Report - Heathfield Tunnel East Sussex 7/12

[monk]

Visited with omen, phuge, twisted...

Thanks to the126

Tea lights & wire wool was the order of the day

The tunnel was constructed in the 1870’s to take the London Brighton and South Coast Railway [LBSCR] under the town of Heathfield and into the station which was situated to the south of the High Street and south of the tunnel.
It was on the line that was constructed to run from Eridge in the north, where it joined the main line from Brighton to London, to Polegate in the south where it joined the south coast main line from Hastings to Brighton.
The line was opened on 3rd April 1880

Like its opening, the line's closure came in phases. Passenger services north of Hailsham were withdrawn in June 1965 but the original section southwards to Polegate kept its trains until September 1968. The goods depot at Heathfield continued to be served by rail until its curtain was prematurely brought down by a lorry colliding with a bridge on 26th April 1968. The damage was deemed uneconomic to repair. Closure officially came on 5th August.As part of the extension north, the 240 metre Heathfield Tunnel was repaired and restored in 1997, funded by a derelict land grant of £198,000 by English Partnerships and a contribution of £60,000 from Wealden District Council. Gates were fitted to the tunnel in 1999 at a cost of £22,000 which allowed access to be restricted to daylight hours; access became unrestricted from 2002 but ceased entirely following an alleged rape incident on 12 March 2005. A trial reopening period began on 26 March 2007.