The tale of Uckfield and its missing link

2:48pm Monday 14th April 2008

Uckfield was just a peaceful Sussex backwater before the railway arrived there 150 years ago.

Then business boomed and people were encouraged to live in a town which had good links both to London and the coast.

The first line from Brighton and Lewes opened in 1858 and this was followed eight years later with a line to Groombridge and Tunbridge Wells, connecting it with the capital.

Building the line was a difficult feat, with a tunnel more than half a mile long at the highest point near Crowborough and seven crossings of the Ouse or its tributaries between Lewes and Uckfield.

Farmers, not always in the vanguard of progress, welcomed the new lines and made full use of them.

According to Bygone Uckfield by Barbara Fuller and Betty Turner, corn, hops, chickens and roses were sent by rail. A shop in town was able to offer fresh fish direct from Billingsgate.

Trains were used to bring coal to Uckfield which led to the opening of the gasworks in 1859, followed shortly afterwards by street lighting.

Passengers also began to use the railway and in 1882 WH Smith opened a bookstall at the station.

Villas were built south of the railway, many of them being named after places in the Lake District, such as Ulverston and Ennerdale.

Shops opened to cater for the new middle-class residents.

The arrival of the motor car about 40 years later was also widely welcomed in the town, which had long been a link between Chichester and Canterbury going west to east.

But it eventually led to the cutting back of rail services in an act of great folly 40 years ago. The last through train from Tunbridge Wells to Brighton ran in 1968.

What was so silly about this decision was only the eight miles from Lewes to Uckfield were closed, a small gap in a long line.

Uckfield Station was left stranded on the wrong side of the road, leaving for many years a level crossing with gates which had to be operated several times a day, even though Uckfield was by now the southern terminus of the line.

Ever since then, there has been a vigorous campaign to reopen the railway, led after 1986 by the Wealden Line Campaign.

Councillors and officials more than once approved a feasibility study of the project and a more recent investigation concluded it would be worthwhile.

Unlike many lines closed during the Sixties, Lewes to Uckfield was not a single-track branch line but a fast double-track railway, which was well used.

Uckfield suffered badly from the closure of the line because many people had travelled from the town to and from Lewes and Brighton.

Increasing traffic meant the High Street was often badly congested until the bypass was built in 1985.

This afforded relief to the High Street but also meant some drivers who might have stopped in Uckfield for shopping or a meal whizzed past.

At one stage, there were fears more cuts would be made and there was a minor closure in 1985, which meant trains no longer ran from Uckfield to Tunbridge Wells West via Eridge.

Trains to Uckfield from London were so slow and unappealing many residents went to London from Haywards Heath instead.

In the 1990s it took an hour and 40 minutes to reach London by rail from Uckfield, longer than the journey from Bristol - three times as far away.

But the Uckfield line has been revived in recent years with new trains giving a regular hourly service to London Bridge, taking under an hour. This has increased business and also brought a further boom in building to Uckfield which now has a population of more than 13,000 people.

Reviving the closed section of line would have difficulties, including the removal of the Lavender Line at Isfield. There is also a preserved railway running between Eridge and Tunbridge Wells over other stretches which campaigners want to reinstate in the national network.

But the population in the area has increased greatly since closure and there would be plenty of people to enjoy a railway journey to delightful places such as Isfield and Barcombe Mills.

The reopened railway would also be as big a boost to Uckfield as the opening of the original line in 1858.

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