Destruction of a railway

It is now over 20 years since the closure of the Eridge - Tunbridge Wells rail link. Less than five miles long, it lacked any of the drama of other threatened routes like the Settle - Carlisle line, yet it served the community well for over 110 years, providing a direct link between towns like Uckfield, Crowborough and Tunbridge Wells.

Continuing north to Tonbridge, its trains provided excellent connections with mainline services to London and the Kent Coast. Until the Lewes - Uckfield line was destroyed for the sake of a road scheme in 1969, the Eridge - Tunbridge Wells link also formed part of a useful rail corridor that linked the Kent network to Brighton and the 'coastway' routes.

When British Rail announced the line's closure in August 1982, the widespread opposition to its plans was only to be expected. In the fight to save their railway, vigorously pursued through the official Transport Users' Consultative Committee (TUCC) hearing at Tunbridge Wells in early 1983, local people won the arguments but ultimately lost the battle.

Even though the TUCC strongly recommended against closure, the Department of Transport was in no mood to listen. Sweeping all objections aside, in February 1985 the then transport minister, Nicholas Ridley, gave his consent to closure. The last trains ran on 6 July that year.

It is interesting to note that in putting forward their case for closure, BR managers claimed that they would have to spend £500,000 on new signalling at Grove junction and £750,000 on track repairs for the route as a whole. Considering the value of a typical family house today -- let alone the price of a very modest bypass -- these figures seem a trivial price to have paid to secure the future of such an important rail link.

The Wealden Line Campaign has now been fortunate in obtaining a number of previously unpublished, high-quality colour photos of the Eridge to Tunbridge Wells route. Taken over a period of seven years, they document its criminal neglect under British Rail and its subsequent destruction.

They also serve as a timely reminder that there was once a real alternative to the congested A26 for travel between Kent and East Sussex -- and that Tunbridge Wells travellers once had a choice of stations.

But most importantly, they serve as a powerful reminder of what could be achieved again if only the political will can be found to restore the route.

Just click on any of the thumbnails and use your forward and back buttons to navigate.

If you would like to learn about the background to the closure of this route, see our history section. Elsewhere on the site you will also find information on the present state of the track and details of our proposals to revive it, along with maps of the local rail system and 'Central Rail Corridor'.

And if you share our anger at the official vandalism that these photographs depict, there are two other things you should do: join our campaign and tell your councillors and MPs what you think.

 Revised April 2008