Etchinghill Railway Tunnel
Elham valley railway Line

The Elham Valley Railway was the product of the great inter-company rivalry between the South Eastern Railway and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. The Company came up with plans to build a line linking Canterbury and Folkestone which, in order to beat the LCDR to it, the SER adopted as their own. The EVR finally being absorbed into the SER in 1891.

Work started on the line at Newington, near Folkestone, on 28/8/1884 and the first section, between Cheriton and Barham, was finished on 4/7/1887.

The second section of the line was fraught with problems over land purchase and the owner of Bourne Park not wanting the railway anywhere he could see it from the house; so a massive tunnel had to be built. Eventually, on 1/7/1887, trains could run the full length of the railway.

Between Folkestone and Canterbury a number of stations were built, namely Lyminge, Elham, Barham, Bishopsbourne, Bridge and South Canterbury. Canterbury Station was later renamed Canterbury West by the SER in 1899 to avoid confusion with the LCDR's Canterbury Station, renamed Canterbury East - strange names considering the West Station is in the North of Canterbury and East Station is to the South West! A wooden-platformed halt was built for Cheriton in 1908.

The two rival railways merged in 1899 to become the South East and Chatham Railway, finally becoming part of Southern Railway in 1923. Following a period of SR rationalisation the whole length of the Elham Valley line was reduced to single-line working and signal-boxes removed, except for Lyminge which had its signal-box removed in 1937 and replaced by a porter-operated ground frame.

In 1940 the line from Elham to Canterbury was in army hands; the 18" railway gun "Boche Buster" became stationed at Bishopsbourne and hidden in Bourne Park tunnel. On 16/6/1947 the line was formally closed and dismantling started shortly afterwards, being completed by 1953.

To see the full size pictures, right click than click on go full size.