Southfleet & Springhead
It is difficult to
imagine that a station once existed here. Comparatively recent earthworks in
connection with the CTRL project have seen that any trace of the track bed has
been completely obliterated. Only an isolated house, once the residence of the
Station Master, and some nondescript railway cottages, remain as a testament to what was once Southfleet station. The
site joined Rosherville as one of two intermediate stops on a five-mile
double-track branch between Fawkham Junction – 2¼ miles east of Farningham Road
– and Gravesend, which cost £250,000 to build (£18,789,000 at 2008 prices). The
line had received Royal Assent on 18th July 1881, on the forming of the
‘’Gravesend Railway Company’’. This nominally independent concern was
subsequently absorbed into the much larger LC&DR in 1883. Passenger traffic
commenced on 10th May 1886, even though the branch’s formal opening ceremony had
been on the 17th of the previous month.
The defining feature of the intermediate stations on the route was the single
island platform, in which the double-track was gently slewed either side of the
surface. This arrangement was presumably settled upon due to the nature of the
sites, the stations being situated within restrictive cuttings where an island
platform could economise on space. The island at Southfleet measured 530-feet in
length and was accessed from the south by means of a twin-span staircase – with
accompanying iron railings – emanating from the above road bridge. Upon it
resided the main station building, an elongated but unassuming affair, measuring
about 135-feet in length. Single-storey, the structure was constituted of yellow
brickwork and comprised a slated pitched roof complete with overhang and
pyramid-type sloping ends. Of the stations which originally opened with the
branch, Southfleet was by far the most plain architecturally, possibly because
it was an isolated spot located far from the splendour of Victorian Gravesend,
then famous for Continental shipping and Rosherville Gardens. Nevertheless, the
brickwork type was at least common to all stations on the route, and this still
constitutes the surviving Station Master’s house at Southfleet. The latter was
built upon a plot of land to the west of the railway cutting, running parallel
with the island platform. Two-storeys high
and demonstrating gabled roof sections, the house was evidently built to a
standardised design, for a virtually identical structure was similarly provided
for the Station Master at Rosherville. The house at Southfleet was accompanied
to its south, on the opposite side of the road, by two pairs of semi-detached
railway cottages.
Freight traffic was destined to outlast passenger services on the branch. Four
Gravesend-facing goods sidings were in evidence north of the island at
Southfleet, on the ‘’down’’ side of the line. The layout was controlled from a
quaint two-storey-high signal box, located opposite the goods yard on the ‘’up’’
side of the line. This comprised a brick base, a timber upper half, and a gabled
pitched roof. As per the Station Master’s house, it was built to a standardised
design, a more or less identical example (albeit of all-timber construction)
having also come into use at the line’s terminus. Both cabins were the work of
the contractor
‘’Railway Signal Company’’ (a concern which became well known for its work on SER
lines), hired by the LC&DR to signal the Gravesend branch.
On the advent of the Southern Railway, the station became ‘’Southfleet &
Springhead’’. Little else changed at the site, although cosmetic alterations
were made: during World War II, all posts/struts upon the platform were painted
in a black and white striped scheme as a blackout precaution. This was a common
practice at several stations within the London and South East area, and helped
drivers locate sites at night, since any form of external lighting was
prohibited. Station name boards were also removed, a precaution against the
threat of invasion. The branch stumbled into British Railways ownership in 1948,
but withdrawal of passenger services was not far off. Southfleet & Springhead
had so far been more fortunate than the station at Rosherville, the latter of
which had ceased to serve passengers as early as 16th July 1933. Traffic had for
long been light and from the outset, the SER’s North Kent route from Charing
Cross had offered a mileage to Gravesend of 24, versus the 27½-miles of the
LC&DR branch. A decline in traffic under SR tenure could, in part, be attributed
to electrification of the Gravesend Central route in July 1930. The end for
passenger services on the Gravesend West branch came on 3rd August 1953, but
freight traffic continued to use the route thereafter. As a result, the goods
yard at Southfleet did not formally close until 11th June 1962, all major
station structures still remaining intact at this time. Complete closure of the
line came on 24th March 1968.
Come the 1970s, the branch was to witness a brief revival – or at least part of
it. Preparations were made to re-open the southern end of the route as far as
Southfleet, where a rail-served coal terminal for Associated Portland Cement
Manufacturers (APCM) was to be brought into use in connection with the
1969-commissioned Northfleet Cement Works. The latter was opened in piecemeal
fashion, but was fully operational by December 1970. At Southfleet, the station
site was cleared to permit the laying of a revised permanent way comprising a
run-a-round loop arrangement. The double-track fanned out from the single line
immediately south of the remaining road over bridge and subsequently converged
back into single formation on reaching the approximate former site of the signal
box. The entire route had been single-track ever since 1959, although a passing
loop remained in use at Southfleet. Upon the revised APCM loop layout existed a
large wagon tipper, north of the former island platform site, and beyond this
was a headshunt. The latter provided access to a Gravesend-facing siding which
hosted a shed for the coal terminal’s resident diesel shunter. Coal arrived at
the site behind Class 45 ‘’Peak’’ locomotives, much of it having originated from Welbeck
Colliery in Nottinghamshire. Southfleet coal terminal commenced operation in
1972 and was in use for just four years, closure coming in 1976.
As earlier mentioned, it is today surprising that a station once existed here,
given the recent and extensive re-landscaping enacted. On 5th October 1998,
heavy earthworks were begun upon the former course of the Fawkham Junction to
Southfleet section of the Gravesend West branch. This was to produce a
re-aligned track bed for a double-track connection between the ‘’Chatham’’ main
line at a new ‘’Fawkham Junction’’, and ‘’Section 1’’ of the CTRL. At Southfleet,
a completely new cutting was produced, which involved dumping much of the
excavated earth within the cutting once occupied by the ex-LC&DR branch. The
underside of the road bridge was completely in-filled and new structures built
upon the former site of the island platform.
Southfleet & Springhead: 1938
Southfleet & Springhead track plan, as of 1938. The present day positioning of the CTRL spur, outlined in grey,
has been included, to show its location relative to the former station site. Click the above for a larger version.
Drawn by David Glasspool
1985
The following sequence of photographs, from about 1985, have kindly been submitted by a contributor for
inclusion. Our first view depicts the underside of the road bridge, at the southern end of the layout. On show
are the arches which ran along the southern extremity of the island platform, and our photographer notes
that by this time, the underside of the bridge had acquired a thick black stain. Sadly, these arches can be
viewed no more, since CTRL works have seen this area completely in-filled with earth. Terry
1985
Moving out into the open, and looking towards Gravesend, we are presented with the imposing
wagon tipper, which looks like a contraption from a 1960s science fiction film. The wagon tipper
was just north of the former platform site, and at one time a huge green hopper was nearby, which
could be seen for some miles. Terry
1985
We are now at the Gravesend end of the layout, but looking southwards, back towards the road bridge. In the
foreground are the remnants of the 1972-commisioned coal terminal for APCM. As earlier mentioned in the
main text, this essentially comprised an elongated run-a-round loop layout, feeding off the single-track from
Fawkham Junction. Prominent in the middle-distance is the wagon tipper and to the right of this, above the
trees, is the roof top of the still extant Station Master's house. Terry
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