The Railway
A station opened in Paddock Wood, the view towards Dover. The building on the left was designed by Decimus Burton. ©
From an old postcard ©
Arguably many would not be living on Paddock Wood if it were not for the train station.
In 1836 South Eastern Railway (SER)obtained government permission to build a railway through Kent from Redhill to Dover, which was finally completed in 1844. In 1842 a station was opened here in Paddock Wood and within 200 years this grew into a village, then a small town to become what it is today. The branch line to Maidstone was opened in 1844 and in 1892 the Hawkhurst line, joining Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Horsmonden, was opened. This line became famous for being used by the hop pickers as well as for transporting hops.
One family moved to the area in 1956 and David Sargison recorded his memories within a biography of the station:
“The line to Hawkhurst closed in 1961 but not before I had the privilege of travelling on it from Horsmonden to Paddock Wood to pick up the train for a day out in London. To me the branch line train seemed laughably antiquated, with carriages like sheds on wheels pulled by a wheezing machine which chugged slowly through the orchards. I’d give anything to relive that experience!
It was the modern that appealed and the electric trains that took over on the line between Paddock Wood & London, ironically on the day the Hawkhurst Line closed, were the way ahead to an eleven year old. These trains were fast clean and smooth, powered by an unseen force, with the added excitement of being able to stick your head out of the window without getting your eyes full of smuts. There was a guards van with a periscope to allow you to see across the roof at what was coming and toilets with a flap which opened revealing the track rushing past beneath your feet.”
David remembers the arrival of Eurostar in the 1990s and standing on the footbridge with his family “listening out for the distinctive whine and then if you were lucky getting a toot from the driver as the train passed underneath”.
© David Sargison from the Diamond Jubillee and Olympic Games brochure 2012.
In 2012 it was known that Paddock Wood had been chosen by Network Rail to develop a state of the art Training Centre. It stands today on the site of the old Hawkhurst line remembered above.
Network Rail Training Centre Paddock Wood. The footbridge over the railway in the background ©