Barcombe Mills - mid-1970s

Looking towards Hamsey from the former up platform. Beyond the station, the trackbed is already in use as a farm track.

The substantial overbridge in the far distance is for a private farm road. It marks the site of Culver junction, where the so-called Bluebell Line branched off northwards towards Horsted Keynes and East Grinstead. Following a brief reprieve brought about by a legal technicality, this route finally closed to all traffic in 1958.

Although, thanks to the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, the section north of Sheffield Park station will soon be completely reopened to East Grinstead, it seems unlikely that the southern section will see trains again. The major obstacle to any plans for reopening this section lies at the site of Newick and Chailey station, where landfill and housing development have completely obliterated the trackbed.

Fortunately local authority trackbed protection policies have so far protected the Uckfield - Lewes route from this kind of damage, making reopening mostly a case of scrub clearance and track laying.