The Southern Heights Light Railway (SHLR) was to have been a speculative London area suburban electric railway between ,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and ,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. It was authorised in 1928 under the

Light Railways Act 1896 The Light Railways Act 1896 ( 59 & 60 Vict. c. 48) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. History Before the act each new railway line built in the country required a specific act of Parliament to ...

, but ultimately not constructed. The engineer was to have been Colonel Holman Fred Stephens, heavily involved in the promotion of

light railway A light railway is a Rail transport, railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more Grade (slope), steep gradients and Minimum railway curve radius, tight curves to ...

History

Plotlands

The context of the scheme lay in the suburban development of a remote rural area near the crest of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Areas of Outstanding Natural Be ...

on the Kent-Surrey border, comprising the tiny hamlet of

Biggin Hill Biggin Hill is a town in the London Borough of Bromley, about south-southeast of Charing Cross. It is separated from London's built-up area by the Metropolitan green belt and is located adjacent to the Greater London boundary with Kent and ...

in the former together with the small but ancient village of

Tatsfield Tatsfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It is located 3.3 miles north west of Westerham and 3.9 miles north east of Oxted, and is adjacent to the Surrey border with both Greater London and Kent. Geo ...

in the latter. This locality was an early example of a '' plotland'' development, of which many examples sprang up in countryside around major cities in the first half of the 20th century. The process involved speculative developers buying up failed country farms or estates, and dividing the land into portions or ''plots'' of about an acre which were then sold off to individuals to do with as they pleased. This was before the existence of laws governing

planning permission Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...

. The results were usually settlements of poor quality residences lacking utilities and social services, accessed by unmade tracks. The Aperfield Court Estate at Biggin Hill was bought by a London speculator called Frederick Dougal in 1889,. He divided up the land into plots which he sold off for £10 each with a £1 deposit (£1300 in 2020 values, £130 down). However, interest was limited by the remoteness of the locality. Such plotlands only became popular with the arrival of private road vehicles.

Orpington, Cudham and Tatsfield Light Railway

The answer here was the promotion of a speculative branch railway from

Orpington Orpington is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Mary Cray, sou ...

on the South Eastern Railway, with the hope that this would encourage interest in suburban development. The Orpington, Cudham and Tatsfield Light Railway Company (OCTR) was therefore incorporated in 1898, with Colonel Holman Fred Stephens as the engineer. The company obtained a Light Railway Order in 1902, authorising construction of a 7.5 mile (12 km) line which was to be completed in four years. Authorised capital was £70 000, and the South Eastern Railway was to work the line once completed. Unfortunately, investment was not forthcoming and construction did not begin.

Route of the OCTLR

The 1902 proposal involved a line running due south of to a station at

Green Street Green Green Street Green is an area in south-east London, located in the London Borough of Bromley and, prior to 1965, in the historic county of Kent. It is located south of Orpington, west of Chelsfield, north-west of Pratt's Bottom, north of Haz ...

, just south of the road called Farnborough Hill and west of High Street. It then turned south-west to run up the valley occupied by Cuckoo Wood to

Cudham Cudham is an area in Greater London, England, located within the London Borough of Bromley and beyond London's urban sprawl. It is located on the Greater London border with Kent, bordering the Sevenoaks District. Cudham lies south of Orpington ...

station at Hang Grove Hill. From there hugged the east side of

Berry's Green Berry's Green a small hamlet in the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London, UK, situated outside of London's contiguous built-up area. It is a fairly wooded rural area with a scattering of farmland. Housing consists mainly of detached pro ...

before turning due west to Biggin Hill station on the present A233 road, about the south end of Aperfield Road. It then ran south-east and south to cross Tansfield Lane, then paralleled that road westwards to its terminus of Tatsfield station where Tatsfield Primary School used to be, by the crossroads at the top of Church Hill.

SHLR proposal

The OCTLR was defunct after 1906. However, the scheme was revived in a more ambitious form when the Southern Heights Light Railway was proposed in the mid 1920s. Colonel

H. F. Stephens Colonel Holman Fred Stephens (31 October 1868 – 23 October 1931) was a British light railway civil engineer and manager. He was engaged in engineering and building, and later managing, 16 light railways in England and Wales. Biography Stephe ...

was the engineer again, forming a personal link between the two schemes, and he was also to be a major promoter in his own right despite calling himself the "Agent to the Promoters". The SHLR scheme first drew wider public attention in March 1925, when an inquiry into the proposed line was held at

. It was to have been a single track railway constructed across the

from to . In a departure from Stephens' usual practice, there were to have been no

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

s at all on the line, which would have required 23 bridges to have been built. Construction of the line would have required the excavation of of material. The line was to have been electrified by the

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...

system, and was to have been operated by the Southern Railway as part of its suburban electric railway network. Passenger trains would have been operated by

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

s, with

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s handling goods trains. The Southern Railway involvement was vital. That company's chairman, Sir

Herbert Ashcombe Walker Sir Herbert Ashcombe Walker (16 May 1868 – 29 September 1949) was a British railway manager. Early life Walker was born in Paddington, London, on 16 May 1868, the son of a doctor. He was educated at the North London Collegiate School and stu ...

, addressed its board on the scheme's behalf in February 1926, just before the application for a

Light Railway Order The Light Railways Act 1896 ( 59 & 60 Vict. c. 48) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. History Before the act each new railway line built in the country required a specific act of Parliament to ...

. The total cost he estimated to be £800 000, so it was proposed that the capital applied for was to be £900 000. £600 000 of this was to be in

ordinary shares Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Com ...

and £300 000 to be in guaranteed interest

debenture In corporate finance, a debenture is a medium- to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money, at a fixed rate of interest. The legal term "debenture" originally referred to a document that either creates a debt or acknowle ...

s. Sir Herbert obtained the board's approval for the SR to guarantee the interest on the latter, and to work the line in return for 75% of the gross receipts. Also, approval was given for the SR to invest in the scheme, and to have the option to purchase at cost price within five years of completion. In return, two of the SHLR directors were to be nominated by the SR board. A subsequent meeting of the board, in the same month, fixed the SR investment at £150 000, which was intended to pay for the cost of electrification.

SHLR approval

The

(LRO) was granted provisionally on 29 December 1928. Instead of the expected share capital of £600 000, only £500 000 was authorised. Simultaneously, the SHLR and SR signed a working agreement. Notably, this specified that the line was to be single, but was to be engineered to allow for future double track. Also, timetabling and fares were to be the responsibility of the SR. The latter began to include the scheme in its publicity, notably on its system maps. A revised estimate of the cost of purchasing land and erecting necessary buildings (that is, excluding that of building the actual railway line) was given as £575 000. Only three of the proposed stops were to be built as full stations, and the company requested that level crossing be allowed "where necessary" (this was in contradiction to the scheme's original publicity). The provisional nature of the LRO involved certain conditions: The authorised capital was to be raised, and the land purchased, within two years, which meant that the authorisation would lapse at the end of 1930. In that year, Colonel Stephens made a fund-raising trip to the United States, with no success.

Failure

The LRO lapsed in December 1930, as the capital could not be raised. In January 1931, as a result, a new LRO was applied for and authorisation was sought to deviate from the authorised route in an effort to reduce construction costs by £17,245. The line was to have taken a different route in the parishes of

and

Titsey Titsey is a rural village and a civil parish on the North Downs almost wholly within the M25 London Orbital Motorway in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. In local government it forms the south-western part of the ward ''Tatsfield ...

, on the Kent/Surrey border. The scheme faded away in the 1930s, after Colonel Stephens died in October 1931 and the scheme lost its main promoter. The death blow had already been given in July of that year, when the SR board decided not to support the application for a new LRO and the scheme was deleted from SR publicity.

Legacy

The only construction that started was south of Orpington station on the east side of the line; some excess spoil was delivered to the site during the 1930s ready for construction. The SR had to electrify a connection to the proposed western junction at

Sanderstead Sanderstead is a village and medieval-founded church parish at the southern end of Croydon in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, and formerly in the historic county of Surrey, until 1965. It takes in Purley Downs and S ...

, and chose the previously failed

Woodside and South Croydon Joint Railway The Woodside and South Croydon Joint Railway (W&SC) was a short, relatively short-lived and unsuccessful railway in the London Borough of Croydon in London, England. Its site is now largely occupied by Tramlink. Route ;Woodside (London) ra ...

. This would have allowed a loop service from the former South Eastern Railway London termini, running - - Sanderstead - Orpington - Lewisham and vice versa. Despite the SR's abandonment of support in 1931, electrification works already in hand were allowed to go ahead, and electric trains from London termini to Sanderstead via Woodside began in 1935. They were to continue until 1983, latterly as a very poorly patronised peak-hours shuttle service.

Stops

The proposed line would have served eight stops between and , three of which were to be full stations with goods services. The other five were to be "halts", for passengers only. * *

for Farnborough (). *

Downe Downe, formerly Down (), is a village in Greater London, England, located within the London Borough of Bromley, which formed part of the historical county of Kent until 1965, and is beyond London's contiguous urban area. Charles Darwin lived ...

and

Keston Keston is a village in Greater London, England, located within the London Borough of Bromley, Greater London. Prior to 1965 it was within the historic county of Kent. It is part suburban, part rural in nature and lies on the edge of Hayes Com ...

(). *

and

(). * Westerham Hill (station) (). *

(station) (). *

Chelsham Chelsham is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Chelsham and Farleigh and the Tandridge district of Surrey, England. It is located in the Metropolitan Green Belt, from London, from Oxted and from Guildford. In 1961 the par ...

for

Warlingham Warlingham is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, south of London and east of Guildford. Warlingham is the centre of a civil parish that includes Hamsey Green to the north. Caterham is to the southwest ...

(). * Hamsey Green (station) (). *Mitchley Wood (). * ().

Route

The scheme's proposed route was on the

dip slope A dip slope is a topographic or geomorphic surface which slopes in the same direction, and often by the same angle, as the true dip or apparent dip of the underlying strata.Jackson, JA, J Mehl and K Neuendorf (2005) ''Glossary of Geology.'' Ame ...

of the

, so the roughly S-shaped route entailed continuous ascending gradients from to the summit on the crest of the Downs near Tatsfield, then similarly continuous descending gradients to . The circuitous nature of the route meant that the proposed railway would not have attracted through traffic, especially since there was no direct passenger connection allowed for to the Brighton main line near Sanderstead. So, the railway was envisaged entirely as a suburban commuter route to the London termini. Given this, it is noticeable that the proposed stops were quite widely spaced compared to the Southern Railway's London suburban lines in general. The topography added a further complication, this being the need to avoid crossing the several steep-sided narrow valleys which dissect the dip slope, and which would have required viaducts. This put serious constraints on the choices for the route. At Orpington station there was to have been a diving junction, so that the SHLR down trains would not have to cross the main line here. South of Orpington station on the east side of the line some excess spoil was delivered to the site during the 1930s ready for construction and in 2023 was still in situ.

Halt would have been around the junction between Shire Lane and Farnborough Hill, west of the station site proposed for the earlier OCTR. This was because the SHLR proposed a different, longer route to Tatsfield via the valley up which Shire Lane runs. This valley curves south to the east of

Leaves Green Leaves Green is a village in Greater London within the London Borough of Bromley. The village lies on the Bromley to Westerham road ( A233), adjacent to the north-western perimeter of Biggin Hill Airport. It is some south of Bromley and north ...

and

Biggin Hill Airport London Biggin Hill Airport is a minor commercial airport serving Biggin Hill in the London Borough of Bromley, located south-southeast of Central London. It specialises in general aviation, handling a spectrum of traffic from private aviatio ...

, and

and

Halt would have been around New Hill Road.

and

would have been around Jail Lane. The first true station with goods services, Westerham Hill, would have been in

South Street South Street may refer to: Streets by that name * South Street (Durham), England * South Street, Mayfair, England *South Street (Manhattan), United States *South Street (Perth, Western Australia) * South Street (Perth, Scotland) *South Street (Ph ...

(the actual hill is away to the south). Here, the line would have turned west to the second true station at

. The fact that two out of three of the true stations proposed for the line were so close together is an indication that the focus of the scheme was very much on the Biggin Hill - Tatsfield suburban development. Beyond Tatsfield would have been the route's summit, at

Botley Hill Botley Hill is a hill in Surrey and is the highest point of the North Downs, with a height of . The Prime Meridian crosses the hill. Geography Botley Hill is a Marilyn (a hill with topographic prominence of at least 150m), and the third highe ...

(the highest point on the North Downs). The route would then have followed the Croydon Road (the present B269) to

for

Halt around Chelsham Road -this was a long stretch without any stop proposed. The third true station would have been at Hamsey Green, where the line would have crossed the Limpsfield Road (B269). Mitchley Wood Halt would have been around the west end of Mitchley Hill, near the junction with the A2022, and would have been substantially nearer the old village of

than the SR station of the same name. Mitchley Wood survives mostly intact as a semi-natural

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is that which has existed continuously since 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). The practice of planting woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 i ...

. From there, the route would have hugged the slope of Purley Downs, cutting through the golf course to descend to the junction with the SR's Oxted line. The actual junction was to have been at the bridge carrying Purley Downs Road over the Oxted line, and unlike at Orpington this junction would have been on the level.

References

;Sources *