I felt that I had better cover the rest of the railway to Hawkhurst, there is a lot of footage on the internet but I have never been here before. Hall Farm Bridge as it was called can be reached by a small private road just off of the A299 and close to Station Road which led to Cranbrook Station. the Bridge covers a considerable cutting and Hall Farm is just the other side of it.
Paddock Wood to Hawkhurst Railway (bridge no. 1529)
Another view of part of the bridge with the farm beyond.
It is nice to see that this structure still exists. Again the same type of red brick has been used as in all the other structures, although these seem to be some of the newer bricks and 'PWH 1529'
appears to have been painted on top.
Looking north from near Hall Farm Bridge towards Cranbrook Station as it was 10th June 1961.
Looking south from the top of the bridge the line finishes its curve from Cranbrook Station and begins heading due south, it is now in a fairly deep cutting which shows how quickly the terrain varies.
There was was 'twitcher' wearing binoculars, lurking at one end of the bridge, so I introduced myself and asked him if he knew a way down to the trackbed? He didn't. He was however pleased that the the abandoned railway is here because the trees attract a lot of insect life which is good for birds. (He then went on to moan about greenfly; 'thirty years ago you could drive for ten miles in the summer time and your wind screen would be thick with insects but now you can drive for one hundred miles and collect very few'. It's easy to mock people like the Green fly man but he has a point, many farmers chose to use pesticides to increase crop yields which has undoubtedly reduced the price of food but it has also destroyed the source of food for many birds.) I decided to leave the twitcher and ascend from the side of the bridge.
Hall Farm Bridge from the track bed (Cranbrook Station side). You can see clearly from down here that many of the bricks have been replaced.
The bridge abutments must tower about 30 feet above the line, why are there pipes' in the brick work? A lot of effort and expense must have gone into building this farm bridge, how many bricks must it have taken?
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Onwards. There is a lot of mud, - it looks like I am going to revisit my boyhood!
A look back at Hall Farm Bridge from the south.
A last peep back around the curve of the bend. Mosses and ferns abound.
It does give me an idea what it may have been like for a driver of the milk train seeing the bridge emerging out of the morning mist.
(I am unable to upload any more large pictures so I will continue this as a separate post.)
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