Lewes station - April 2003

A short distance further on in this view towards Uckfield, the embankment abruptly ends. Hidden by the shrubs is a now isolated brick abutment that once marked the commencement of the Cliffe viaduct. Beyond it lies a housing estate and then Lewes' rebuilt town centre, from which all traces of the former route have disappeared.

Despite all the years of disuse, the trackbed here is surprisingly free of vegetation and the original ballast is much in evidence.

The object visible in the middle distance is a track alignment peg (or 'monument' to an engineer), a once familiar feature that has long since vanished from today's rail network. Track lifting at this end of the route proceded with great speed after the last trains ran in February 1969; perhaps it was during this process that something knocked it askew. (Grid Ref. TQ 419 102)