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Progress on the Old Railway
Line Article
As readers will know, we are collecting material on the old
Canterbury and Whitstable Railway Line with a view to producing a
permanent feature. Our last Chat
Column contained a selection of photos the old Tyler Hill Rail
Tunnel and, now, we present a further selection of material spread
over three pages.
This first page features a wealth of fascinating photos
kindly contributed by Mike
Hatton and Peter Dalrymple. Mike has made available a
fascinating collection
of 35mm slides from past years and Peter has supplemented these
with current day photos. I have added some brief comments and
included anecdotes from James Styles (official photographer of the
University of Kent) and Garth Wyver.
As you make your way through the article, you may wish to have Brian Smith's overview of the
railway line available. If so click
here and it will appear as a separate window.
Before we continue, I would like to say a big thank you to
everyone involved.
The Invicta Locomotive
As Brian Smith has explained, the first locomotive on the line
was 'Invicta'. This was incapable of pulling trains
along the full length of the line due to the steep inclines. Thus,
it
operated on the short stretch from the harbour to Clowes Wood and
later suffered even further restrictions when it was confined to
the flat section across Bogshole valley.
Fortunately, it was preserved as a museum piece and, by the
1960s, it was displayed in the Dane John Gardens at Canterbury
(alongside Watling Street and close to the new bus station). That
brings us to the first of Mike Hatton's super collection....
Invicta in Dane John Gardens,
Canterbury (Photo kindly supplied by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton)
The City Wall can just be seen on the far right with a bridge
spanning Watling Street. The bridge links two sections of wall
where the old Riding Gate once stood. For many years, Invicta was a familiar
sight for the boys and
girls of Simon Langton schools as they travelled on buses that
passed through the Riding Gate bridge to reach the Old Dover Road.
Eventually, the locomotive was removed, renovated and now
has a home in a Canterbury musuem.
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Photos by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
Hopefully, that home will be temporary as there are now
moves to bring Invicta back to its original working home ....
Whitstable! |
The Canterbury Terminus
The railway's Canterbury terminus was located on the north side of North
Lane. Mike's 1980 photo below shows the end of the line...
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
In 1980, several of the original buildings were still standing
and they included what is thought to be the original station
building and ticket office.....
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
It was here that the world's first rail passenger season
tickets were issued.
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Despite the derelict appearance of 1980, the building
has survived and is now looking quite a picture. The photo
on the left was taken recently when Mike and Peter visited
the area. (Photo © Peter
Dalrymple) |
When the line was opened in 1830, the Canterbury end of the line was a very
straightforward arrangement. A short access road
led from North Lane to the station building and sidings. From
here, a simple
track headed northward towards Whitstable.
However, in 1846, things became more complicated. It was then
that the current day Ashford to Thanet main line arrived and it
brought with it a new Canterbury station (now known as
Canterbury West). Located a short distance to north, the new
track severed the C&W line and detached it from its North Lane
terminus. Some modification was necessary and this came in the
form of spur that diverted the C&W into a
branch platform at the new station. The old terminus was relegated
to the role of a small marshalling yard linked to the Ashford-Thanet line. The simplified
plan below
summarises the situation
I am sure many people recall the North Lane entrance to the
sidings as it existed into the 1980s and possibly beyond. However, much of this area has now been
redeveloped and we will need to track down what remains.
The St Stephens Section
After leaving the terminus, the track made its way north to the St
Stephens district of Canterbury where it followed a raised embankment. It then crossed Forty Acres Road and
headed to the Tyler Hill
Tunnel entrance on the present day site of Archbishops School. The embankment can be seen in Mike's photo below. It is skirted
by a pathway.
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
The Tyler Hill Tunnel
In our last Chat Column, we featured the tunnel as it is today.
Mike now supplements this with shots from 1980.....
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The photo above shows the southern (Canterbury) entrance
in the grounds of Archbishops School and the picture to
the left displays the northern entrance located on the
campus of the University of Kent.
If you read our last Chat Column, you will notice that
the scenes are a little different from those of modern
times. For reasons of safety and preservation, the
northern entrance is now fenced by a substantial metal
frame.
Both entrances now have vents inserted in the
brickwork. As yet, I do not know all of the reasons....
but I can guess at one. The tunnel is now the habitat of
families of bats. (Photos by
Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton) |
| Before we move on, I would like to add one of my own
current day photos. This was taken through the vent in the
southern entrance.
As you will see, there is a second wall located some 30
yards inside the structure. Terry Phillips has told me
that, at one time, Archbishops School used a section of
the tunnel as a storeroom!
Just think. If there hadn't been a second wall, the
school could have had the largest storeroom in education
history..... 11 ft wide.... and 828 yards long! |
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In our final article, we will incorporate all the "tunnel
anecdotes" collected in the Simply Whitstable Visitors
Book.... including stories of ghosts and more. A very welcome message arrived recently from James Styles who
witnessed a very serious tunnel event....
| As the University of Kent photographer, I was sent to
photograph the strange happenings to the surface of the
tunnel wall in 1974. The soot that had lined the walls for
many years was beginning to flake off leaving clear red
brick.
It was soon realised that, with the serious cracks in
the walls of the University language lab above the tunnel,
that things were on the move. I recorded the events
including the collapse of the roof when I went down with
the University surveyor.
I was the last person down that area and, in Derek
Butler's book, A Century of Canterbury (page
111), you can see the collapse as it was happening.
I moved out very quickly and was the last person in to
see the structure. The University has a photographic
record of the subsequent destruction of the surface
buildings and the infilling of the tunnel.
James Styles
Tankerton |
Our thanks go to James for this contribution to the
story. Apart from raising the major issue of the tunnel collapse,
it also highlights the need for us to include a bibliography. Our
aim is not to replace books but to generate interest in the hope
that people will be tempted to delve deeper into the subject for
themselves.
Sarre Penn Culvert
The Tyler Hill Tunnel was a major feat of early 19th century
engineering. However, it is clear that the line posed many other
problems of a lesser nature. One of these cropped up just
north of the tunnel where an embankment was created to provide a
relatively level path across the valley of the Sarre Penn stream.
(This is the stream that traverses the Whitstable-Canterbury
road close to its junction with Calais Hill at Tyler Hill). However, it was necessary to
keep the water flowing and a culvert was created as shown in
Mike's slide below....
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
The photo was taken some years ago and we are not sure
of the structure's current condition.
Bogshole Valley Section:
The Embankment and Old Red Bridge
As the line continues to makes its way north towards Whitstable,
it ploughs into the Blean forest and eventually emerges from
Clowes Wood. The land dips down the side of Bogshole Valley at
this point and, for a short stretch, the railway track is clearly
visible as a tree-lined embankment. This can be seen in Peter
Dalrymple's recent photo below....
Photo by Peter Dalrymple © Peter
Dalrymple
That short stretch of line contains a
feature that is now almost lost in the mists of time but it is one
that will hold many memories for local people. It is of course the
Old Red Bridge and it appears in Mike's much older photo below.
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
Recently, Mike and Peter joined forces to obtain this current
day shot...
Photo by Peter Dalrymple © Peter
Dalrymple
The bridge and embankment now lie on private land but it can
be seen from the nearby cycle path as Peter's aerial shot shows
below....
Photo by Peter Dalrymple © Peter
Dalrymple
For many years the bridge had me
confused. After all, why would such an elaborate structure be built
to carry the line over a cart track between two fields. Well, I
suspect that we will be producing some answers to that in due
course.... because it seems that it was more than just a cart
track in days gone by. Watch this space!
Strangely, the bridge has a special place
in the history of Sir William Nottidge School. The Railway
Line closed for the last time in 1953.... and that was around
the time that the brand new school opened its doors in Bellevue
Road.... close to the line at the All Saints Church level
crossing. Very soon, the track had become the school's official
cross country running course. Pupils were expected to hurtle south
along the track and return via the same route. The old bridge was
the turning point. Of course, not all pupils "hurtled".
In fact some sat on the railway bank near All Saints and waited
for the rest to return!
There is also another little story
associated with the bridge. As we all know, Whitstable lost its
more celebrated bridge (claimed to be the oldest railway bridge in
the world) in Old Bridge Road when it was considered an
inconvenience to motor traffic. After reporting
the demolition, the Whitstable Times posed an interesting
question. If the railway line was built from the Canterbury end,
could the surviving Old Red Bridge pre-date its more celebrated
cousin? It was an interesting theory but one that probably doesn't tie
in with the history as I believe the line as built form both ends. Nevertheless, the structure is noteworthy and
still exists as one of mankind's oldest railway structures.
Bogshole Valley Section:
Traversing the Brook
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Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
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At one time, the embankment spanned the entire
width of the Bogs Hole Valley. Along the way, it
traversed the Swalecliffe Brook before giving way to a
cutting that carved a groove at the top the valley's
northern slope.
The presence of the brook required the creation
of another culvert. This is shown in Mike's old photo on
the left.
In modern times, the line has disappeared from the floor
and northern slope of the valley in order to
accommodate agriculture and the New Thanet Way (A299). The
embankment now ends quite abruptly on the southern slope
(see Peter Dalrymple's photo below). The A299 also
necessitated some realignment of Swalecliffe Brook.
As a result, I suspect that little evidence of the culvert
remains... but, perhaps, one of our readers knows
different!
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Photo by Peter Dalrymple © Peter
Dalrymple
While we are on the subject of culverts, it is worth mentioning
that there were probably several scattered along the route and our
readers may be able to identify some that have long been
forgotten. One quite surprising one has
already been mentioned
in the Visitors Book by Garth Wyver....
| There was an interesting brick culvert where a stream
passed under the Canterbury Whitstable Line between Clare
Road and Station Road, at the rear of 10&14 Clare
Rd.
The embankment (now flattened) contained a lot of
chalk. I believe the stream ran from Northwood Road passed
between 1 Clare Road and the electric sub station, through
a pipe under the road and along the alley.
Garth Wyver |
Bogshole Valley:
Looking For Evidence
The Bogs Hole valley will still surrender some of its hidden railway history
if you study the fields carefully. Here, we take a look at a couple of recent
photos taken when Peter Dalrymple and Mike Hatton walked
the line....
The first looks North West. The trees in the centre
of the shot mark the course of the New Thanet Way road. Notice that the
fence
rises over a hump in the field and the ploughed soil is a slightly
different hue. These features mark the route of that old railway embankment.
Photo by Peter Dalrymple © Peter
Dalrymple
The second shot takes a slightly more northerly view and shows the northern
slope of the Bogs Hole valley with
the houses of Golden Hill in the distance. Again, there is a long
line of slightly raised ground of a different shade.....
Photo by Peter Dalrymple © Peter
Dalrymple
As mentioned earlier, towards the top of the incline, the railway embankment
gave way to a cutting as the line clipped the
apex of the hill. I am told that this cutting was levelled by
bulldozers which simply pushed the soil banks across the track
Peter Dalrymple's aerial photo below has been annotated to
summarise the current status of the Bogshole Valley section.
Photo by Peter Dalrymple © Peter
Dalrymple
South Street Level
Crossing...
A few hundred yards north of the valley, the Canterbury & Whitstable
railway really started to liven up! It was here that it crossed
Millstrood Road at the junction with South Street. A level
crossing was inserted and a railways station constructed. The
crossing gates remained for many years after the closure of the
line as Mike's 1980 photo shows below.....
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
I believe the railway station was located on the NW corner of
the level crossing (backing on to what is now the aptly named
"The Halt" housing development). In those days, South
Street was a small hamlet that justified its owns station.
However, it was detached from Whitstable and very rural. It had a
small shop located in Millstrood Rd alongside the station but
surrounded by fields.
The shop building still exists but nothing remains of the station or level crossing.
The All Saints Incline
From the South Street Crossing, the track remains intact as
far as Old Bridge Road. Most of it has been paved and now serves as
a popular walkway and cycle path. I understand that this
piece of the line was known in railway circles as the All
Saints Incline.... although it is a decline if you are
heading into Whitstable! It is spanned by a couple of interesting
features.
The most significant is the substantial bridge that carries
the Old Thanet Way (known in those days as the Coastal Road) over the track. As Mike's photo below confirms, the bridge arrived in
1935..... . 105
years after the railway line opened.
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
The simplicity of the plaque, the uncomplicated name of the
bridge and the
absence of any details of an official opening suggest that it was
regarded as a purely functional structure.
For many years, this bridge has
been a part of our lives and it is something that we may not have
thought about in any great detail. However, in recent times, it has been the
subject of some interesting discussions in the Simply Whitstable
Visitors Book. Some of our
readers have pointed out that it deserves to be held in
much higher esteem as it is actually a
very large piece of Art Deco architecture! Let me throw in one of
my own photos here....
The Thanet Way Bridge in 2004
The bridge is not only the intersection of two
different means of transport...... It is also the collision
between two very different periods
of engineering history . The Old
Thanet Way was very much a product of 1930s ideas and quite a few of its
"furnishings" took on an Art Deco appearance. These
included the old Fitts petrol station at Chestfield roundabout
(now demolished) and the Chez Laurie ballroom/bar at Herne Bay
(now also demolished).
Another curious feature is that the bridge has an incredibly
wide span for a single track railway. Were those architects of
1935 making allowances for an increase in rail traffic that would
necessitate a second set of rails? It's a curious thought as the
line had discontinued passenger services just five years
earlier..... and the Coastal Road was one of the arteries that
would eventually bring about the decline of rail transport. Fitts
weren't just selling petrol at their art deco filling station at
the Chestfield roundabout. They were also selling a fair few cars
at their new showroom in Tankerton.
Fortunately, the bridge remains to this day..... as does another feature of the
All Saints Incline - the pedestrian
crossing linking All Saints churchyard with Bellevue Road. The
crossing marked by metal kissing gates as Mike records in the
photo below....
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
The basic metal frames can still be seen in 2008.
The Harbour Station
Section
One of the most fascinating sections of the line was located
between Tower Parade and Station Road/Westgate Terrace. This area
of land accommodated the Whitstable Harbour Railway Station.
The station came into operation some time around 1894 and it
was the third attempt at creating a station in that locality. It
was a little different from its two predecessors as it was built
on the south side of Tower Parade. The earlier efforts had both
been located within the harbour boundaries - the first midway
along the harbour's south quay and the second just inside the
harbour's east gate.
The station served local travellers until 1930 when the line
ceased passenger services and became purely a freight line.
However, it remained a feature of the landscape for decades
thereafter. By the early 1950s, the building had become the HQ of
the Second Whitstable Sea Scouts... even though trains were still
passing by the door!
Before we look at more of Mike's photo collection, it might be
worth me 'borrowing' a few items from our Sea Scouts feature. Take
a look at the scouts parading on the station concourse in the
early 1950s....
Photo kindly supplied by Jock Harnett
By the end of that decade, the Sea Scouts had relocated to a new Scout
Hall at Long Beach and, eventually, the station was demolished to
make way for later development. Mike's camera captured the
demolition process.....
Photo acknowledgment to follow
The platform remained a little longer as Mike's colour slide
below confirms....
Photo by Mike Hatton © Mike Hatton
However, this too eventually fell foul of the bulldozers of
developers. The diagrams below compare the 1950s scene with that
of the current day...
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1950s
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2008
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Reaction to the C&WR Article...
Comments on the above article are as follows:
Another excellent entry on Simply
Whitstable. A couple of thoughts:
Has the original station building in Canterbury been given
Listed Building status in view of its
importance in the history of railways? If it hasn't,
then it should be.. although the current owner might not
thank us due to the constrictions it would place on the
building.
Re the Red Bridge - it was clearly built around the same
time as the Old Bridge (c.1828) and in use from 3 May 1830
and I suspect it is probably made from the same brick
source so must therefore qualify to be recognised as the
successor to the title, The Oldest Railway Bridge in
the World?
Likewise the tunnel - although in a poor state now -
should also get overdue recognition. The Red Bridge and
the art deco bridge should also be Listed Buildings to
preserve them (yes - bridges qualify!).
The history of the line and its artifacts are grossly
underplayed.
Barry Freeman
Shaftesbury
Dorset |
| Mr Response: Thanks, Barry. I don't know
whether all or anything has been listed.
As I have said on one of the other railway pages,
it's quite astonishing that, on the one hand, we all love
the railway line but, on the other, we have allowed much
of it to disappear.
When I look back, I do wonder about some of the
decisions. The most notable was the demolition of the
bridge. However, not so long ago, the local authority had
the chance to use money donated by Tesco to help reinstate
part of the line. Instead, the cash was used to block pave
Harbour Street. As we know, some of that block paving has
now been removed after it subsided.
It took well over a century for the Tyler Hill
Tunnel to collapse... as opposed to a couple of years for
Harbour Street to collapse. |
| Hi Dave,
The South Street Halt area and southward to Clowes
Woods was literally in my back yard during WW2.Our home
was Vinnie Bungalow, the southern most of a
pair of bungalows across from and a little to the south of
the railway crossing gates.
The Halt Stores was the store mentioned.
It was run by Mr and Mrs Spencer who will forever be
remembered by me for giving me the Ogdens Teal cigarette
packets (10 and 20 packs). The other memories they evoke
are the opening and closing of the crossing gates and Mrs
Spencers home made toffee during WW2.
The rail line was used by us kids as a route to get to
Bogshole, particularly if a plane had pranged, as
souvenirs were a valuable item in those days. The thing
you had to remember on the northward journey home was to
keep looking back to see if the train was coming. I
suspect, because of the incline, approaching trains bound
to Whitstable made little noise and that coupled with the
excitement of finds could lead to a blast from the R1 tank
whistle and a report and subsequent reprimand from the
authorities or Mr Spencer.
The art decco bridge is also a place of fond memories. In
the mid stages of WW2 the embankment in that area was our
spotting place for aircraft, particularly if Canterbury
was the target. You stayed down below the south bank as
the planes came in then ran to the opposite side to watch
them leave. Later, after the war ,it was, for a few of us,
the site for another "free" hobby - that of
coach name collecting on a Sunday morning.
Wonderful how simple pleasures were in those days...
and cheap.
Bill Dancer |
| My Reply: Thanks, Bill. I hope people will
keep the stories coming as I want our final articles to be
a little different. Simply Whitstable is very much about
local people and their connection with history.
There are many excellent books and articles about
the C&WR as a working line from 1830-1953. There is
also some great material on the line today. However, not
too much is said about the 55 years in between. History
doesn't stop when a line is closed. It simply continues
with a different slant.
That 55 year period was quieter and less spectacular
than other times.... BUT it is perhaps a very important
key that unlocks the affection that local people still
have for the line. That's where the stories of our readers
come in. History is not just the province of historians.
It belongs to us all.... and why not? We helped to create
it!
Many of us can only just remember trains on the
line... but most of us have great memories of the line as
a walk and playground. I want us to cover all aspects and
all periods of the line's history.
Where appropriate, I also want to show some links to
what was happening elsewhere in the town and elsewhere in
the world. For example, the comments on the art deco
bridge relate directly to what was happening elsewhere in
the 1930s. Whitstable was a very close-knit community but
it could never live wholly in a vacuum. |
Thanks for the article on the
Canterbury Whitstable rail line I hope a lot more about it
come to light. The article mentioned about a possible rail
station on what is now The Halt.
Having lived in that area back in the late 60s and early
70s, I always had that idea myself. There used to to be,
alongside where the rail line ran, a large flat area that
had no use at all. It was just the right size and shape
for it to be a station.
When I lived there, we kids used that area for our
fireworks night bonfires and for setting off fireworks. We
would start constructing the bonfire about 2 weeks before
hand and on Guy Forks night everyone in the area would
come down there to set of their fireworks. When I was last
in England in 2006 that area had sadly disappeared.
Stephen Daniel
Wellington
New Zealand
20/9/09 |
| My Reply:
Thanks, Stephen. I am not sure of the precise location of the area of
ground that you have mentioned. As far as I am aware the
railway platform was on the western side of the track -
starting approximately at the level crossing and heading
towards Whitstable. Thus, it was located between the track
and The Halt shop.
There was another area of land on the eastern side
behind the council houses that lined South Street. This
was a real playground for local children. I seem to recall
that it had at least one large tree that wa used as a
natural climbing frame.
PS As it is a little while since the article was
published, I have replicated your message in the Visitors
Book to ensure that it is seen by all. |
| I have fond memories of walking
through Tyler Hill tunnel in the early 1970's before the
tunnel collapsed in 1974. The tunnel was 771 metres long
and built in two sections, and was dead straight.
At that time the Northern portal had a steel door. When
opened a powerful draught was present in the tunnel. There
were 10 manhole refuges on the East side of the tunnel.
Remains of brackets and cable channels were pinned to the
wall on the western side. The tunnel floor was dry
and had hollows where the sleepers once were positioned.
The condition of the tunnel was slowly deteriorating as
the first ring of brickwork was perishing away due to the
action of soot, soft red bricks and ground pressure from
the surrounding London Clay.
It was a long walk but exciting as the tunnel changed
its profile below Rutherford College from the Horseshoe
cross section to straight vertical walls and a barrel arch
for the remainder to the south portal. The pin prick of
light from the southern end gradually got bigger and a
mystery cross wall and doorway was passed as this formed
the legal boundary between the University and the
Archbishops School sections of the tunnel. I listened to
the cathedral bells as I emerged from the south Portal
door.
It is a great pity that a small section collapsed and
the university had most of the tunnel filled in when only
re-lining should have been carried out in the mid 1960's.
We would have had a historic tunnel to enjoy today.
Jonathan Norman Baker
Whitstable
24/9/09 |
| My Reply:
Thank you for getting in touch, Jonathan. Your
account is a super description of the tunnel and an
important addition to our story.
PS As it is a little while since the article was
published, I have replicated your message in the Visitors
Book to ensure that it is seen by all. |
I was most impressed by the article on
the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway covering the state
of the line today. Perhaps I may comment on some of the
items.
The picture of the "Invicta" locomotive must
have ben taken towards the end of the time that it was
"preserved" (exposed would be a better word!)
near the Riding Gate. For most of the time it was on the
Old Dover Road side of the walls and only moved inside
them in connection with a road widening scheme.
I have never previously seen any reference to the house in
North Lane being associated with the railway in any way. I
wonder what the basis is of the assertion, other than its
position. Is there any more concrete evidence available?
As you rightly say, Dave, the platform at South Street was
built on the west side of the line, immediately north of
the level crossing. There is plenty of photographic
evidence to support this.
The bridge under the Thanet Way was built to enable a
second track to be laid and to allow 15 feet clear
headroom between rail level and the bridge. These
requirements were insisted on by the Southern Railway.
Brian Hart in his excellent book "The
Canterbury & Whitstable Railway" confirms
that these requirements were adopted by the Southern
Railway's Board of Directors at the same meeting (16th
October 1930) as it agreed to withdraw the passenger
service! Not only was the likelihood of double track
reduced from very remote to absolutely zero but the 15'
headroom seemed irrelevant in view of the height of Tyler
Hill Tunnel being only 12'.
The claim that the bridge in Old Bridge Road was the
"Oldest Railway Bridge in the World" depends
entirely on the definition of "railway".
Railways were not invented as such but evolved largely
from mineral-carrying waggonways. It is thus difficult to
say what was the first railway and thus establish what was
the oldest railway bridge in the world. The Stockton &
Darlington predates the C & W by five years and the
Surrey Iron Railway dates from 1803.
In order for the Old Bridge to be defined as the oldest
in the world it is necessary to define a railway as using
steam locomotives to haul both passenger and freight
traffic on a regular basis. The Surrey Iron fails on this
basis as it was horse-worked and the Stockton &
Darlington fails because although passengers travelled
behind "Locomotion No. 1" on the opening day,
regular services were horse-worked, locomotives being
confined to freight. The Canterbury & Whitstable
passes the test but only just - the locomotive was used
only for about two miles of the journey at the Whitstable
end, the majority of the line being worked by stationary
engines.
Neither did "Invicta" last very long as it
was an unsuccessful design. The Stockton & Darlington
had as much, if not more, in common with what we might
consider a railway than the Canterbury & Whitstable;
using the definition given above it is probably right to
consider the Liverpool & Manchester as the first true
railway. Such a discussion is, of course, pedantic in the
extreme and the role of the Canterbury & Whitstable in
the development of railways and in the two towns concerned
is of the utmost importance. I am not sure whether the Red
Bridge is on the original locomotive-worked section or not
- if not then it presumably surrenders any pretence to
being the oldest railway bridge.
The station at Whitstable Harbour that was south of the
level crossing opened on June 3rd 1895.
Best wishes,
Terry Phillips
Fareham
Hants
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| My Reply: Many thanks, Terry. I will
update things in the next draft of the article.
We can work much of your data into our eventual
write up of the two bridges. Although Whitstable people
like to claim the 'Old Bridge Road' bridge as the oldest
in the world, I don't think the claim is generally
accepted elsewhere!! The Bogshole Bridge is even less
likely to match up to such claims. Brian Smith tells me
that the original Bogshole Bridge was of wood construction
and the brick version came along later.
The North Lane cottage appears in the Locomotive
Club of Great Britain's CWR 150th Anniversary booklet. The
text decribes it as "believed to be the old
station building". I think you are right to question
it. I think I should make my comments a little less
definitive in later drafts of our article. |
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