Bluebell Railway Walk

The Bluebell Railway, Sussex

Taking the train from Horsted Keynes to Kingscote and walking back - a five mile walk. 

Useful maps: Ordnance Survey Explorer 135 or Landranger 187

Railway operating days:  
Trains are in service over the entire railway on most weekends throughout the year (except in December) and most days from early April to late September.  A timetable is available from Sheffield Park Station, East Sussex, TN22 3QL.  Telephone: 01825 720800.  The timetable information line is 01825 720825.
Web site: www bluebell-railway.com

Getting there:  
By road:  Horsted Keynes station is 5 miles north-east of Haywards Heath. Take the B2028 through Lindfield (a most attractive village!) followed by one of two roads on the right signposted to Horsted Keynes. Just prior to the village a signpost directs you to the station, where there is a large car park. The station's grid reference is 371293
By public transport:  There is a 1/2-hourly rail service between London Victoria and East Grinstead on Monday to Saturday, hourly on Sundays. From there you could take the Bluebell train to Kingscote for the start of the walk.  

Eating out: There is a small refreshment room at Horsted Keynes station; also at Kingscote station from Spring until Autumn. Sheffield Park station (not on our walk but worth visiting) has a restaurant and bar. And needless to say there are platform benches and picnic tables a-plenty throughout the railway for al-fresco dining!

Visitor attractions:  These are largely based at Sheffield Park station at the southern terminus of the railway. They include a museum, gift shop and model railway. And there is the opportunity see steam locomotives awaiting restoration. The National Trust's Sheffield Park garden is one mile from the station. None of that is on our walk, but Horsted Keynes is; and that's where we find a great deal of old-world atmosphere.

Summary of the walk.  The walk enjoys some of the delights of the Sussex Weald, with its great variety of woodland and unspoilt pastures.  There are good views of the railway along the way, and, at the half-way point, a welcome (but small) picnic area above Sharpthorne railway tunnel. Rest awhile there and enjoy the familiar sound of steam engines as heard from the nearby ventilation shaft!

The walk:  
1.  From Kingscote station go uphill in the road for 200 yards to a drive on the left where a sign introduces the Gravetye Estate. Assuming your timing is right, you will soon have a good 'photo opportunity' through gaps in the trees on the left, since the railway passes nearby. You will now need to keep forward in the main drive from one mile until it turns left by a large tile-hung house Birch Farm.

2.  Leave the drive here and cross the field on the right diagonally to its far right-hand corner, and join a woodland footpath. This eventually meets a wide woodland track, where you should turn left. Keep forward in the main track for 3/4 mile, staying with it when it turns left and when it meets a a road at  Sharpthorne. Here the sight and sound of steam trains heading to or from Sharpthorne tunnel will surely make your day!

3.  Moving on again, don't cross the railway, but turn right alongside houses. Follow the road uphill to where it turns left over the tunnel mouth (the longest tunnel in preservation, by the way!) and join a tarmac path on the right between gardens. The ventilation shart is at the top; and there are seats for that well-earned rest.  You are now half-way into the walk.
 Continue in the path and turn left in the road through Sharpthorne. Soon leave the road from a point between a small supermarket and Sharpthorne Club and join what is labelled as the Sussex Border Path. The path turns left around the clubhouse, passes between hedges and eventually meets a field corner.

4.  There now follows a sequence of six field paths, ultimately meeting a farm drive. Spelling this out in detail:  follow the first field-edge to the far right hand corner and go down the next field to its far right-hand corner, crossing a brook on arrival. Keep right from the crossing and climb the next field diagonally to its upper right-hand corner (190 degrees). After bearing slightly left across the next field (relative to your previous direction) cross another field towards a small brick-built barn in the far right hand corner, and yet another field to its far right-hand corner. Turn left in the drive there - by Coverdale, a converted farm building - and right in the 'main' road ahead.

5.  Leave the road after about 400 yards and join a sightposted path on the right a little beyond the the drive to Vaex End. This passes close to the garden of Vox End and enters a field on the left.  Proceed along a succession of field edges (from where there are good views of the railway) and make your exit by a railway bridge.With the colourful semaphore signals just here and a good view up and down the railway, you have another excellent 'photo opportunity'.

6. Cross the lane here to a field corner and follow the railway to a foot-crossing over the track. Continue forward, but with the railway on your left and until a locked gate bars the way ahead. Join a path on the right here, through a small plantation and into a field. Leave the field after 30 yards and double back over a stile on the left in order to cross a railway bridge. On entering the Bluebell Railway car park, keep over to the right and soon arrive at Horsted Keynes station.

The Bluebell Story.  The railway from East Grinstead to Lewis in Sussex can trace its beginnings to the 1870's as an idea in the minds of local residents and landowners. It came to fruition with the backing of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1882. While it enjoyed a successful career transporting a variety of local products, it soon set its sights further - to embrace the tourist traffic to the coastal towns of Brighton and Eastbourne. But by the turn of the century it had become a 'rural backwater'; and with the advent of mechanised road transport in later years it was about to breath its last. So bad was the situation that the train crew often outnumbered passengers! Although the line finally closed in 1958, conservationists were quick off the mark. They formed a society in 1959 and obtained a Light Railway Order the following year; and they were soon in the proud possession of their first steam locomotive - 'Stepney' - along with access to the section of line between Horsted Keynes and Sheffield Park.
 As the first passenger-carrying standard gauge railway to be preserved, the Bluebell enjoyed a resounding success, with 92,000 passengers being carried in 1961. With its northern extension to East Grinstead complete, the railway once again enjoys a connection to the nation rail network. This costly enterprise involved the clearing of Imberhorne Cutting, which was formally used as a municipal landfill site.
 While you are waiting for a train at Horsted Keynes, you may become aware of a railway track heading off from beyond the signal box. This is the one-time branch to Ardingly, which may in the fullness of time join the ranks of the preserved.
 

'80151' pulls away from Horsted House Farm crossing

 

'C-Class 592' has just left Sharpthorne tunnel with vintage Metropolitan Line coaches