Lavender Line
| Lavender Line | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Kitson 0-6-0ST "Austin I" built in 1932 | |
| Locale | near Uckfield in East Sussex |
| Commercial operations | |
| Original gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Preserved operations | |
| Owned by | Lavender Line Preservation Society |
| Stations | 2 |
| Length | 2 3⁄4 mi (4.4 km) |
| Preserved gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Commercial history | |
| Opened | 1858 |
| Closed | 1969 |
| Preservation history | |
| Headquarters | Isfield Station |
The Lavender Line is a heritage railway based at Isfield Station, near Uckfield in East Sussex, England.
The Lavender Line formed part of the Lewes to Uckfield Railway when it was opened on 18 October 1858. Within 12 months of its opening, the branch had been integrated into the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) to safeguard the company’s interests east of its London to Brighton main line. Ten years from its opening, Isfield saw through workings from Brighton to Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge, via a new Uckfield–Groombridge link. This scheme necessitated track diversion work north of Lewes, to obviate trains having to reverse, and the branch therefore assumed a new course, entering Lewes from the North.
Prior to that time trains from Uckfield travelling south to Lewes joined the Keymer Junction to Lewes line at Hamsey, latterly called the "Hamsey Loop." A new scheme required major track diversion work north of Lewes, in order to remove the need for trains having to reverse at Lewes. So the line took a new course, with the abandoning of the Hamsey Loop and assumed a new course, entering Lewes from the North, traversing a bridge over the River Ouse then a bridge over Cliffe High Street to Lewes Station via a number of embankments. Such a route was indeed heavily engineered. As a result of this the mileage of the line also changed following this route alteration, and with the nought milepost now at Brighton, Isfield’s location now became 13 miles 1,070 yards (21.9 km).
The Bluebell Railway originally branched off the Lavender Line at Culver Junction, near Culver Farm between Lewes and Barcombe Mills. This junction finally closed in 1958 with the closure of the East Grinstead to Lewes line.
As early as 1964 BR was aware of planned road works in and around the Lewes area, in which a bypass (Phases 1, 2 & 3) around Lewes was planned; as part of this the building of the Phoenix Causeway (Phase 1) would mean that a section of the Lewes to Uckfield railway line was in the way – requiring either a level crossing or a road bridge. BR therefore applied for an Act of Parliament to reinstate the Hamsey loop. Curiously in 1966 the local TUCC received notification from BR that the line from Lewes to Hurst Green Junction was to close in its entirety. The reason for this was that the line was one of those slated for closure in the first Beeching report published in 1963, listing it as an unremunerative line.
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