St Lawrence for Pegwell Bay railway station

St Lawrence for Pegwell Bay railway station was a railway station at Ramsgate, Kent, United Kingdom that was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1864 and closed in 1916.

St Lawrence for Pegwell Bay
Platforms and Newington Bridge with station building behind
Location	Ramsgate, District of Thanet England
Coordinates	51.3405°N 1.4022°E
Grid reference	TR 370 656
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	South Eastern Railway
Key dates
October 1864	Station opened
3 April 1916	Station closed

Ramsgate and Margate
Margate Sands Margate West Chatham Main Line to London Victoria Line closed north and south of Margate Sands Goods in 1926. Margate Sands Goods Margate East Tivoli Broadstairs To Ashford and Dover Dumpton Park St Lawrence for Pegwell Bay Ramsgate Ramsgate Town Ramsgate Harbour
The arrangement inherited by the Southern Railway in 1923 with the lines and stations closed in 1926 shown in pink (Tivoli had closed c.1873 and St Lawrence for Pegwell Bay had closed in 1916). The dotted line represent the new surface lines and stations. Ramsgate and Dumpton Park both opened in 1926. Margate Sands Goods closed in 1972. The diagram shows the position as of 1926.

History

Ramsgate was first reached by the South Eastern Railway (SER) on 13 April 1846 when it opened the extension of its line from Ashford and Canterbury to Ramsgate Town, continuing to Margate Sands on 1 December.[1][2][3][4] In July 1863, the company had opened a 31 chains (620 m) spur (known as the St. Lawrence spur)[5] to allow through running to Margate by avoiding the need to reverse at Ramsgate Town,[6] a cramped and inconvenient station from which the line branched off to Margate at the very platform ends.[7][8] In the event, the spur was little used by regular services.[8] The building of the spur may be seen as a reaction to the arrival of a new competitor in the area, in the shape of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR); the SER now felt the need to improve their services in the area, whereas for years operating as a monopoly they had not.[9] Another major improvement completed in 1863 was the double-tracking of its route to Margate via Westwood.[9]

Principally to cater for the very occasional train avoiding Ramsgate, a station was opened to the west of the spur by the Newington Road Bridge (now the B2014).[6][10] The station opened in October 1864 and was named St Lawrence (Pegwell Bay)[11][12] after nearby St Lawrence village which was swallowed up in the suburbs of Ramsgate in the early 20th century.[13] The station was also shown as St Lawrence for Pegwell Bay in some timetables,[11] and on the station nameboards, highlighting the proximity of Pegwell Bay. The two facing platforms were to the west of the bridge, while the station building was to the east.[14] Offices were constructed in the two arches either side of the tracks.[13]

1945 Ordnance Survey map of Ramsgate. St Lawrence for Pegwell Bay station was located at the bridge immediately west of Ramsgate station.

From 1 January 1899, the station was operated by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), which was formed out of the working union between the SER and the LCDR.[15] The station was closed on 3 April 1916,[11][16][17] the same day on which the SECR closed its stations at Battersea Park Road, Camberwell and Walworth Road and its platforms at Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road, all never to reopen.[18] St Lawrence, closed ostensibly as a war-time measure, never reopened probably because plans to rationalise the lines in Thanet had been in place since the turn of the century.[19] The intervention of the First World War meant that it was left to the Southern Railway to realise the plans.[19][20] On 2 July 1926, a new 1.375 mi (2.213 km) line was brought into use which diverged from the LCDR line on a 20 chains (400 m) curve from a point about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south of Broadstairs station to join the SER line about 0.5 mi (0.80 km) to the west of Ramsgate near St Lawrence.[21][22][23][20][24] The LCDR's line between Broadstairs and Ramsgate Harbour via Ramsgate Tunnel was closed, as was the SER's line from Ramsgate to Margate Sands.[23]

The remains of St Lawrence station were demolished as part of the works.[25] The works also involved the rebuilding of Newington Road Bridge,[26] originally built in 1846. To the east of the station building stood a signal box for St.Lawrence Junction, the southern junction of the St.Lawrence spur. The northern junction (called Whitehall Junction) also had a signal box, just south of Whitehall Road.

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Ebbsfleet and Cliffsend Halt Line open, station closed		South Eastern Railway Margate branch		Tivoli Line and station closed
		South Eastern Railway Ashford to Ramsgate line		Ramsgate Town Line and station closed

Notes

1. Dendy Marshall & Kidner 1963, p. 295.
2. White 1992, p. 37.
3. Richards 2008, p. 1.
4. Body 1989, p. 128.
5. Gray 1990, fig. 65.
6. Course 1973, p. 99.
7. White 1987, p. 111.
8. White 1992, p. 52.
9. Gray 1984, p. 132.
10. White 1987, p. 112.
11. Butt 1995, p. 204.
12. Richards 2008, p. 50.
13. Mitchell & Smith 1990, fig. 89.
14. Mitchell & Smith 1990, fig. 88.
15. Dendy Marshall & Kidner 1963, p. 363.
16. Clinker 1978, p. 119.
17. Kidner 1978, p. 32.
18. Gould 1981, p. 21.
19. White 1987, p. 113.
20. Course 1973, p. 107.
21. Dendy Marshall & Kidner 1963, p. 410.
22. White 1987, p. 114.
23. White 1992, p. 53.
24. Body 1989, p. 130.
25. Richards 2008, p. 51.
26. Richards 2008, p. 52.

Sources

• Body, Geoffrey (1989) [1984]. PSL Field Guide: Railways of the Southern Region. Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-297-X.
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Sparkford, Somerset: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7.
• Clinker, C.R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830-1977. Bristol: Avon-Anglia Publications & Services. ISBN 0-905466-19-5.
• Course, Edwin Alfred (1973). The Railways of Southern England: The Main Lines. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-0490-6.
• Dendy Marshall, C.F.; Kidner, R.W. (1963). History of the Southern Railway. 2. London: Ian Allan Ltd. ASIN B002BPGDAI.
• Gould, David (January 1981). The South Eastern & Chatham Railway in the 1914-18 War (No. 134). Tarrant Hinton: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-278-1.
• Gray, Adrian (1984). The London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Rainham: Meresborough Books. ISBN 978-0-905270-88-3.
• Gray, Adrian (November 1990). South Eastern Railway. Middleton Press. ISBN 978-0-906520-85-7.
• Kidner, R.W. (August 1978) [1963]. The South Eastern & Chatham Railway (OL53). Tarrant Hinton: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-232-3.
• Mitchell, Victor E.; Smith, Keith A. (June 1990). Dover to Ramsgate including the Margate Sands branch (South Coast Railways). Midhurst, West Sussex: Middleton Press. ISBN 978-0-906520-78-9.
• Mitchell, Victor E.; Smith, Keith A. (May 1991). Sittingbourne to Ramsgate (Southern Main Lines). Midhurst, West Sussex: Middleton Press. ISBN 978-0-906520-90-1.
• Richards, David (2008). Ramsgate All Change: Railways in the news at Ramsgate. Ramsgate: Michaels Bookshop. ISBN 978-1-907369-11-7.
• White, H.P. (1987) [1976]. Forgotten Railways: South-East England (Vol. 6). Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-946537-37-2.
• White, H.P. (1992) [1961]. A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Southern England (Volume 2). Nairn, Scotland: David St John Thomas. ISBN 978-0-946537-77-8.

Further reading

• Hilton, John (1981). A History of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (1855-1866). 3. Hadlow: J. Hilton. ASIN B00110AA5I.