Bluebell Railway - History

History

In 1877 an Act of Parliament authorised construction of the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway (L&EGR). The line was sponsored by local landowners, including the Earl of Sheffield. A year later an act enabled the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company (LB&SCR) to acquire and operate the line.

The line had six stations, but only Barcombe was within walking distance of a village. Chailey parish had two stations, one at Sheffield Park and the other at Newick and Chailey. It was customary for a rural line supported by a company or individuals to have stations close to the residences of its sponsors. Thus Sheffield Park station was built for the Earl of Sheffield, and Newick and Chailey for Newick Park and Reedens, the residences of two other sponsors. The other stations were at Kingscote, West Hoathly and Horsted Keynes. A branch ran from a junction at Horsted Keynes to Ardingly and Haywards Heath on the LB&SCR main line.

The 1877 and 1878 Acts included a clause that:

Four passenger trains each way daily to run on this line, with through connections at East Grinstead to London, and to stop at Sheffield Bridges, Newick, and West Hoathly.

This imposed a legal requirement to provide a service, and the only way to remove this obligation was to pass another Act.

The line was constructed to take double track. However only the section between East Grinstead and Horsted Keynes was laid as such; south of the junction at Horsted Keynes the line was single track with passing loops at stations. The line opened in 1882, with pomp and ceremony.

Goods traffic on the line consisted of local produce; milk, farm products and coal, and timber to and from Albert Turner & Son, a sawmill. The only time Sheffield Park received a substantial number of passengers was when Lord Sheffield entertained the Australian cricket team, with a match between them and Lord Sheffield's own team.

In 1954, long before the Beeching Axe, the branchline committee of British Railways proposed closing the line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction near Lewes. This was challenged by local residents, but closure was agreed in February 1955 for 15 June 1955, although the line closed on 29 May due to a rail strike. The acrimonious battle between British Railways and the users of the Bluebell Line, as it was known, lasted three years.

Shortly after closure, Margery Bessemer of Chailey discovered in the 1877 and 1878 Acts the clause relating to the "Statutory Line", and demanded British Railways reinstate services. On 7 August 1956 British Railways re-opened the line, with trains stopping at stations mentioned in the Acts. British Railways took the case to the House of Commons in 1957, resulting in a public inquiry. British Railways were censured, but later the Transport Commission was able to persuade Parliament to repeal the special section of the Act. By this means the line was finally closed on 17 March 1958.

Spring 1959 saw the formation of the Lewes & East Grinstead Railway Preservation Society, forerunner of today's Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It aimed to re-open the whole line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction as a commercial service, using a diesel railcar, a two-car DMU. The plans came to nothing: the society failed to buy the whole line; and most local residents were not interested. In the interim the re-opening of the line from Sheffield Park to Bluebell Halt just south of Horsted Keynes as a steam railway and museum was planned and opened in 1960. This was at first leased, and eventually purchased, from British Railways.