The East Kent Railway (EKR) was an early railway operating between Strood and

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient Briti ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England, during 1858 and 1859. In the latter year it changed its name to the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and no ...

to reflect its ambitions to build a rival line from London to

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maids ...

via Chatham and

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

. The line as far as Canterbury was opened in 1860 and the extension to Dover Priory on 22 July 1861. The route to

London Victoria station Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Qu ...

via the

Mid-Kent line The Mid-Kent line (also referred to as the Hayes line by train operators, official bodies and the general public) is a British railway line running from Courthill Loop North junction (just south of Lewisham station) to Hayes railway station in t ...

and the

West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway The West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway (WELCPR) was an early railway company in south London between Crystal Palace station and Wandsworth, which was opened in 1856. The line was extended in 1858 to a station at Battersea Wharf near t ...

opened on 1 November 1861.

Origins

Although it was a relatively prosperous and well-populated area, the north of the county of Kent was poorly served by railways during the 1840s. the South Eastern Railway (SER) had chosen a roundabout southerly route to

of , compared to as the crow flies, and had built branches to the main towns in the north of the county from this line. As a result, it was by the main SER route from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

and

Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, a ...

although only by road. The cathedral city of

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

and the important dockyards of Chatham had no rail link nearer than Strood, on the opposite side of the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance ...

. Furthermore, the towns of

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

and the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is deriv ...

had no railway communication at all. As the SER was then unwilling to undertake new capital projects a large meeting was held at Rochester on 29 January 1850 to discuss the need for a railway connecting Strood to Dover. The idea of a new independent railway was adopted, but lack of financial support meant that it would be three years before any concrete scheme could be proposed. A plan for the construction of a new railway between the existing stations at Strood and

was introduced to Parliament in 1853. The scheme also included a branch from

to Faversham Quay on a creek leading to

The Swale The Swale is a tidal channel of the Thames estuary that separates the Isle of Sheppey from the rest of Kent. On its banks is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest which stretches from Sittingbourne to Whitstable in Kent. It is al ...

and a link to the SER at

Chilham Chilham is a mostly agricultural village and parish in the English county of Kent with a clustered settlement, Chilham village centre, in the northeast, and a smaller linear settlement, Shottenden. Well-preserved roads and mostly residential liste ...

, together with

running powers Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may con ...

over the SER's

North Kent line The North Kent Line is a railway line which branches off the South East Main Line at St Johns junction west of Lewisham station in Greater London and runs to Rochester Bridge Junction near Strood, Medway where it links to the Chatham Main Line ...

to . There are differing views as to the amount of opposition to the scheme put up by the SER. According to Bradley, the SER "exerted great pressure to get the East Kent's Bill thrown out of Parliament on the grounds of non-compliance with Standing Orders, but a petition by over 9,000 inhabitants of the district persuaded the House of Commons to suspend their Standing Orders and allow the Company to deposit amended plans." One reason for this special treatment was that the line was then "deemed of great national importance for the defences of the kingdom", as it aided the rapid movement of troops and military equipment between the

Royal Arsenal The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the Britis ...

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century ...

and Dover. The new company did not however gain the running powers requested. Instead, the enabling act included a facilitations clause which required the SER to handle the EKR traffic "as expeditiously as its own between Strood and London Bridge". At the same time, in return for the minor rerouting of the proposed line at Strood, the EKR received a major concession from the SER in the form of an undertaking to Parliament that they would not oppose any future plan to extend the EKR line to Dover. Permission to build this extension was granted in 1855, before construction work on the initial line had begun. The SER did not put up more opposition as many of the directors felt that the line would never be built due to lack of finance, others "waited in the background for the onset of bankruptcy, hoping to absorb the new line at a substantial discount."

Construction of the line

The engineer for the new line was

Thomas Russell Crampton Thomas Russell Crampton, MICE, MIMechE (6 August 1816 – 19 April 1888) was an English engineer born at Broadstairs, Kent, and trained on Brunel's Great Western Railway. He is best known for designing the Crampton locomotive but had many eng ...

who was one of the directors of the new company. The building of the line took an inordinately long time because of the parlous financial state of the EKR throughout is existence. Contracts were not awarded until 1856 and contractors were often left unpaid. Thus it was not until January 1858 that the line from Chatham to

was completed. The section from Strood over the Medway to Chatham was opened in March 1858. This included the Rochester railway bridge designed by

Joseph Cubitt Joseph Cubitt (24 November 1811 – 7 December 1872) was an English civil engineer. Amongst other projects, he designed the Blackfriars Railway Bridge over the River Thames in London. Early life Cubitt was born in Horning, Norfolk, on 24 Nove ...

. The railway was built as a single track line (with provision for doubling) throughout its length and but had taken five years to raise the finance and build. The branch line to Faversham Creek opened 12 April 1860; the main line as far as

on 9 July 1860, reaching on 22 July 1861 and on 1 November 1861. All of these lines were opened after the EKR had changed its name to the

London Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and no ...

. In the event, the links to the SER at Canterbury and

were never built.

Train service

The EKR service was originally five trains per day in each direction, with a journey time of 50 minutes. The railway purchased six

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four ...

ST Sondes class Crampton locomotives from

R and W Hawthorn R and W Hawthorn Ltd was a locomotive manufacturer in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, from 1817 until 1885. Locomotive building Robert Hawthorn first began business at Forth Bank Works in 1817, building marine and stationary steam engines. In 182 ...

. These soon proved to be unreliable and would shortly afterwards had to be rebuilt as conventional

2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. The notation 2-4-0T indi ...

Ts.

Westerly extension to the line

In November 1855, soon after gaining authority for the Dover extension, but before it had opened any line, the railway company again gave notice of application to Parliament to extend their lines in to both London and Westminster. Their draft proposals involved the construction of fourteen stretches of line involving links with several existing or proposed railways. These included the SER at , and or ; the

London Brighton and South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...

near

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...

; the proposed Westminster Terminus Railway at Manor-Street; and the

(WEL&CPR) near . This scatter-gun approach to building new lines into London by a company which was already deeply in debt and was finding it difficult to raise money to complete its existing lines was criticized in the press. Nevertheless, in 1856 the EKR introduced a Parliamentary

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pla ...

seeking running powers over the SER to , and then to build a new line to link to the proposed

Mid-Kent Line The Mid-Kent line (also referred to as the Hayes line by train operators, official bodies and the general public) is a British railway line running from Courthill Loop North junction (just south of Lewisham station) to Hayes railway station in t ...

of the

. Running powers over the latter railway would then give the EKR access to station of the WEL&CPR. The SER successfully fought off this attempt, arguing that their

North Kent Line The North Kent Line is a railway line which branches off the South East Main Line at St Johns junction west of Lewisham station in Greater London and runs to Rochester Bridge Junction near Strood, Medway where it links to the Chatham Main Line ...

was already operating at full capacity. At one stage they even announced publicly "that they would handle no East Kent traffic." Proposals by

Joseph Locke Joseph Locke FRSA (9 August 1805 – 18 September 1860) was a notable English civil engineer of the nineteenth century, particularly associated with railway projects. Locke ranked alongside Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel as on ...

, consulting engineer to the SER, for the amalgamation of that railway and the EKR were discussed by both sides in June 1858, although some of the SER directors were unhappy about taking on such a financially insecure company. Furthermore, under Locke's proposals, the services of Thomas Crampton, the engineer, contractor and part financier of the Canterbury–Dover line, would be dispensed with. Crampton managed to persuade the EKR board to accept an alternative proposal, that he would finance the westerly extension towards London. The EKR board therefore put forward a revised set of proposals to Parliament in 1858. These involved building their own line from Strood to

St Mary Cray St Mary Cray is an area of South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Historically it was a market town in the county of Kent. It is located north of Orpington, and south-east of Charing Cross. History The name C ...

where it would connect to the WELCPR at (then named Bromley). This plan gave the EKR potential access to Battersea, and later to Victoria station via the Victoria Station & Pimlico Railway, without using any of the SER's lines. These were accepted, and on 1 August 1859 the EKR changed its name to the

, before these new lines were completed.

Other lines

Two further railway lines were proposed during the late 1850s with the object of connecting to the EKR, but had not been completed at the time of the change of name. These were the Sittingbourne and Sheerness Railway, which was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1856 and opened on 19 July 1860, and the Herne Bay and Faversham Railway, which was authorized in 1857 and opened in 1861, later being extended to

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to the Census, there was a populati ...

.Marshall (1968) p.330.

References

Sources

* * *. *. *.

External links

*{{cite episode , title = East Kent Railway , credits = Platform 14 Ltd , network =

ITV Meridian ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV (TV network), ITV franchise for the South and South East England, South East of England. The station was launched at 12:00 am on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadca ...

, url = http://www.alongtheselines.co.uk/ , series = Along These Lines , airdate = 2008-05-18 , season = 1 , number = 6 , access-date = 4 May 2008 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080724165040/http://www.alongtheselines.co.uk/ , archivedate = 24 July 2008 , url-status = dead Early British railway companies Railway companies established in 1853 Railway lines opened in 1858 Railway companies disestablished in 1859 British companies disestablished in 1859 British companies established in 1853