The Ouse Valley Railway by Jeremy Clarke I Wonder How Many of Bluebell

The Ouse Valley Railway By Jeremy Clarke I wonder how many of Bluebell Railway visitors and, indeed, volunteers and staff, realise that another railway route might once have crossed the path of the line at or very close to Sheffield Park station. It is possible, had that line been built, Lewes to East Grinstead would never have existed as a complete entity. The Ouse Valley Railway was essentially a “blocking” line proposed by the Brighton to deter an independent company, backed by the LCDR, from making a route from Beckenham to Brighton via East Grinstead and Lewes. In those terms we might have been restoring stations, signalling and other infrastructure in LCD or SECR style rather than a Brighton one. The Bill was submitted in 1863, in the same session as the one it was designed to block, authorisation coming in 1864 though by that time the independent company had twice had its Bill refused. No urgency was thus attached to the Ouse Valley line and with limited resources available the Brighton began to procrastinate. Nevertheless, further authorisation was received for extensions from Uckfield to Hailsham and Hailsham to St Leonards. It has to be said such extensions would appear to continue the Brighton’s attempts at deterrence rather than earn it a good return. Another later Bill permitted deviations from the original route, further indication the company was not that keen to complete it. Despite this work actually started at the western end following approval of this Bill in 1866. But the Brighton’s finances were so stretched work ceased in 1867. With incursion no longer a threat powers for abandonment were sought and gained the next year. Several structures and earthworks completed in that brief period still exist though some may be seen and identified only with difficulty. (Some also are on private land.) One publicly and plainly visible appears close to the south end of the Ouse Valley viaduct. Here a minor road from Balcombe, the B2036, passes under the Brighton line from east to west. This bridge’s abutments have been extended on each side of the road to take the Ouse Valley’s skew girders which, so far as is known, were never placed on them. The OVR would be curving here to face south east, crossing the path of the later Ardingly line and passing north of Lindfield, where there would have been a station. In the course of this section stands a high embankment with a bridge in it over a lane, and a cutting leading to a tunnel. Work on the tunnel appears never to have been started. The cutting at the tunnel’s east end is flooded. At Lindfield the embankment and bridge abutments either side of the B2028 - at the time the turnpike to London - are wide enough to suggest a passing loop would have been provided here. The line now follows the Ouse quite closely to Uckfield, requiring a bridge over a tributary on the approach to Sheffield Park. Here, the station with a passing loop would have been sited very close to the existing one, though on a slightly different axis. Three crossings of the river followed before the line reached Shortbridge. Embankments would have been needed throughout these two miles across the flood plain but there is no evidence raising them or building any bridge abutments was ever started. However, abutments exist close to the site of Shortbridge station for a bridge over a tributary. By this point the Ouse has turned away southward to the coast at Newhaven but the line continues on a well-defined embankment leading to the crossing of the Uck. The west side abutment remains but not the eastern one. The existing line from Hurst Green Junction would have been followed through Uckfield but no work was attempted east of the town. It is possible the precise line of route onward was never established. Certainly, other than Hailsham itself, a prosperous market town then as it is now, there was little intervening habitation but some demanding civil engineering around the edge of the marshy Pevensey Levels. Had the Ouse Valley Railway been built the look of that web of secondary Brighton lines in East Sussex may well have showed some differences. However, it is more than likely the OVR would have succumbed under Beeching just as that web did. Indeed, the Southern might have saved the good doctor the trouble. .

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