please empty your brain below

All rather sad especially as I remember visiting East Grinstead station when the upper level was closed but still intact. Still we do have a rather good walking and off-road cycling route. I have both walked and cycled it.

The great irony is that the line westwards, whilst hardly used in its lifetime, would have been a prime candidate for re-opening today as Gatwick Airport is a major (road) traffic generator and there is no direct rail service to serve places to the east of the airport. Sadly the deep cutting of the M23 and the housing estate built at Crawley Down make the financial case for this proposition quite hopeless.

It's perhaps worth mentioning that the line between Tunbridge Wells and Groombridge (which linked to Easst Grinstead) is still operating at the TW end as the Spa Valley Railway, a steam/diesel service that runs as far west as Eridge.

Ah, Dr Beeching. He was an Old Boy of Maidstone Grammar School and came to give the prizes away in 1962 or 1963. He gave the shortest speech on record (8 minutes - we boys timed those things), during which he made two points that visibly annoyed the Headmaster.
First, he said, if someone says your schooldays are the best days of your life, they have probably made a failure of their life. Second, if you ever find yourself in a job for which you are not suited, leave it.

All I have remembered from seven Speech Days. Olim meminisse iuvabit was our motto, "One day you will be glad to remember".

Dr Beeching is one of those people most of us have heard of but know very little of. Now at least I know that he lived in East Grinstead and thanks to the wikipedia link that he was a doctor because of a Phd in physics.
So would East Grinstead still have it's one remaining line if the good Doctor hadn't lived there?

Thanks DG, a very interesting report. East Grinstead has never been a place I would of thought of visiting. I will definitely plan a visit soon.


Echoing what Bernie said. It's now beenfiled away for when I get round to doing "Random Counties", inspired by your Random Boroughs of course!

Interesting stuff, been there many times, but did not know the history.

Maybe I’ve got a thing about old bridges but I reckon DG’s photo of the bridge over Forest Way does full justice to what is IMO a work of art – form and function in harmonious combination.

Quite interesting. Would never have thought that a rather prosaic seeming place like East Grinstead would have this kind of story behind it.

Bizarre - I posted the same comment twice and neither appeared...

So - did you get a free cuppa at Standen for arriving on foot?











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