Starting Point - East Grinstead Station. Finishing Point - Eridge Station. Distance 12.3 Maps
Continuing my walk from Three Bridges I started the second leg at East Grinstead.
This journey has heritage railways at both ends with the Bluebell Railway operating the separate East Grinstead Low Level to Brighton line as far as Sheffield Park and the Spa Valley Railway operating the last stretch of this east / west route from Eridge to Tunbridge Wells West.
Below - Southern Railway S15 847 at the Bluebell Railway's platform south of the mainline station at East Grinstead.
Through East Grinstead the course of the east / west line through the former high level station has been converted to a road, ironically named Beeching Way. The engineer of the closure of much of the country's railway network lived in East Grinstead. Before the Beeching closures the town had lines in four directions but was left with just the mainline trains towards London from the low level station.
More detail of the east / west route I have been following can be found on the Wikipedia article.
The trackbed can be joined at the roundabout where Beeching Way and Lewes Road meet, from here it is a foot and cycle path known as the Forest Way.
The path descends steeply from the roundabout as the railway formerly emerged from a tunnel in to a cutting at this point.
Below - Bridge over a footpath which seems to have had quite elaborate stone parapets.
Below - Luxford's Lane bridge.
Below - Brambletye level crossing. The crossing keeper's house survives and a couple of concrete gate posts.
The first station east of East Grinstead was Forest Row, the former station site is in various uses including a village club and a fire station. The Forest Way runs around the edge of the station site on a roadway partially built on the trackbed to access a couple of farms from the A22.
Below - Site of Forest Row station.
Below - The modern industrial unit is on the site of Forest Row's Goods Shed.
Below - Bridge for the road to Lower Parrock, now Emerson College, on the 1910 map this is shown as a simple foot crossing so the bridge must have been built later.
Below - Bridge for a road to a couple of farms, again this is not on the 1910 map so must have been built later, it seems to be the same design as the previous bridge and presumably built around the same time.
Below - Bridge over one of the many streams that feed in to the River Medway.
Below - Footpath bridge.
Below - B2026 bridge
After passing under the B2026 bridge we reach the next station at Hartfield. The path again detours around the station site which is in use for a nursery. The goods shed site is in local community uses which appears to include the maintenance yard of the Forest Way path.
Below - Former Hartfield station.
Below - The former goods shed.
Below - Bridge taking the former line over the River Medway.
The next station site at Withyham is again largely intact, this time as a private home with a tall hedge and fence on the platform edge to provide a bit of privacy from old railway walking passers by.
Below - Former Withyham station.
Below - Farm track bridge
Ham Bridge over Withyham Road has been removed but the path continues on the other side of the road for the short stretch to the site of Ashurst Junction, it then runs along the south side of the surviving railway to Uckfield (another truncated route that once continued to Lewes and the south coast).
The path crosses under the surviving railway and continues on a short stretch of the trackbed from Ashurst Junction to Groombridge Junction, the side of the triangular junction for trains heading from East Grinstead to Tunbridge Wells. The path emerges on Corseley Road, beyond this the trackbed of the chord continues for a short distance before a stump of the line is used by the Spa Valley Railway as an engineers' siding from Groombridge Junction. Between Eridge and Tunbridge Wells the line is operated by the heritage railway.
The side of the triangular junction to Eridge is still in use by Uckfield trains with the single track mainline and heritage railway running alongside each other in to the station. To reach Eridge station it is necessary to walk along Corseley Road and Forge Road.
Below - Spa Valley Railway train from Tunbridge Wells West with Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn loco Ugly seen on an earlier visit to the heritage railway.
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