SUSSEX MAIN LINES - A YEAR 2002 SURVEY
John Blackwell
9. KEYMER JUNCTION TO SEAFORD
A link from the main London to Brighton line at Keymer (south of the present
Wivelsfield Station) to Lewes was opened on 1st October 1847 and extended to
Newhaven on 8th December of the same year. A single line from Newhaven to
Seaford was opened on 1st June 1864, which was doubled in 1904 and singled again
in 1975. Electrification of all the above routes took place in 1935.
Initially there were no Stations on the Keymer branch although allegedly trains
stopped where the line crosses the present Junction Road at TQ 319196. The stop
appears in the timetable for 1855 and a Station is clearly visible on the 1875
OS map at this point but I have not come across any photographs or illustrations
of it. This Station closed in 1883 as part of an abortive scheme to build a
flyover across the main line. Local resentment at the closure resulted in the
opening of a new Station to the north, in 1886. This was renamed Wivelsfield in
1896. The typical cast iron footbridge crossing the line at Junction Road
survived until 1978 and in the eighties the signal box and early railway
cottages were demolished. All traces of the siding which ran just past the old
Station into the Keymer Brick and Tile works have been obliterated .
Plumpton Station opened in 1863 and remains a typical Victorian rural Station.
The signal box dates from 1891 and is an in house LB&SCR design introduced to
supplement output from Saxby & Farmer, and similar in appearance. Built of brick
up to the window level, the roof is surmounted by a large ventilator. About
1985, the box ceased to be a block post, becoming a "ground frame" protecting
the crossing. The box fulfils this function today, and is now the only location
in Sussex where the old-fashioned level crossing gates, worked by wheel, are
still operational. The box, gates and crossing keepers cottage opposite, with
identification number painted on the house wall, were Grade II listed in 1986
and prompted the overnight demolition of the Worthing, West Worthing and Goring
boxes by BR to ensure similar protection should not be awarded to them! The
outline can still be discerned of an additional platform on the up side. This
was provided in the early years of the last century for traffic to the adjacent
race course.
Cooksbridge Station opened in 1851 with the down side buildings remaining intact
today. Regrettably the signal box dating from about 1875 was demolished in the
1980s. The line proceeds towards Lewes passing the still clearly visible
junction where the 1858 line to Uckfield diverged at Hamsey TQ 405121 (this is
the alignment that would be used if the line to Uckfield was ever reinstated).
The line then enters a tunnel that passes under the castle before emerging at
Lewes Station, which has been covered in a previous article.
Leaving Lewes, the line to Eastbourne and Hastings crosses the River Ouse at
Southerham before branching south to Newhaven and Seaford. The 1847 cast iron
bridge, which crosses the cut from the Ouse to Glynde Reach at TQ 436073, has
recently been restored. Southease opened as Southease and Rodmell Halt on 1st
September 1906 and was served initially by two petrol railcars built by Dick
Kerr & Co of Kilmarnock for the stopping service between Lewes and Seaford.
These proved to be unsatisfactory and were replaced in 1912 by push-pull
locomotives which operated the service until electrification in 1935. Southease
Halt comprises a concrete footbridge and platforms. The crossing keeper's
cottage and signal box have been demolished. The minor road which crossed the
line here and linked the A26 to Southease village has been closed but the
interesting former swing bridge over the River Ouse remains as part of the
footway at TQ 426055. It is the second bridge on this site, being built in the
1880s. The opening mechanism remains but since 1967, there has been no need to
open the bridge for navigational purposes. To the south a lightly laid siding
from Newhaven North Quay ran into Newhaven Cement works at TQ 448032 until
closure in 1914.
With the opening of the line to Newhaven the way was clear for the commencement
of cross channel services and in 1848 the London and Paris Hotel was opened for
these passengers. Newhaven Town Station opened with the line in 1847 some 400
metres north of the end of the line on Railway Wharf where Newhaven Wharf
Station was constructed. Dates and information on this station, like Keymer are
scant. Today the up side of the Town Station retains the original flint
building. A wooden drawbridge erected in 1794 carried the coast road across the
River Ouse. It was replaced by a cast iron swing bridge in 1866. This bridge
carried a tramway from the North Quay sidings to the West Quay breakwater. This
huge breakwater was completed in 1889 after many years in construction and made
the harbour non-tidal dependent for shipping. The tramway was principally for
maintenance of this structure and the line ran along the top of the breakwater
supported on arches that formed (and still do) a covered walkway offering some
protection from the elements. For many years Stroudley Terrier No 72 Fenchurch,
now preserved at the Bluebell Railway, was the motive power; until closure of
the tramway in 1963. In 1974 the 1866 swing bridge was replaced by another, at a
higher level to the north. However, if one walks to the quayside, past the
Railway Social Club along the alignment of the old road, one of the pair of
gates which were closed to stop the traffic survives; as does the now derelict
police hut at the entrance to Railway Quay. To the south of this hut is the
former four-road engine shed erected in 1887 and constructed in corrugated iron
with wooden doors.
Immediately to the south are the, now listed, Marine Workshops of the LB&SCR,
built in 1882, for servicing the engines of the cross channel boats. Many will I
am sure remember the huge sheer-legs that stood on the quay in front of this
building. The building to the rear of the workshops was a later power Station
for the electrical supply to the quays. From the other side of the river can
still be viewed, just to the south of the workshops, the gridiron in the river
which supported vessels and enabled their hulls to be worked on at low tide.
Continuing to Newhaven Harbour Station, this was a rebuild or enlargement of the
Wharf Station, presumably coinciding with the opening of the line to Seaford in
1864. Following wholesale demolition of the quayside sheds in the 1970s, all
that remains of interest is the 1886 signal box, now with double glazing and air
conditioning. Behind the down platform, next to the former Harbour Tavern, are
the stables that housed the horses used for shunting wagons on the North Quay
until about 1950. To the south of the Harbour Station was Mill Creek, an inlet
for barges to the tide-mill at Bishopstone. Milling had ceased by 1879 when the
Newhaven Harbour Company (a subsidiary of the LB&SCR) bought the mill and
surrounding ponds. The inlet was filled with chalk from the excavations for the
foundations for Brighton College and a new wharf to the south, East Quay, was
constructed. In 1885 a fine new harbour station was built for the cross channel
traffic later known as Newhaven Marine or Continental, this was completely
destroyed by fire in November 1887 and rebuilt to the original ornate design by
Longleys of Crawley. It was demolished in the fifties or sixties and a new
station built in the seventies. Boat trains ceased not long after and the
station now stands deserted.
Returning to the present Harbour Station the line curves away to the east
passing the original Bishopstone Beach Station. This was provided for the
inhabitants of the adjoining Tide Mills village and a siding curved into the
mill. With the cessation of milling a tenancy was agreed with the Cafe Royal of
Regent Street for use of the mill as a bonded warehouse. (despite Pat Berry's
comment to the contrary, PRO Rail 414 101 refers) until 1900 when it was
demolished. The halt as it had become closed in 1942 but the platforms are
clearly visible at TQ461003. Half a mile to the east a new Station was opened in
1938 to serve anticipated residential development that was interrupted by WWII.
Built of brick with a single storey office and shops in the 1930s deco style
used by Southern Region, its chief interest is gun slits in the surmounting
tower.
The terminus at Seaford is largely as built with the exception of the engine
turntable at the east end which was removed on electrification, and the fine two
storey goods shed, identical to those surviving at Littlehampton and Arundel,
which was demolished in 1986 to make way for a health centre. Within the last
two years the wooden signal cabin, similar to that at Cooksbridge, has also
succumbed.
