To Ranters Lane Bridge (Rise Bridge)

I have been putting off continuing the journey down the line because parking is so difficult and I did not expect to find much. I did return on a sunny Sunday morning though.

                               Back in the cutting at Finchcocks Road Bridge (south of Goudhurst Station site)

Heading south soon after the bridge there is a large bank of earth but it was actually quite easy to traverse.

     Much as before the cutting continues for another 125 metres or so. It is mid-morning and the line has
     swung south east, so the sun is immediately in front of me.

     All the way along old railway sleepers form the bordering fences to fields of sheep, much as they                    probably did when the line closed in 1961. (Elvis Presley was 'no.1' of the singles chart then with                                                                                  'Surrender').

                  At it's deepest the cutting is about 12 - 15 feet but it shallows out to the south-east.

At first I can hear the 'clip - clopping' of horses on the bridge behind me, then the distant sound of church bells and an occasional squirrel jumping in front of me. I get a sense of belonging being here which is hard to explain.

                                                

                                                 On both sides of the cutting and more sleepers.

Soon the cutting comes to an end unfortunately with another bank of earth beyond which I believe is a pumping station and a large house.

I am forced to walk over to Ranters Lane bridge via Blue Coat Lane. Peter Harding has walked the track bed to the bridge (prior to some of it becoming people's gardens) and he said that the bridge was still there but partially buried.

From Blue Coat Lane looking south-west. The line of trees mark the edge of the field adjoining 

the railway.

A bump in the road indicates Ranters Lane Bridge but there is little to see from the top.

It is though quite a height.

The line followed a stream that fed into the River Teise just before the station and there is a foot path up here near this bridge, I followed it into a field but the stream remained in between myself and the track bed, in any case there was nothing to see except for some snowdrops.

Survivors

As you probably know most of the old steam locomotives met their demise in the 1960's when they were sent to scrap yards to be cut up, but a couple that worked on the Hawkhurst Branch were saved and can be found on The Bluebell Railway (a heritage railway in Sussex). I know little about steam locomotives as I was born a little too late to experience them, but luckily there are lot of websites that provide information.


Locomotive 31592

Originally and now numbered 592, this 'C' Class Wainwright engine was built for the South East and Chatham Railway in 1902, altogether 109 of this design were built of which 106 were still going in 1948 upon nationalisation (it says something about their resilience that so many survived). It was withdrawn from active duty in 1967. It is the only one of it's class to survive.

http://www.railuk.info/members/steam/getsteam.php?row_id=5379

Please copy and paste the above web address into your browser for full specifications.

I can't find any images of this engine pictured on the Hawkurst Line through web searches, but it appears on page 31 of Peter Harding's book and in pictures 31 and 35 of Vic Mitchell's and Keith Smith's book.

     
                                             South Eastern and Chatham Railway no. 592


Unfortunately the day I visited this loco was in the engine shed as it was not on roster duty so the pictures are dark, I hope to return later and get some better pictures. During BR days most of the locos were painted black and ex Southern region trains were renumbered to five digits beginning with a '3', where did the Bluebell railway get the plate number from I wonder?

                            The engine was undergoing routine maintenance, hence the rags.

    I was struck by the size of the tender, either this engine gobbled large quantities of coal or it could    run for many miles on a full tender.

    The engine has been restored to close to it's original livery which seems to have been green and        red or green and brown during S.E.C.R. days. (The S.E.C.R. lasted from 1899 - 1923 when it              became a part  of the Southern Railway).






























'Oh my Daddy my Daddy!'
Edith Nesbit's 'The Railway Children' book (1906) was made into a film in 2000 on location at the Bluebell Railway and this locomotive appears in some of the scenes although it was not 'The Green Dragon'.

Edith Nesbit 1858 to 1924                        

Edith Nesbit lost her father when she was three and a constant theme of the film is the children trying to remember the father who was suddenly taken from them. After the loss of their father they 'have to play at being poor for a while'. They move to a different part of the country and make friends with an eccentric railway porter. If you are not British you might find it hard to understand the middle class sentiments of this family early in the twentieth century, but it is a very moving story and well worth watching (it can currently be found onYouTube). Nesbit's first husband was a serial philanderer and she was forced to bring up a number of children who were not her own, but she did find love later in life, and married the retired skipper of the Woolwich ferry who was devoted to her. They moved to St Mary's Bay, (if Nesbit had lived another three years she would have witnessed the opening of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature railway which still runs through the village).






Locomotive 31263

This is another Wainwright engine that began its working life on the South East and Chatham Railway, this 'H' class was built in 1905 and seems to produce the same amount of boiler pressure as the C class but with a smaller boiler. In British rail days these trains were considered ideal for the Hawkhurst Branch as they were well suited to shunting duties (I think that their wheel base was smaller) and pulling light loads.



                                        31263 at Goudhurst Station circa 1960 heading down the line.


http://www.railuk.info/members/steam/getsteam.php?row_id=5181

More details on link above.

                   (31263) 263 building up steam outside the engine shed at Sheffield Park Station


Sixty-six of these locomotives were built at the turn of the twentieth century, sixty four were still in service in 1948 but nearly all were scrapped during the 1960's. This is the only survivor of it's class.

                                      Seen here shunting carriages prior to a trip up the line.

I felt a quite emotional as this loco came towards me, it felt a bit like a living creature. To think that this once steamed through Horsmonden cutting just beyond our back garden which I only ever knew as a quiet lonely place.

                 Again the livery today is similar to it's original South East and Chatham railway colours.

Reversing onto the platform ready to take a load of passengers towards East Grinstead.

The tender is tiny compared to 31592.

An interview with Peter Harding

               Cold, muddy and unappealing, the River Medway in Maidstone threatens to burst it's banks.

I'm in Maidstone to meet Peter Harding as Maidstone United play Aldershot Town. Peter who lives near Woking is a loyal Aldershot fan, whilst I am a Maidstone fan so it is an opportunity to meet up. (Skip this bit if you don't like football).

It's cold and I somehow manage to arrive two hours early but Angela Reed is there nevertheless, selling programs. Every club and society have them, wonderful people who give hours of their time unselfishly. Angela and her husband Bryan have played a huge part in the success of this club. Unfortunately Bryan a postman has to work longer hours now and misses most of the matches. Maidstone's new stand is being built in the background and when erected will bring the capacity up to 4000 to comply with Conference rules. Unfortunately the expense of close to £1,000.000.00 means that the players are part time and only train two evenings a week. Most of the teams in this league are full time professional.

                              A rare Maidstone attack. Psychedelic boots are de rigueur in 2017.

Aldershot were the first team to go bust after Accrington Stanley, in 1991-1992 they were demoted 5 divisions but kept their ground and recovered quickly (now they are pushing for a third spell in the football league). Maidstone went the same way about a month later, but they were demoted 10 divisions and did not even have a ground, so it has been a long slow recovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXOkzy69zu0

'There is always someone worse awf than yourself!'
The above YouTube clip from an East Enders episode sums up the gloom Maidstone fans experienced. Dot is visiting her old stamping grounds in Kent reliving her hop picking days and Jim goes with her but soon gets bored and disappears into a pub.


                                                   **************



                   Peter Harding


Anyway I will not mention the score but I did get to meet Peter and had an easy chat with him. He described how he and his friends would place a penny on the line at Pattenden Siding and wait for a train to run over it, afterwards it would always be many times its original size. He let me email him the following questions which he has kindly answered. Peter also mentioned that he does the artwork for the covers of most of his books. I  had meant to take a photograph but I got distracted (fortunately I had a picture in advance).



1/ Peter I believe you grew up in Goudhurst near the station, do you have any personal memories of the old Hawkhurst Line?

1.    My family moved to Goudhurst in 1946 when I was two years old, my father had a shop in the village at the top of Clay Hill (the first shop in the village coming up from the station). The branch line to Hawkhurst was always part of our lives and in those days nobody ever thought that one day it would not be there, in fact Mr.Burgess of Burgess Stores in the village who at that time would have been in his mid to late sixties remembered the line being opened at Hope Mill and was actually there. As children we would walk the branch line on a Sunday afternoon (no trains on Sunday's except in Hop picking time) from Pattenden Sidings to Goudhurst Station and then up the mile or so to the village. I remember when the Queen Mother (who at that time was the Queen) visited the area to go to Beneden Hospital and review the hops, the whole school marched down to the station and waved union jacks as the train slowly passed through the station, the Queen gave us one of her royal waves!!!.

2/ Can you give us some reminiscences about the hop pickers who used to come to your area every year?

2.    When the hop pickers came they took over all the local villages and Goudhurst became like a mini Brighton with toffee apples and candy floss etc  for sale. They (the hop pickers) used to get up to no good at times (not all of them of course) and an extra copper was sent to the village, in fact the same chap stayed with us each year. They were lovely days and I could go on for ages with some of the stories involving the hop pickers.

3/ You have written a number of books about lost railways including some (to me) quite obscure lines such as'The Hellingly Hospital Railway' and 'The Bisley Camp Branch Line' how long have you been writing these books and what prompted you to start?

3.    I have been writing and publishing my booklets since 1982 when I published the first edition of the Hawkhurst Branch Line, at that time I didn't expect to do any more but, everyone started saying 'what are you doing next?' which made me carry on, I have published at least one booklet a year and have done second editions for most of them and even a third edition of the Hawkhurst booklet. I like to do the obscure lines like the Hellingly Hospital Railway which is one of my best selling publications although the Rye & Camber Tramway is without doubt my best selling one. A shop at Rye sold 400 copies in just over a month when I first published it.

4/ What are you working on now?

4.     I have just finished a second edition (now at the printers) of the Bulford Branch Line (in Wiltshire) which includes the Larkhill Military Railway (which went off the Bulford branch near Amesbury).

5/ How have sales been of 'The Hawkhurst Branch'? 

5.    The sales of the Hawkhurst Branch Line are going okay although things have slowed down a bit lately, I still think that £4.00 is not a bad price (good job my life doesn't depend on it as its only a hobby).

6/ I think you played a lot of football as a school boy around Kent and later you played for Aldershot is that correct?

6.     Football has always played a big part of my life, as a younger person I was a goalkeeper and played for my school at Ashford, Kent (Ashford South School where the former Kent cricket captain Alan Ealham was in my same class), the district boys team Ashford & Weald (I once played against Maidstone boys in the English Schools Shield on the old Maidstone London Road ground, in the Maidstone team was David Sadler who went on to play for Manchester United and England), I was meant to play for Kent Boys against Essex Boys but was ill and missed the game. I was signed on as an amateur for Arsenal after trials at Highbury but then broke my leg throwing a discus back at school!!!!!. After my leg mended, I was loaned out from Arsenal to Bexleyheath & Welling and played in the South East Counties Youth League against all the top Youth teams in London, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs etc.

At 19 I joined Aldershot and while playing for their 'A' team I was injured and lost one of my kidneys and my spleen. This meant my football career finished at 19 years old. I still watch Aldershot and I'm a season ticket holder.

                                                                  **********************

http://www.bluebell-shop.co.uk/mall/departmentpage.cfm/BlueBellRailwayShop/_132214/1/Peter%2520A%252E%2520Harding

Peter's books can be purchased from the Bluebell Railway bookshop, their webpage can be accessed by copying and pasting the above into your browser or by simply searching for 'Bluebell Railway bookshop'.