Part 1 Going to take a sentimental odyssey...
Like many people I grew up next to the Hawkhurst Line, in my case in the 1960's and next to a very deep abandoned cutting in Horsmonden. As boys we were drawn down there and spent many hours playing there. The whole place seemed magical but I was always saddened by the fact that adults could allow old cars and rubbish to be dumped there and no effort seemed to have been made to preserve any part of it. There must be other people with similar feelings...
In the 1960's Mr Walter Barge bought the Station area and track bed up to Back Lane Bridge (formerly Sandy Lane), the station, and goods yard at the back, were converted into a garage and car park. To the north the very deep cutting was filled in with thousands of tons of rubbish from a procession of tipper trucks. I popped back recently with my daughters and then in March on my own, to take a look. The infill is almost to the level of the former banks now (it was hard to tell if the aspen trees are still there (it being winter).
Looking down to the remains of the cutting and Horsmonden Tunnel (or Dog House Tunnel) from the top of the east bank near the sports pavilion.
There is still a tiny bit of the original cutting left although it is a scramble to descend and the South portal of the tunnel is partially blocked, but with care we were easily able to scramble into it. A lot of rubbish has mindlessly been chucked down there. It had been raining the day before and there was one leak in the tunnel lining near the South portal. I was very impressed by the quality of the brickwork and mortar of 1892. The floor was very wet though as both portals have some infill precluding the orange gloop from draining away. The second time I brought wellies, as the water was too deep for us to reach half way into the tunnel without boots.
Into Neverland.
Here the cutting was perhaps 50 feet deep but felt like a lot more and after 4 miles of constant climbing from Paddock Wood Station this would be the highest point in the northern section of the line. To the south the track bed would begin descending at 1 in 113 towards Horsmonden Station but the land would continue rising slightly for a few hundred yards so you can imagine the achievement of the navies who dug this lot out with spades.
Above: An image of where the bridge structure joins the cutting. Once the cutting sides were very much like this with exposed layers of sandstone, moss and weeds all the way along almost to Horsmonden Station.
Above: Laying on the trackbed outside. Does anyone know what this was, it had metal bolts attached to it ?
The tunnel's three brick lining is fairly clear here.
Has anyone got a pump?
The tunnel is about 87 yards long and horse shoe shaped in profile like it's big sister Badger's Oak.
It was nice to see black soot stains in the roof but as it' is so cavernous and far away my flash photographs were not able to illuminate the roof sufficiently to show this. Explosives had to be used in the tunnel construction as the navies said that they met rock. The nearby tennis courts were hewn from the side of a hill and give an indication of the solid sandstone which would have been encountered.
There is a lot of metal debris down here which has oxidised with the water and mud to form an orange gloop.
(Top) This was a mattress? (Above) There is also a fine collection of old fire extinguishers bobbing in the gloop!
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Above is the only obvious leak in the tunnel lining situated low down near the Southern Portal.
There were many large weep pipes throughout every five meters or so - these are supposed to stop too much water building up inside the tunnel's lining, but they were all perfectly dry. My birch pole also features, this was essential for keeping my balance!
It is now three weeks later and I am back on a cold March day alone, wearing old clothes, gloves and wellies and I have recovered my big birch pole which I left lying against the tunnel wall. I shuffle further into the tunnel (the water is actually a little less deep than last time) I use my stick and hold onto one side of the tunnel wall to detect hazards. I am also wary about 'catch pits' (which are drains at the bottom of some tunnels) but fortunately it's fairly safe. The above photo does show another weep pipe.
On the West side of the tunnel the maintenance crew had marked out certain points in the tunnel which are still clearly visible 54 at least years on.
Above: A view approaching it's center looking north and one back towards the Southern Portal.
No lives were lost in the building of the tunnel but the body of a hop picker who had been hit by a train was found in here once. No one knows whether he was dead before the train hit him but he was certainly dead afterwards. (For full details of the mystery read Brian Hart's book 'The Hawkhurst Branch').
So how did the Victorians build tunnels? there was a lot of danger involved from cave ins so as you might expect after hewing out sections of rock with their picks they had to quickly shore up the roof and sides with very stout timbers. Water ingress was another problem, bricking the tunnel and providing a secure brick arch, providing straight brick work for long tunnels, navigating bends and ventilation were often issues too!
The below web address (taken from the Forgotten Relics website gives a short film answering these problems.
http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/tunnelvision/index.html
