Winners of a railway-related poetry competition have taken part in an awards ceremony to see their entries on display.
The wordsmiths gathered at Rye railway station where their poems are now on show in the waiting room.
They were presented with a framed version of their poem and enjoyed a community celebration on Saturday (31 January).
The ‘Write on Track’ competition was organised by Rye Harbour Writers and Marshlink community rail partnership which connects communities to their railways.
The theme was a positive experience of railways to tie in with the celebrations for 200 years of the modern railways since the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened in 1825.
The winners were:
Over-18 category
1st Linda Wilmshurst, from Eastbourne, with ‘The Penny Ticket’
2nd Chris Goode, from Seaford, with ‘phantom line’
3rd Jeff Gallagher, from East Grinstead, with ‘Travellers’
The winning poems can be read here.
Under-18 category
1st Oriana Marrs with ‘Clickety Clack’
2nd Raphael Swain with ‘Forward and Back’
3rd = Amara Swain with ‘Choo-choo!’
3rd = Xavier Marrs with ‘Tracks Through Life’
The winning poems can be read here.
S C Morgan from the Rye Harbour Writers said: “We were really thrilled with the different entries that we had for this competition – such a wide range of different entries, some of them dealing with the past, some of them dealing with the present. We were particularly excited about the young people getting involved.
“Congratulations to everybody who won. It was just a great event and a great project.”
The youngest entrant was a four-year-old who said her words out loud for her mother to write down and submit.
Marshlink community rail partnership line chair Kevin Boorman commented: “It’s really great to see these poems on display at Rye station. Clearly a lot of work and thought has gone in to them and the atmosphere they bring over, the sense of travelling, the sense of things in the past. It evokes memories of the last 200 years of the railways which, of course, the project was designed to do.
“Very many thanks to everyone who has taken part and sincere congratulations to the winners. Well done.”
The poems will be on display at Rye station for the next few months.
The poetry competition followed production of a book of Station Poems containing some of the previous poster displays from the Rye Harbour Writers. The poets gave away 200 copies of the book in one day last August to passengers on the Marshlink line between Hastings and Ashford International.
Funding for the poetry competition and book production came from a Railway 200 grant from Southern Railway.
Image: Poetry competition award winners with their framed poems at Rye station. © Paul Bromley for SCRP 2026
