Horsham's lost railway stations: This is what happened to them

Billions were spent on building railway links across Britain – including in Horsham – when almost every town and village in the district had its own railway station.

By the end of Queen Victoria's reign in 1901, more than 1,100 million passengers were using trains.

Sadly, many former railway stations have now disappeared – mostly buried beneath new housing estates and roads.

West Grinstead had a station on the Steyning Line. It had a goods yard with a cattle loading bay and facilities for handling horse boxes as there was a national stud and kennels in the area.

The station closed as a result of the Beeching Axe – when Lord Beeching, on behalf of the Government, closed what he considered to be little used and unprofitable lines in the 1960s – and now forms part of the Downs Link footpath.

The main station building and station workers’ cottages remain but are now privately owned. An old station platform also still remains and a replica station sign and old railway signal have been erected. There is also a British Railways Mark 1 coach placed on rails in the former goods yard.

Few remnants of other stations in the Horsham area still remain today. Bramber once had a thriving railway which was well used by tourists visiting nearby Bramber Castle, Potter's Museum and the village.

The railway also closed as a result of the Beeching Axe. Nothing remains of Bramber Station today, which now forms part of a traffic roundabout.

Henfield Railway Station, also on the Steyning Line, was equipped with a siding which received coal to serve the Steam Mill and Gas Works.

The station also closed as a result of the Beeching Axe and now also forms part of the Downs Link path. Nothing remains of the station today other than the name ‘Station Road’.

Henfield Station was used in the Second World War as the loading point for locally grown sugar beet to be transported to London, and Betley Bridge where the line crossed the River Adur about a mile to the north was a strategic target for German bombers.

Partridge Green Station also closed as a result of the Beeching Axe and now also forms another part of the Downs Link footpath.

The station buildings have been obliterated by housing and the Star Road Industrial Estate.

Roffey Road Halt was a station on the Arun Valley Line and was the second station north from Horsham on the stretch to Crawley.

It opened on June 1 1907 to serve anticipated housing growth – which never happened – and it closed in 1937.

Some associated cottages were demolished in the early 1970s and the only signs left of it now are a number of concrete posts that supported its platforms.

Rudgwick Station opened in November 1865, one month after the rest of the stations on the line, due to objections made by the Board of Trade's Colonel Yolland following an inspection that year. He objected to the station being on a 1 in 80 gradient, which he considered dangerously steep. He refused to authorise the opening of the station to traffic until the incline had been reduced to a 1 in 130. The works were complex as the embankment leading into the station included a partly built bridge carrying the line over the River Arun, which had to be raised by 10 feet. The result was a ‘bridge over a bridge.’

Have you read? Plague of potholes around Horsham drives residents to distraction

Hotel near Horsham procured by the Government to house asylum seekers

The line was closed in 1965 and the station was demolished leaving the trackbed and bridge in place. In the 1980s the trackbed was also made part of the Downs Link. Rudgwick Medical Centre has been built on the site of the station's main building.

Slinfold had a single track and opened in 1865.The station had a single platform and a small goods yard. At one time it had sidings serving a brickworks and a timber yard.

The line was closed in 1965 and Slinfold Station was demolished. A caravan park now stands on the site.

Southwater also had a station and goods siding allowing the transportation of coal and other raw materials to and from Southwater Brickworks.

The station closed in 1966 and the station was demolished. The site is now a housing estate.

Steyning Railway Station opened in around 1880 and helped to accelerate residential development in the area. Workshops constructed by the contractor survived as industrial units until their demolition in the 1950s.

The site is now occupied by the new alignment of the A283 Steyning-by-pass.