A walk along two closed lines

Seeking to escape the wedding the other week, me and my dad went for a walk along the route of the former Cuckoo Line from Polegate as far as Hellingly, where we attempted to trace the route of the old hospital railway. The photos are either mine or his, posted with permission.


The start of the Cuckoo Trail along the old trackbed in Polegate is marked by this sculpture.



While most of the route of the railway survives, almost nothing remained of the structures along it - none of the signals and mileposts I've seen on other closed lines.



While some of the original bridges have been preserved, others have been replaced since closure - some, intriguingly, rebuilt to double track width.

At Hailsham, about three miles from Polegate, the path has been diverted around new development on the site of the railway. However, what appears to be the station master's house still exists close to where the station would have been.



Other signs of the lost railway include the road name (Station Road), and two pubs - the Railway Tavern and the Terminus.



A few miles further on Hellingly's station building remains completely intact, including its platform and canopy. It has been converted to a private house.





At the north end of the station site a bridge carries the road over the old trackbed.



In the former sidings there are the remains of a ground frame, rusting away.



The hospital railway branched off the mainline at the south end of the station. Its first few hundred metres have disappeared into the fields, but its route through the village survives, still protected by its original iron fences.



This part of the railway is inaccessible, and parts of it appear to be used as extra back garden by people living along the route.

The fenced part of the railway ends where it crossed Park Road.



From here on the trackbed makes its way across the edges of the massive housing project on the former hospital grounds.



Entering the hospital site the route has been taken over as a trackway for road vehicles.



On this stretch is the only remaining overhead line mast, which seems to have deteriorated further since the taking of the photo in Peter Harding's book on the line in 1988.



The loco shed at the hospital survived until recently but has now been demolished. No other remnants of the railway still exist on the hospital site, which is at a rather strange moment of transformation. Several of the peripheral hospital buildings are still in use, some for outpatients and one as a secure residential unit. Parts of the central buildings and many of those that surrounded it stand derelict or part demolished, some surrounded by diggers when we visited and likely by now gone. Between the derelict buildings huge expanses of empty mud had been cleared. At the other end of the site, the first part of new housing estate was already complete and lived in. Its bland, off the shelf fake Victorian commuter houses made an odd contrast with the huge, grand, but sombre original buildings a few hundred metres away.









Paul

Some very nice but sad photographs there Paul. Thanks very much.

Very interesting.  Thanks for taking the trouble, Paul.  :thumbs

Nice and interesting photos…thumbs:thumbs

I know we can't preserve everything but there are some sad sights there Paul.

Lovely little ramble, thanks for sharing.

This photo…



Is very useful for comparing trees and building heights. There is nothing like the prototype to base your layout modelling on.

A very interesting walk Paul, thanks for sharing the photos.  I've long been fascinated by the Hellingly Hospital line.

Thanks for sharing your walk back in history with us -  particularly appreciated by those on the opposite side of the world.

I really enjoyed those photos, Paul.  Thank you.:thumbs