Westerham railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Westerham railway station served the village of Westerham, Kent.

No railway was ever constructed all the way between Sevenoaks and Redhill to parallel what is now the A25 road and the Pilgrims' Way. Reasons for this may include: a) the Redhill to Tonbridge Line had been built quite early in railway history and served the settlements between Redhill and Godstone, b) the difficult choice between boggy land in the valley bottom and the gradients encountered on the A25 route at Limpsfield and Nutfield, c) the "pull" of London which meant that the emphasis was on radial routes from the capital.

However in 1881 the South Eastern and Chatham Railway opened a branch line from Dunton Green to Westerham with one station en route at Brasted. The branch was built as single track with provision for double track as an ambitious extension to Oxted was envisaged.

Westerham station closed in 1961. A road called The Flyers Way now covers the site of the station. Its name may well be a reference to a train which used to serve the station. Most of the trackbed of the branch line is now under the M25 motorway.