Badgers Oak Tunnel (North end)

This was the highest point of the line at about 200 feet above mean sea level. There are quite a lot of videos and accounts of peoples visits here so I am expecting it to be very wet and a little 'creepy',  there are also supposed to be old abandoned railway sleepers and an even an old rail according to one 'Youtuber'.

                                                The last swamp before the tunnel.

 The Northern Portal looks the same as Horsmonden Tunnel, and this too has a three brick        lining. The vegetation obscures a clear view of the design in the brickwork.

The paint on the original PWH tunnel reference number has been eroded away over the years.

As I entered the tunnel the sounds of bird song diminished to be replaced by the sound of hundreds of drips falling from different parts of the roof. Maybe that is why it feels creepy to some people.

Once more the same red bricks have been used. Like Horsmonden there are 'bleed pipes' set in the walls every five meters or so. They are all dry though. This one seems to have been cemented in rather badly.

               The walls are very wet in some places as water streams down from the roof.

                                           Wet mud covers most of the floor.

A shot of the wet roof. White calcite deposits are more apparent than black soot deposits. (Why did I not manage to get a picture of the roof of Horsmonden tunnel?)

                         Brick particles cover the floor. (This seems quite concerning.)

Calcification has began on some of the brick work. The constant dampness has caused a chemical reaction in the bricks, leeching out salts and impurities.

A  shot of the first refuge. Here the tunnels are different, I am about six feet tall and I was able to stand upright in one with my head brushing the top of the arch, I had to squat in Horsmonden tunnel as it was at least six inches lower.

                                                           More brick chippings.

                        A second refuge, this one is in good condition. Why are there always broken bottles found in places like this? A person would have to be really depressed to sit in a dripping dark tunnel getting sloshed!

The inside of another refuge in a poor state of repair. The bricks have crumbled away exposing the bare rock behind.

                                      Some of the bricks in the wall are missing too.

The tunnel is somewhere between 172 and 178 yards long depending on who's account you are reading. I wisely bought a torch, and a coat with a hood (which I had to raise immediately) but I only wore walking boots as I had left my wellies in the shed and have lost the keys somewhere in the garden! Fortunately  the water never went over my boots. I felt ever so slightly uneasy at one stage but I don't usually mind places like this. If, however, the tunnel had been longer and wetter then it may have unnerved me! Despite being at a higher elevation the tunnel is much wetter than Horsmonden tunnel, but at least the water can drain away down the track bed. Horsmonden Tunnel is so full of rubbish that any water in there can't escape easily (see my 2015 blog).

Hall Farm Bridge to Badgers Oak Tunnel [part three]

It must have been quite a sight in Victorian times looking up from the wood towards the top of the embankment to see a train hauling its wagons to the highest part of the line. Finally, the industrial revolution had reached this part of Kent!

                           The land around is rising up again as we approach the tunnel.

There was one more area of fallen trees that went on for about 40 meters and had yet to be negotiated (I have learnt to take my glasses off in these situations since loosing them in similar terrain north of Horsmonden tunnel) and then more swamp before the tunnel was reached.

                             Badger Oak Tunnel looms into view as we enter the final cutting.

                                          A view from the side of the track bed.

I know that I have gone into a lot of detail but experience has taught me that this could all be gone tomorrow.
I would rather have too many records of what was left as at January 2019 than not enough.

Hall Farm Bridge to Badgers Oak Tunnel [part two]

All the way from Hall Farm Bridge the track bed is still rising at 1 in 80, but swamps still keep appearing bringing back memories of Horsmonden South cutting before it was filled in. I would not like to do this walk after heavy rains!

In some places where there has been water recently the ballast used on the track bed is apparent.

What are these? There are two square brick structures one each side of the track. One Youtuber thought that they were the remains of a bridge
 

There are also the remains of  wooden steps going up the bank (perhaps the others are buried under leaf mulch, or have rotted away.)

These structures had covers once, the broken parts of one lies nearby. Pipes drip water into a kind of sump. It appears to be something to do with drainage.

                                                                    Another bog!

Someone's doing fine.

           The cutting has almost disappeared as the surrounding countryside has risen sharply.

    Old railway sleepers border the track bed. This one is looking particularly worn out.

The track bed has risen again, this embankment is very high, it could be the highest one on the whole line which was at 49 feet. 

           This picture shows how quickly the land falls away at the side of the embankment. 

Hall Farm Bridge to Badgers Oak Tunnel [part one]

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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Old film footage available on the internet

There have been quite a few short films available which show the railway in it's heyday. I am not able to find most of them now but if I come across any I will post the links below. I can't promise that they will still be there in six months time however. (You just need to copy the address of the chosen footage and paste it into your browser and hit  the 'return' key.)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LHmjPmM-fw

This is part of an early 1950's film on Youtube which shows Goudhurst Station platform at that time (in the film the train continues to fictional 'Barden'.) The characters are supposed to be hop pickers from London, although I don't think the working classes had middle class accents.

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https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-adventure-in-the-hopfields-1954-online

The entire film 'Adventure in the Hop Fields' is available here and is free to view.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO69U5Blvxo&t=45s

This footage shows the branch line in 1958. The narrator on this seems to be very knowledgeable. It is particularly interesting because for a large part of it the camera is mounted on the drivers cab giving a 'drivers eye view' I am struck by how green everything was that summer and how slim the people were.

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(130) RAILWAY 1960 TO Hawkhurst. Cranbrook.Goudhurst.Horsmonden - YouTube

I must have had a 'physic flash'  30/11/2020 I felt the need to re-check Youtube for footage literally two minutes after Peter Smallwood had uploaded old cine film of the journey from Hawkhurst to joining the Main Line in the spring of 1960. The film is blurry in places but very interesting.

Cranbrook Station

Cranbrook Station was the third station on the Line after Paddock Wood Station and was approximately three and a half miles South East of Goudhurst Station. All the way from Goudhurst Station the Line had risen steadily so there were a lot of cuttings and embankments through an area that skirted the National  Pinetum. Consequently the station was at a higher elevation than any of the others.
The South Eastern Railway (SER) who built the Line in 1893 had hoped to run it all the way to near the center of Cranbrook, having apparently purchased the site of a hop field. They were unable to persuade a few large landowners to sell their land, however, and in desperation perhaps built the Station near the tiny village of Hartley but called it Cranbrook Station. In fact the town of Cranbrook was about two and a half miles away by road.

                                              Cranbrook Station Circa 1910

Looking North, the station had one 300 foot long platform on the downside, it had two goods sheds, each at opposite ends of a long siding (only the nearest one is apparent), then the booking hall, Station Masters house with its three dormer windows, signal box and various maintenance huts. The nearest one to us in the picture was probably for the storage of lamp oil, but sensibly perhaps it was later replaced with a corrugated iron structure. I believe that the houses in the background may have been built for the railway workers.

                                          Looking south, a view of the station from the track bed.

Unlike many of the stations, Cranbrook platform had a brick facing. A part of the goods yard can be glimpsed through the railings between the oil lamps. The station had a small goods loop which was long enough for a few wagons but why the line petered out after the loop I don't know!

                   Looking north again, the small goods loop is clearly visible on the left.

             A lovely old photograph of the platform looking south towards Hall Farm Bridge. 


As if to 'cock a snoop' at the people of Cranbrook the railway line actually veered away from Cranbrook towards Hawkhurst at the station itself!

On the extreme right of the photo a way marker shows the station stood forty-four and three quarter miles from Charing Cross in London.

            Locomotive 31553 heading south towards Hawkhurst, probably in the 1950's

                           Cranbrook Station 10th June 1961 (two days before closure).

                                       Another picture taken the same day.


This station was probably the worst sited of all the stations, it being so far from the town it was supposed to serve. It did however have a few things going for it, the Hawkhurst Line was described as one of the loveliest railways in Britain and many travelers preferred this station to all the others. In the earlier part of the Twentieth Century it was not uncommon for cyclists to come down from London by train and use the station as a base to cycle around Kent and Sussex. Also, it was still the nearest station to Cranbrook.
Surprisingly, in 1949 Cranbrook Station had 58 season ticket holders (more than Horsmonden or Goudhurst) and it would of course also have contributed more to the volume of goods traffic.

                                                      ----------------------------

I paid a visit for the first time today. The site is located down a country lane off of the A229 (the Maidstone to Hastings road.)

                                 Entrance to the lane leading to Cranbrook Station site.

     The old signal box and Station Masters House are still standing. (Likewise the old station       building has been re-vampted in green, for years it was very neglected - see the Wikipedia     page photo of 1985.)

This was the booking hall, there is a 1984 photograph of it in Wikipedia looking very neglected, since then it has been modified and rebuilt.

The old goods yard has become a lorry terminal for Calor Gas and Collison vehicles (they also litter the track bed beyond the old station buildings and up to what was Hall Farn Bridge) but the main goods shed is still intact.

                                    Old railway sleepers border a  parking area.

It is nearly sixty years since the railway closed and it still haunts me, its scars left a haunting reminder of it's recent presence in the village when I was a child. Thank you for caring too! I know this blog often has punctuation and spelling mistakes but people still look at it, I had 129 page views from Russia this week and it is gratifying to know that there are other people who feel similarly to me.