provision for double track as an ambitious extension to Oxted was envisaged. The South Eastern Railway took over the company soon after construction, itself becoming part of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899. The Southern Railway took over responsibility for the line upon the railway grouping in 1923, followed by the Southern Region of British Railways upon nationalisation in 1948.
The line was ostensibly closed in October 1961 as being unremunerative due to low patronage [1] and was the subject of a preservation attempt by the Westerham Valley Railway Association. The Association had succeeded in obtaining a lease of Westerham Station from British Rail in April 1962 and had carried out maintenance works. Just after this it was purchased from British Rail by Kent County Council under the terms of compulsory purchase; the Council demolished the road bridge at Chevening in order to build the A21 Sevenoaks Bypass. Whilst the Council was happy to lease the line to the Association this was on condition that the Association had to raise the required funds to construct an overbridge for the now widened A21 at Chevening. The Association was unable to meet the costs of constructing the overbridge and the Council promptly in-filled the section, effectively cutting the line in two. The station buildings were later demolished and track lifted by March 1967. [2] Some 15 year later in 1976 the Southern section of the London Orbital motorway, the M25 was built over a proportion of the old line. [1] This closure was coincident with the removal of all steam services in the Kent area following the completion of a number of major electrification schemes.
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | British Railways Southern Region Westerham branch | Brasted |
The "Westerham Flyer" was the Class H 0-4-4T No. 31518 locomotive which pulled the morning trains on the last day of service on Saturday 26 October 1961. The Flyers Way industrial estate covers the footprint of the former station site and goods yard and is named after this locomotive, 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 and into nearby allotments.
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The A25 road is an east–west main road in the South-East of England. Its carries traffic east from Guildford, Surrey, eastward through Surrey and into mid-west Kent, to the town of Sevenoaks, and then on to Wrotham Heath where it connects with the A20.
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Sevenoaks railway station is a railway station on the South Eastern Main Line in England, serving the town of Sevenoaks, Kent. It is 22 miles 9 chains (35.6 km) down the line from London Charing Cross and is situated between Dunton Green and Hildenborough stations. Trains calling at the station are operated by Southeastern and Thameslink.
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Chevening is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It was the location for the world's earliest known organised cricket match.
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Brasted is a disused intermediate railway station in Brasted, Kent on the closed Westerham Valley branch line. The station closed in 1961 and the site is covered by the carriageway of the M25 motorway that was constructed along the route of the disused railway.
Transportation needs within the county of Kent in South East England has been served by both historical and current transport systems.
The Westerham Valley branch line was a short railway line in Kent that connected Westerham, Brasted and Chevening with the village of Dunton Green and the South Eastern Main Line, a distance of 4.5 miles (7.2 km).
Chevening Halt is a now-closed intermediate railway station on the Westerham branch line in Kent.
Holmesdale, also known as the Vale of Holmesdale, is a valley in South-East England that falls between the hill ranges of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge of the Weald, in the counties of Kent and Surrey. It stretches from Folkestone on the Kent coast, through Ashford, Harrietsham, Maidstone, Riverhead/Sevenoaks, Westerham, Oxted, Godstone, Redhill, Reigate, Dorking, Gomshall, and Guildford – west of which it is also called by the local name of "Puttenham Vale" – as it continues through the village of Puttenham, to the market town of Farnham.
Sevenoaks Rural District was a rural district in the county of Kent, England, from 1894 to 1974. It did not include Sevenoaks Urban District, which covered the town of Sevenoaks. It was created in 1894 from the majority of the area of Somerden Hundred, and parts of the Hundreds of Codsheath, Brasted, and Westerham and Edinbridge.
Somerden was a hundred, a historical land division, in the county of Kent, England. It occupied the southwest corner of Kent, in the southern part of the Lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, in the west division of Kent. The hundred was one of the last to be created in Kent, unlike the majority of Kent hundreds, it was not formally constituted in the Domesday Book of 1086, but came into being sometime after. Today the area is mostly rural and located in the southern part of the Sevenoaks District, south of Sevenoaks and west of Tonbridge. Somerden Hundred was approximately 7.5 mi (12.1 km) wide east to west, and 5.5 mi (8.9 km) long north to south, and had a small exclave about 1 mi (1.6 km) out from its south east corner. In the 1831 census Somerden was recorded as having an area of 13,650 acres (55 km2). The population in that census was recorded as 3,924, of which 2,078 were male and 1,846 were female, who belonged to 734 families living in 567 houses.
Codsheath was a hundred, a historical land division, in the county of Kent, England. It occupied the eastern part of the Lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, in the west division of Kent. Codsheath was also recorded as "Codsede" in ancient records. Today the area that was the Codsheath Hundred is part of the Sevenoaks District of Kent that includes the town of Sevenoaks and surrounding area. The Hundred of Codsheath was included in the Domesday Book of 1086, that records it as having 203 houses, 44 in Sundridge and 159 in Otford. The River Darent flowed through the Codsheath Hundred, generally in a northeast direction. Several watermills were constructed on the river within the hundred, in the villages of Sundridge, Otford, Shoreham and Chevening.
The 2019 Sevenoaks District Council election took place on 2 May 2019 to elect members of Sevenoaks District Council. This was on the same day as other local elections. The entire council was up for election. The result was a reduced majority for the Conservatives but was still a large victory. Independents made gains, as did the Liberal Democrats. UKIP lost the 1 seat they had won in 2015. No contest was held in 4 wards, as the same number of candidates as seats up for election ran.