PIONEERING RAILWAY ENGINEER Born in Ashford in 1889 to Florence and Edmond Holmes who was an Inspector of Schools. In 1891 the family were living at Highworth House in Ashford with five servants. Duri...

IZZARD FAMILY MODEL RAILWAY In the late 1950s and ‘60s John Izzard, an accountant for BP, was working abroad in Aden (now Yemen) with his nurse wife Dorothy. Dorothy was expecting their first child ...

LEVEL CROSSING GATEKEEPER, THE GROVE, RYE Sarah Durrant was born in Cranbrook in 1865. She married Alfred, a railway platelayer, in 1886 and had six children. They lived for a time on Cyprus Place, Ry...

POP STAR SURVIVED RAIL ACCIDENT IN 1967 Robin Gibb, the 17-year-old singer in the pop group ‘The Bee Gees’, and his girlfriend Molly Hullis, had been to visit her parents in Hastings. On t...

TRACER IN RAILWAY DRAWING OFFICE Maud Mary Bassington was born in Kensington in 1895 on what is now Hillgate Place, Notting Hill Gate. Her father William was a basket maker, who sadly died in 1902. Ma...

BOTANICAL ARTIST & EXPLORER Born into a prosperous family in Hastings in 1830, Marianne was the eldest of three children. Her parents were Janet Marjoriebanks and Frederick North, MP for Hastings ...

SHORTHAND TYPISTS Lynda and Elsie were two of the seven children born to Melynda and Charles King, a gas stoker. The family were living in Rye. By 1921, Lynda now 24 and Elsie, 22, were getting the tr...

RAILWAY ENGINEER IN BRAZIL & PERU From the Ashford People’s Library Project: 180 Years of Railway History: John James Impett, son of an Engine Fitter, Newtown school boy and SER apprentice went ...

ACTRESS FELL IN LOVE ON FILM SET Scenes from Ealing Studios’ 1947 film ‘The Loves of Joanna Godden’ were shot on the New Romney branch line from Appledore at Lydd Town railway station, a...

ORE LABOURERS A railway line from Ashford to Hastings via Rye had a troubled beginning, different railway companies vying for supremacy in the 1840s. Work began at the Ashford end it and it wasn’t u...

Holman or ‘Holly’ was the son of Pre-Raphaelite artist and art critic Frederick G. Stephens and his artist wife Rebecca née Dalton. His father gave Holman a working model railway as a gift. Appre...

A sales clerk at Billingshurst for 12 years, sadly Dave died in service in April 1999. Chichester Line Manager Keith Brown, of Connex Rail, took this as an opportunity to have the Billingshurst statio...

Ernest was born in Dorset in 1906 to Fanny and Edward Wills, a gardener. By 1921 the 15 year old Ernest and his family living were on London Road, Pulborough. He was working at the railway station as ...

Littlehampton’s Frank Rowe manned Ford station for over 40 years. The Littlehampton Gazette reported, after his death, in 2001 that Frank “actually looked after the station completely himself – ...

Ian was a railway enthusiast from a young age with dreams of becoming a stationmaster and general manager. In 1937, aged 15 he had an accident during army training which led to him losing a leg. Now t...

John Pelham Maitland was born in Croydon in 1890 to Anna and John T. a whiskey distiller and dealer. They lived with Anna’s wealthy parents in Croydon for some time. He was apprenticed to the railwa...

As a child Trevor used his pocket money to explore the rail network and, it’s not clear why, but in 1967 Trevor may have set a record for the most rail miles covered in two weeks when he travelled 1...

‘Jack’ Lisher was born in Houghton near Amberley in 1924 to Winifred and John Lisher, a railway signalman (whose father John was a railway porter, whose father John before him was also a railway p...

Barry was a signalman for 40 years. In 1972 he started his employment with British Rail as a Box Boy at Horsham, then a signalman jobs at Warnham and Crawley, becoming relief signalman at Horsham in 1...

Tony worked for the railway 1957-1966 and 1974-2001. He was a local Councillor, 1965-1968 and 1978-2015, and Littlehampton Mayor, 1987/88 and 2000/2001.  For more information about Tony, visit Little...

Awarded an MBE in1918 for services to the railway, Tanner served over 50 years, the last 20 at Littlehampton.  For more information about Edward, visit Littlehampton Museum. Home | Littlehampton Muse...

Frederick Parsons was born in Wivelsfield in 1869, to Belinda and Thomas Parsons, a railway labourer/platelayer. By age 22 (1891) he was already bookstall manager in Oxted where he met Hannah Dilnot, ...

William was born in Reigate in 1880. He lived and worked in Tunbridge Wells, before marrying Mary Ann Hall in Sussex in 1906. He started work for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway that sa...

Ernest worked for the railway for over 45 years, 40 of these as a signalman at Lyminster Crossing.  For more information about Ernest, visit Littlehampton Museum.  Home | Littlehampton Museum...

Sarah Chesterman is mentioned in a newspaper article from December 1942.  This was the Worthing Herald, but the story was repurposed across other titles at the time too. The headline is ‘Women ...

Evelyn trained as a Tailor/ dress maker.  She worked at LCW in the upholstery department during WW2in the Hush Hush shop, working on secret missions for the Army supporting the war effort, she spoke ...

Private Herbert John Clist, (known as Jack), Royal Army Service Corps. Son of Edward and Emma Louisa Clist,Third Avenue, Lancing, Sussex. Jack was an apprentice at Southern Railway Carriage Works Lanc...

For more information about Ernest Strudwick please visit: Lancing War Memorial: STRUDWICK Ernest Gunner 374377 Ernest Strudwick of the 173rd Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery.  Ernest was killed...

Private 10497 Artur Reuben Robert Bartlett enlisted on 27th February 1917.  He served in the 2nd Batalliaon Honourable Artillery Company as a stretcher bearer. Arthur was killed in action on Friday 2...

Roll of Honour – Sussex – Lancing Harold Dray was born at Canterbury Kent on 22nd January 1913 to parents Elizabeth and Harold. Harold senior worked in the stores at Southern Railway in As...

Ethel Lee took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk.  She was acting as a stewardess on a cross-channel boat which was making its way to Dunkirk to rescue survivors.  The boat was attacked by enemy p...

  All change! When the railway first came to our villages by Graham Lewis, with acknowledgements to Richard Standing The opening of Angmering Station on 16th March 1846 altered the face of travel...

SOUTH EASTERN RAILWAY STATION ARCHITECT born Faversham, Kent 1800 d Redhill 1859 William already had experience of employing eclectic styles from a Gothic-style London church to a ‘plain’ London s...

NAVVY “Last Saturday [23 May, 1846] a lad, named Rock, met a dreadful accident on the railway works at Bopeep. One of the laden earth carts was being drawn over the bridge, and, as is usual, the hor...

LADIES WAITING ROOM ATTENDANT Rose was born to Caroline and Henry Harris, a shepherd near Wanborough, Guildford in 1872, one of at least eight children. She married Richard Cresswell (or Creswell) a r...

Superintendent of the UK’s first Railwaymen’s Convalescent Home born around 1850 d 1935, Florence Jessie Dolby was born in Kensington to John and Jessie Dolby. She was a woman of independent means...

Memories of Robertsbridge Station and the London to Hastings line. My parents moved to Brightling at the beginning of 1946.   In the early days my father commuted by train from Etchingham to his off...

A recollection by Linda Neve   My grandfather Joseph Weston joined the company in the 1900s as a plate layer at Etchingham and was there as the ganger. In his gang there was also my uncle Ernest ...

SOUTHERN RAILWAY GENERAL MANAGER Son of James T. Missenden New Cross, London in 1886-d. Rudgwick, Horsham 1973 Son of a station master, he began working life as a junior railway clerk. He married Lili...

JAMES THOMAS MISSENDEN STATION MASTER Bletchley 1862-d. Southborough 1947 NB PRESIDENT OF THE (RAILWAYMEN’S) ‘UNDAUNTED CRICKET CLUB’ The son of a Bletchley labourer, James worked on the railway...

BUFFALO BILL – WILD WEST SHOW TRANSPORTATION BY RAIL AN ENORMOUS PRODUCTION OF CAST, LIVESTOCK AND EQUIPMENT When Buffalo Bill’s touring Wild West extravaganza visited England in August 1903, ...

RAILWAY BUILDER, WORLDWIDE Buerton, Chester 1805 d. St Leonards, East Sussex 1870 “During a 40 railway building career he built one third of UK railways, three quarters of railways in France. 1 in 2...

As part of Southeast Communities Rail Partnership project to produce 200 Blue Plaques for Railway 200, here is the story of Charles Willoughby. Charles was born in Dunsden in 1872, one of at least six...

As part of Southeast Communities Rail Partnership project to produce 200 Blue Plaques for Railway 200, here is the story of George Gibbins. George Edward William Gibbins was born in Oxfordshire in 189...

As part of Southeast Communities Rail Partnership project to produce 200 Blue Plaques for Railway 200, here is the story of Elsie Lindsey. Elsie’s mother Rosa Shuff was a housemaid until her marriag...

As part of Southeast Communities Rail Partnership project to produce 200 Blue Plaques for Railway 200, here is the story of Charles Parker Sharpe. Charles was born in Slough in 1878, one of 9 children...

As part of Southeast Communities Rail Partnership project to produce 200 Blue Plaques for Railway 200, here is the story of Lottie Martin. Seven year old Lottie Martin was out picking primroses with h...