Winchelsea railway station

Winchelsea railway station is a railway station in East Sussex, England. It is about 0.62 miles (1 km) from Winchelsea and is actually in the neighbouring parish of Udimore. It is on the Marshlink line 9.3 miles (15 km) north east of Hastings, and train services are provided by Southern. The station originally had two platforms, but in 1979, the line was singled and only the up platform is now in use. The former down platform and station building are now converted to a private house.

Winchelsea
Location	Winchelsea, Rother England
Coordinates	50.93374°N 0.70222°E
Grid reference	TQ899183
Managed by	Southern
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	WSE
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Opened	13 February 1851
Passengers
2015/16	7,598
2016/17	7,578
2017/18	9,254
2018/19	9,048
2019/20	9,688
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Location

Winchelsea station, August 1982

The station is in an isolated location.[1] It is not a convenient way of getting to or from Winchelsea, especially outside daylight hours. The route involves walking down an unlit and winding country lane and then climbing a steep hill, walking along the A259 trunk road, which does not have a pavement.[2] The journey takes about 15 minutes. As an alternative, Stagecoach bus route 100 runs from Rye and stops in the town.[3]

Being isolated and given the limited stopping service, it is little used other than by walkers visiting the Brede Valley. Local people may book a free lift to and from the station via a voluntary scheme run through Winchelsea Farm Kitchen.[4]

Facilities

The buildings have been sold into private ownership and so this station is unstaffed.[5] There is a ticket machine at the station.

Free parking facilities are available at the station.[6]

History

The station was opened by the South Eastern Railway (SER) on 13 February 1851 as one of the first stations on the line from Ashford to Hastings, along with Ham Street, Appledore and Rye.[7] The station, like several others on the line, was built with staggered platforms on the belief that it would be safer for passengers to cross the railway behind a departing train.[8]

Traffic was very sparse and the station closed on 1 September, in part because it was impossible to access the town without crossing private land. The Mayor of Winchelsea campaigned for reopening and negotiating access with the respective landowner, and the SER agreed to open the station on 4 December.[9] A resignalling programme took place in the early 1890s.[10]

The station gradually reduced its facilities. In 1961, the station building was sold off, and has since been in private hands.[11] By 1969, the signal box and goods siding had been removed, and by the early 1970s the shelter canopy was removed and the post of crossing keeper was discontinued.[12] On 1 October 1979, the line was reduced to single track to reduce operational costs. The down platform (to Hastings) was removed; since then all trains have stopped at the one remaining platform.[13] A 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) speed limit was imposed on the line approaching Winchelsea.[14] The wooden shelter on the remaining (up) platform was replaced by a conventional modern shelter in 1984.[15]

Local campaign groups Three Oaks and Winchelsea Action for Rail Transport (THWART) and the Marshlink Action Group (MLAG) campaigned for services to be increased, and from December 2010 a two-hourly service in each direction was restored.[16] In 2015, trains began stopping at the station on Sundays, after a ten-year campaign.[17]

Services

There is a two-hourly service to Winchelsea with trains to Eastbourne and Ashford International.[18] Station stops are usually shared in each alternate hour with Three Oaks making it difficult to travel directly between these two stations. Until May 2018, southbound services ran as express services to Brighton, but this service was discontinued and a stopping service to Eastbourne was introduced, due to long journey times and lack of rolling stock, which caused overcrowding, especially between Brighton and Eastbourne.[19]

References

Citations

1. Course 1974, p. 67.
2. Locke, Tim (2017). Slow Travel Sussex: South Downs, Weald & Coast. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-784-77042-6.
3. "Winchelsea, East Sussex". National Trust. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
4. "Town life". Winchelsea Corporation. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
5. Mitchell & Smith 1987, fig. 35.
6. "Essential Information" (PDF). Winchelsea Walk. East Sussex County Council. March 2004. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
7. Gray 1990, p. 210.
8. Mitchell & Smith 1987, fig. 33.
9. Gray 1990, pp. 210–212.
10. Gray 1990, p. 213.
11. Course 1974, p. 69.
12. Mitchell & Smith 1987, figs. 35, 36.
13. Sissons 2008, p. 411.
14. "Letter from Bexhill Rail Action Group to RUS Programme Manager" (PDF). Network Rail. 2009: 6. Retrieved 26 August 2016. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
15. Glasspool, David. "Winchelsea". Kent Rail. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
16. "All Change on the Old Diesel Marshlink line". Kentish Express. 21 October 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
17. "Sunday trains resume at Winchelsea and Three Oaks". Rye and Battle Observer. 1 December 2015.
18. "Let's move to Winchelsea, East Sussex". The Guardian. 14 November 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
19. "Plans to axe direct rail service criticised". Bexhill Observer. 3 July 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2019.

Sources

• Course, Edwin (1974). The railways of southern England: secondary and branch lines. Batsford.
• Gray, Adrian (1990). South Eastern Railway. Middleton Press. ISBN 978-0-906520-85-7.
• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1987). South Coast Railways - Hastings to Ashford and the New Romney Branch. Middleton Press. ISBN 0-906520-37-1.
• Sissons, Rob (2008). Single Track Obsession: A Book of Extraordinary Railway Journeys. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4251-6239-9.

External links

• Photos of Winchelsea station