Lydd Town railway station
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Lydd Town | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lydd Town railway station in the 1900s | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Lydd, Folkestone & Hythe England | ||||
| Grid reference | TR050215 | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Status | Disused | ||||
| History | |||||
| Pre-grouping | Lydd Railway South Eastern Railway South Eastern and Chatham Railway | ||||
| Post-grouping | Southern Railway Southern Region of British Railways | ||||
| Key dates | |||||
| 7 December 1881 | Opened as Lydd | ||||
| 4 July 1937 | Renamed Lydd Town | ||||
| 6 March 1967 | Closed to passenger traffic[1] | ||||
| 4 October 1971 | Closed to regular goods traffic | ||||
| |||||
Lydd Town was a railway station which served the town of Lydd in Kent, England. Opened on 7 December 1881 by the Lydd Railway Company. It closed to passengers in 1967 but the line through the station remained open for freight.
The Lydd Railway Company (LRC) obtained authorisation to construct a standard gauge single track line from Appledore to Dungeness with intermediate stops at Lydd and Brookland. Having opened the line to traffic on 7 December 1881, the railway company subsequently decided on 16 February 1882 that the line would be worked and maintained by the South Eastern Railway, whose chairman, Edward Watkin, was the father of Alfred Watkin, chairman of the LRC. On 24 July, the company was authorised to extend the line by building a branch from Lydd to New Romney which opened on 19 June 1884. The LRC was taken into the South Eastern in January 1895, itself becoming part of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway four years later.[2]
Lydd, situated 7 miles (11 km) from Appledore, was the principal station on the line, with a considerable goods yard and a long siding to the nearby military firing range (Lydd Ranges) via the 6-mile (10 km) Lydd Military Railway (1883 - c1926).[3] The approach to Lydd from Brookland saw the line travel over nine level crossings before passing under the line's sole overbridge carrying the B2075 Station Road, before reaching a final level crossing just before the station. The station had two platforms as well as a passing loop and a signal box on the down side.[2]
Following the opening of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in 1927, the extra holiday traffic generated persuaded the Southern Railway (who had taken over the line upon the railway grouping) to realign its branch to New Romney by moving it nearer to the sea and opening two new halts - Lydd-on-Sea and Greatstone-on-Sea - in 1937. The opening of Lydd-on-Sea Halt led to the renaming of Lydd station as "Lydd Town" to avoid any confusion. The station closed on 6 March 1967 in the face of dwindling passenger traffic and insignificant freight returns, although the line remained open through Lydd Town as far as a siding near Dungeness for freight traffic to serve the BNFL nuclear power plant at Dungeness.[4]
| Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brookland Halt Line open, station closed |
Southern Railway New Romney branch |
New Romney and Littlestone-on-Sea Line and station closed | ||
| BR Southern Region New Romney branch |
Lydd-on-Sea Halt Line and station closed | |||
| Southern Railway Dungeness branch |
Dungeness Line and station closed | |||
