Description

TQ 63 SW
995/15/10063
06-DEC-00

WADHURST
STATION ROAD
Wadhurst station and footbridge

II

Railway station and footbridge. 1851 for the South Eastern Railway, designed by William Tress; with an addition later in the C19. Red brick with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roof. The main buildings are on the downside. Palladian / Italianate style. Two storeys. The road elevation was an originally balanced 1 : 2 : 1 bays, but an additional bay has been added to the left to enlarge the station house. The original design is in Palladian form as used for
country houses by Sir Robert Taylor with a two storey centre set forward with a pedimented roofline and single storey wings with supporting half pediments, the centre thus rises through one broken pediment to carry another whole one. Here the centre has a stone plinth and quoins, and two arched windows with rendered dressings to each floor, 2 over 2 pane sashes. Blue brick band to first floor which goes right round the building. Pediment with timber mouldings. On the
side of this central section is a porch with lean-to roof forming a half pediment, the archways with stone imposts. The right hand porch is the entrance to the booking office, the left hand one to the station-master's house. Above and behind is another small arched window. Extension of one bay to the left, the ground floor projects forward, the features are repeated to match. Hipped roof with four tall stacks, the pots have been removed. The gable walls are blind, small single storey hipped roof extension on north gable. The platform elevation is similar but with simplified treatment, 1 : 1 : 2 bays. The ground floor has three arched windows, the central one with arched sidelights and two arched doors. Four windows above, on of which is taller. Small bargeboarded gable to centre.
Interior not inspected.
Upside platform building. Late C19. Red brick. Rectangular waiting room with central door and two windows either side, plain 2 over 2 pane sashes. Continuous fretted backward sloping canopy. Standard SER footbridge with four cast iron columns in a square supporting either end of a wrought iron lattice girder bridge and staircases. This type of standard footbridge dates from the end of the C19 and will be contemporary with the platform shelter.
History: This line was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1851, engineer Peter W.Barlow. Dendy Marshall states that all SER lines were built double bar two. This line has later buildings on the subsidiary platforms at all stations which might suggest otherwise, but increased concern about passenger safety led to footbridges being provided later in the C19 to prevent them from crossing the tracks. It was presumably customary for passengers to wait in the main building
until the train's arrival was imminent.
References: Andrew Knight, The Railways of South East England, Ian Allan, 1986, p 59.
C.F.Dendy Marshall, The History of the Southern Railway, revised ed. Ian Allan, 1963, p 323.

Listing NGR: TQ6215432996

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26538645

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
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  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
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  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)