THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

FINDON NEARLY HAD A RAILWAY STATION

Copyright Valerie Martin 2005

The original forward thinking Victorian plans of 1866-7 for a direct London to Worthing railway line through Findon were doomed but twenty years later, the inhabitants of nearby Worthing dreamed again of a completely new railway line running through our village of Findon, Washington and Ashington. 

This was to meet up at Southwater with the Shoreham to Horsham line (already opened in September 1861).   The Victorians then had an adventurous plan for a further track northwards from Horsham to provide a direct transportation link between the south (centred on Worthing) and the Midlands  (skirting round London).

The initial part of this enterprising plan was the Worthing Railway Bill (presented to Parliament in 1866).  But when this was forwarded to the Standing Orders Committee of the House of Lords, it was dismissed because ...

"of not being in accordance with the requirements of the House".

A second (and also unsuccessful) venturesome attempt was later proposed some eight months on,

"for an entirely new line to commence in the Parish of Broadwater and terminate in the Parish of Horsham".

Among the proposed suggestions was a resourceful idea to construct a station at Worthing on the north side of Park Lane (today's Richmond Road), opposite the junction with Grafton Road.  It was thought it could perhaps ultimately form the busy terminus for a line from the Midlands.   It was fancifully envisaged that the distinctive colourful crimson express trains of the Midland Railway Company, could conceivably be carried above the yellow locomotives of the Brighton Railway via a splendid viaduct crossing Worthing Central Station at right angles.

On examination, the downward slope of Christchurch Road (as it falls away from the old raised beach ridge of Richmond Road) looked practical but, no doubt, the cost of the huge viaduct helped the plan to being eventually shelved for ever.

Had the imaginative dream come to fruition, there is a likelihood that Findon Village, would in all probability have contained its very own railway station..... and Washington Village (just to the north of Findon) just could have been transformed into a railway junction.

So "hot" were the expectations that a northern link would one day materialise, that in 1882, the Midland Railway Company actually bought up stretches of land in the Worthing vicinity    The Worthing Local Board (the forerunner of the Worthing Borough Council), even called in the eminent railway station designers, J. Firbank, to construct a building that would lend itself to the future transformation of a busy junction.

Can you imagine what our area was like in those days?    Here are a few descriptions from those days.....

In 1889 our area was struck by an earth tremor which made houses shake on the nearby seafront at Worthing.   It is said that windows and ornaments rattled in a threatening way.

In 1889 all of the roads within a twenty five mile radius were —

"....thickly coated with dust, and are getting pretty much broken up.  All over the county the country is very pretty and sweet, what with the roses and hay and the honeysuckle, strawberries and so on".

I can almost smell the roses, the hay, honeysuckle and strawberries.

The public were advised to not go to nearby Wisborough Green via Ashington and Adversane, the reason being —

".... the road is cruelly rough, and that between Ashington and Ashurst is worse, nearly all stones".

The Worthing Gazette newspaper reported in 1889 —

The 4th November 1889 was the official Opening Day of the "new, commodious and impressive West Worthing Railway Station".  There were calls for the railway company to change the name of West Worthing Station to Heene-on-Sea, but this was not to be.  There was much pomp and a lavish ceremony when the station opened.  Platforms and entrances of the building were lavishly decorated with many flags and luscious potted plants.   It was noticeable that it contrasted markedly with the modest tape-cutting function forty-four years earlier.   (This had heralded the arrival of the very first train at the Worthing Central Station).

The first train to depart from the new West Worthing Station on Monday 4th November 1889 was the 6.43 a.m. to London, via the Cliftonville Spur (built at Hove in 1875 to avoid the necessity of going into Brighton Station). 

At precisely 12.40 p.m. a very grand and handsomely appointed saloon train dramatically steamed into the station from London.  The Marquis of Abergavenny plus Members of Parliament, heads of large local firms, directors of the Railway Company and a conglomeration of celebrities chatted as they alighted.    

A huge marquee had been prepared for entertaining the many guests in the newly opened West Worthing Club in Downview Road.  Most unfortunately, the large awaiting crowd was rather nonplussed when the visiting dignitaries completely ignored them and without a second glance, hastily disappeared to partake of a celebratory lunch laid on for them at the West Worthing Club.  

There was much talk of more high-class residential development to combine with that already commenced in Grand Avenue which it was hoped when complete, would form one "of the most beautiful thoroughfares in England".  Not many people now realise that there were also proposals for the constructing of a second pier in 1895 at the bottom of Grand Avenue at this time.  Also for a rather magnificent hotel at the south of Grand Avenue..... this was boasted to become....

"bigger than Buckingham Palace".

In 1897 the nearby Worthing police bitterly complained that horses were grazing in Ladies Mile (today named Grand Avenue) and were straying into and damaging the gardens of nearby properties.     The photograph below is of making hay in Grand Avenue c. 1910 in nearby Worthing.    In the background is the Hotel Metropole in Grand Avenue .......

Plans were also afoot at this time for the extension further westward of Worthing's two-mile seafront promenade.

Back in 1897 was an age when men and women were not permitted to bathe together in the sea.    Two sections of the nearby shore opposite Selden Lane and Heene Road were allocated for the exclusive use of females and boys under the age of ten.  This was to prevent "indecent and improper" mixing of the sexes.

Colonel William George Margesson lived in Findon and was Worthing's Local Board Member and he lobbied the Railway Directors and put the case for the direct railway route to London via Findon Valley.    He emphasised that the landowners were

"very much in favour"

of the proposals.  I guess this included himself in this as he was a large landowner in Findon.

Alas it was all to no avail.  For a great variety of reasons, the very ambitious plans for putting West Worthing firmly on the map were doomed — and with them the possibility of Findon ever having a railway track of its own.   I wonder where exactly the track would have run through the village if the proposals had ever come to anything?   Where would the station have stood?

Any likelihood of a direct rail link to London through our village of Findon, was eventually abandoned when it was discovered that worse gradients and curves meant it would only cut ten minutes off the Worthing to London journey (already possible via Hove).    Secondly, there was also the question of cash flow problems in 1893 — caused by the typhoid epidemic in Worthing.

Worthing's proposal for a second pier was labelled as

"too ambitious"

..... and the building of the rather grandiose Hotel Metropole (though started) was promptly halted amid rumours of financial chicanery and bankruptcy.   The outbreak of the First World War ensured that it was never re-commenced.   Years later, the east wing (which had been constructed) was converted into a convenient block of flats and renamed The Towers.

Not everything in the garden was a bed of roses with the local railway system.   There were calls for extra police presence to be brought to Worthing Station to deal with what was then termed as "disgraceful behaviour" conducted by the passengers on the excursion trains endeavouring to get back to London at the town's busy railway station.   It is reported that hundreds jostled for seats back in 1896 in a very unruly manner.

Although the palatial dreams for West Worthing never really left the drawing board, its railway station went on to play a very important role in the area's thriving horticultural industry.   This was partly due to the construction of its spacious  Goods Yard on the west side of the station in 1905.   It is from here that literally hundreds of tons of locally-grown market garden produce (mainly the well-known delicious Worthing tomato) was distributed all over England —  right up until after the end of hostilities in the Second World War.

The West Worthing Carriage Shed was designed as a cleaning shed in 1932 for the Brighton Line electrification, which itself was to be the first main line electrification in the country.   It was built on part of the West Worthing Goods Yard.   The following year, the West Worthing Station also enjoyed another brief moment of fame when it was used as the launch pad for the new Southern Railway electric train service.

Continue if you would like to read about Black Horse Pond.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.