Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway
From Graces Guide
1877 Incorporated. Length 13 miles, 5 furlongs, 1 chain and 25 links.
Cranbrook, a market town in the High Weald of Kent, finally got a station on the branch line to Hawkhurst which opened in 1892. Holman Fred Stephens was resident engineer during its construction and some of he formed his characteristic station buildings from the building erected on it.
On this, Stephens first construction project, he met his long-time colleague and successor, William H. Austen. The railway was part of the South Eastern Railway and it and its successors, operated it until was closed in 1961.
As an operating railway it was indelibly linked with the hop trade and the mass numbers of hop pickers transported each autumn for the harvest.
See Also
Loading...