Cranleigh Railwat Reconstruction

Draft 1 – History Coursework – Assignment 1- The History of a locality

Question 1 – Explain why your chosen locality/site was originally built there?

The opportunity to construct the Cranleigh Line came about from the fierce competition between the (LBSCR) and the (LSWR) for the beneficial traffic. A branch of the LSWR's London to Southampton line had reached Guildford in 1845, was extended to in 1849 and then to in 1859. In 1844 the LSWR drew up plans to construct a line to the then important port of from a point near Horsham. Upon hearing of this possible encroachment into their territory, the LBSCR acted quickly in promoting a bill authorising a line to Shoreham. The London and Brighton (Steyning Branch) Railway Act received on and the company's engineer, R. Jacombe-Hood, was instructed to survey the line. A line to Horsham from on the LBSCR's was laid in 1848.

The Horsham and Guildford Direct Railway Act was passed on 6th August 1860, with a clause that required the London and South Western Railway to allow the company to use one and a half of its line, still unfinished at that time, between Peasmarsh and Guildford. Construction of the Horsham & Guildford Direct railway started early in 1862 with five stations planned at Bramley, Cranley, Little Vachery (later changed to Baynard’s), Rudgwick & Slinfold.

Once the Act had been passed the promoters took steps to add further members to the company's management board with a view to constructing the line. Therefore, Joseph Cary, Henry Fox, William Lintott and John Bradshaw joined the original trio of promoters, with the contract for the construction of the line being handed to one of the initial promoters, William McCormick, and James Holmes. The company's engineer, Edward Woods, surveyed the line and on the siting of the stations was decided, the company taking into account the needs of the local farming community who were then beginning their annual harvest preparations.

The company began discussions with the LSWR for access to its Guildford station, debate which proved difficult as the LSWR did not fancy the prospect of LBSCR trains on its rails. The "Working Agreement" prevented the H&GDR from offering running rights over the line to the LSWR, removing a possible incentive for the LSWR to cooperate. The problem over access to Guildford station remained a problem until the 1890s and was never fully resolved until the of 1923.

The national economic climate also hindered progress on the line, with contracts for its construction not being drawn up until . The line was to be laid as a at a cost of £123,000 for a distance of 15 miles 46 chains. The price included the land purchase costs, maintenance costs for the first year of operations and a guarantee of track stability for seven years. However, this was not to be the end of the H&GDR's problems - there were squabbles over ownership of the railway and a contractor went bankrupt with £30,000 debts during the construction.

The branch opened on 2nd October 1865 and was single track for its entire length with a passing loop at Baynard’s Station. In 1867, Cranley's name was changed to Cranleigh at the request of the Post Office because badly written letters were sometimes mistaken for Crawley and vice versa.

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In the meantime, both railway companies began to experience financial difficulties coinciding with the economic recession of the late 1840s, and their plans for the Horsham area were put on hold. It would be a further ten years before the plans for a line to Shoreham were resurrected by the LBSCR which opened to traffic on . The opening of the line was seen by a group of local businessmen as an opportunity to promote a railway project offering the LSWR a route to Shoreham by connecting Guildford with Horsham.

During 1876 a passing loops were added at Bramley station and another at Cranleigh in 1880. In 1888 Bramley was renamed Bramley and Wonersh as the station halfway from the two village centres.

The main reason that the Cranleigh line was built was to link Guildford and Horsham on a direct route so that no changes on the journey were needed, but also because of the following reasons, so that the trains could carry people and goods from Guildford to Horsham and vice versa on a direct route so that people wouldn’t have to travel out of there way and change trains. The trains that went from Baynard’s where used to carry fullers earth from Baynard’s to where ever there destination was, the line was also used for the transport of coal to the local residents and the gasworks at cranleigh as well as agricultural feed and farming machinery. Farmers also used the line to transport their goods to market in Guildford and Horsham.

But the line became very useful in 1902 because the Christ’s hospital station was opened; the LBSCR invested £30,000 into building the station. Before this there had been no station only a small wooden platform which was used by a local dairy to ferry milk to London but the station was unused as the dairy went bankrupt and it was intended primarily to serve , a major fee-paying school which had moved to the area in that year. The new station had seven platforms to cater for the expected large number of pupils that were going to be expected daily. These numbers never materialised as the school was opened to borders only and it was only busy at the end of a term and residential growth was expected but this never materialised either as the school bought a big proportion of land surrounding the station and so they were unable to build houses.

The railways served the local communities and industries, but were not profitable. The line was even used for the Rambler’s excursions to the countryside during the 1950’s and early 60’s but these were not enough to save the lines from the 1966 railway closures. A small section of the track remained operational until 1981 used by the Blue Circle for bulk movements of cement to Shoreham harbour. The line wasn’t actually built for help during the First World War but the line proved its usefulness because it was used as a through route by transporting soldiers and equipment from the midlands via Guildford and Horsham to the ports of Newhaven and Littlehampton. At Christ’s Hospital a spur was built to link Guildford with a junction at Itchingfield to give access to the Pulborough and Steyning lines so that through trains were possible from the midlands to the south coast.

Sadly, trains from Platform two, now only head towards Portsmouth, not Horsham

Question 2 – How accurate is this reconstruction/interpretation?

The cranleigh line had many uses and has changed immensely over the years and for this question I am going to show what the railway was like while it was open and also after it was closed by Dr Beeching implemented his ideas.

The Cranleigh line was opened on with the exception of Rudgwick Station which opened in November of that year. The local press was vital of the early services. The West Sussex Gazette of stated that the line was "likely to prove a more picturesque than profitable part of the Company." There was a feeling that it had been constructed merely to provide connections with the LSWR at Guildford, and to give a through route to the .

1865 - 1899

In 1865 – 1899 The LSWR's control over Guildford and its attitude towards the LBSCR ensured that little through traffic to the South Coast was routed through the Cranleigh Line, whose main source of cargo was the transport of coal to local residents and the at Cranleigh, as well as agricultural and machinery for the farming industry.

Originally eight trains ran daily, and covered the line in 50 minutes, with certain trains terminating at Cranleigh. However, slow traffic returns meant that fares were raised within 18 months of opening, whilst trains were reduced to three each way on weekdays and Saturdays, with two on Sundays. The LBSCR used loose-coupled 4-wheeled coaches equipped with 1st, 2nd and 3rd class compartments. Later years saw even fewer services, up to six complete trips being made daily with one or two extra trains from Horsham terminating at Cranleigh. Gradually only 3rd class accommodation was offered, but with the number of daily trains was increased to eight, calling at all stations. Passenger traffic at Guildford station during the 1890s increased which led to the LSWR giving lower priority to LBSCR traffic at Peasmarsh Junction. The LBSCR wanted to cure this problem by applying for approval for a new 9 mile from Cranleigh to via , providing access to London without having to use LSWR tracks. However, the objections of local landowners combined with the hilly geography of the resulted in the LBSCR not pursuing this scheme any further.

1900 - 1914

The arrival of school to grounds near Stammerham Junction in 1902 together with the hope that Horsham would expand westwards towards the Junction led the LBSCR to invest £30,000 into building what was to become Christ's Hospital station. Before this there had been no station at this point, only a small wooden platform which was used by a local dairy to ferry milk to London.

The magnificent red brick station reflecting the LBSCR's ambition for the area was constructed using bricks supplied by the nearby Brickworks. Five through tracks were laid which served seven facing platforms. Three platforms were set aside to the Cranleigh Line and two other platforms served passengers on the main line - allowing trains travelling from London via Horsham the option of routes to Pulborough, Shoreham or Guildford and beyond. A single loop on the down line serving two facing platforms was installed to deal with the large number of pupils expected (the school had 835 pupils)

The LBSCR's expectation of an income that would come from the station to go with the size of its premises was defeated by two developments. The first one was that Christ's Hospital school was revealed that it was only going to accommodate . The station was expecting hundreds of children travelling twice a day from London, the railway was built on a misunderstanding part of there justification for such a station was because they were expecting daily pupils to the station Secondly, the anticipated residential growth in the area did not materialise. It was not helped by the fact that the school had purchased much of the land around the junction, which ended any hopes for housing in the area.

First World War

The Cranleigh Line played a useful role during the , in transporting men and munitions to the South Coast where they could be shipped over to . Although the southern section of Stammerham Junction could have increased the line's usefulness, it remained abandoned. Sunday services were suspended on the line from 1917 to 1919 as a wartime economy measure.

Second World War

The line fell under government control again during the and again the line played a useful role. With Northern France under enemy control, the Horsham area became susceptible to air attack and there were a number of incidents on the line. In 1941 the line north of the Worthing Road bridge near Horsham was hit, badly damaging the track and requiring a replacement bus service to be laid on between Horsham and Christ's Hospital whilst repairs were carried out. On a strafed a near Bramley carrying 42 passengers, many of whom were Christmas shoppers. There were seven casualties including the driver and guard. The situation could have been far worse, were it not for the intervention of a number of Canadian soldiers who were billetted nearby. The locomotive, a , was repaired and returned rapidly back into service.

Post-war

The nationalisation of the railways in 1948 brought the line under the auspices of the but the inadequate funds made available for modernisation of the railways were never going to be used for railway backwaters like the Cranleigh Line.

Dr Beeching

Some people look at DR Beeching and blame the whole railway closure on him personally but He was appointed to look at railway system and how to make them more profitable it wasn’t actually He him self that closed them it was the government that implemented his ideas but if he hadn’t given the ideas of the closing railways they wouldn’t of closed. That’s why people have so many views of him.

The Beeching Axe was a reaction to the failed railway modernisation plan of the which spent huge amounts of money on buying new equipment such as new diesel and electric locomotives without first examining the railways' role, what was actually going to be needed, or the implications of changing old-fashioned working practices and tackling the problem of chronic over manning. The result was the railway system's finances plunging deeply into the red.

In tune with the mood of the early 1960s, 's Conservative government with pro-road transport minister Ernest Marples believed that the future of transport lay with roads, and that railways were a relic of the past with little future.

In the Conservative government appointed Dr (1913-1985) as the chair of with a brief to cut the spiralling losses.

Dr Beeching believed the railway system should be run like a business not a public service, and that if parts of the railway system that didn't pay their way—like some rural branch lines—were closed then the remaining core of the system could be restored to profitability.

He made a study of traffic on all the railway lines in the country and concluded that 80% of the traffic was carried on just 20% of the network, with much of the rest of the system carrying little traffic and operating at a huge loss.

In his report "The reshaping of British Railways" issued on , , he proposed a massive closures program. At the time the report was called the "Beeching Bombshell" or the "Beeching Axe" by the press and was hugely debateable. It sparked outcry and outrage from many communities that would lose their rail services in the surrounding villages and towns - many of which, especially in the case of rural communities, provided the sole means of public transport.

The report proposed that 6,000 miles of Britain's then 18,000 miles of railway system be closed (mostly rural branch and cross country lines) and that many other rail lines should lose their passenger services and be kept open for goods only. In addition, many lesser-used stations would close on lines that were to be kept open. The report was accepted by the government.

A significant part of the Beeching Plan also proposed that British Rail electrify some major main lines and adopt containerised freight traffic instead of the outdated and uneconomic wagon-load traffic. In general, politicians jumped at the money-saving parts of the plan and were less enthusiastic about the parts which cost money. Some of those plans were adopted, however, such as the electrification of the .