Notes: In the mid 1800's there were two proposals for a railway linking Guildford & Horsham. One from the Horsham & Guildford Direct Railway and the other from the Wey and Arun Junction Canal Company who wanted to drain 16 miles of their canal and build a railway along the canal bed. The Wey and Arun scheme was quickly forgotten but a bill to incorporate the HGDR was put before Parliament. On 16 February 1860, initially the London Brighton & South Coast Railway opposed the Bill but following an agreement that the LBSCR should run the line they withdrew their opposition.

The Horsham and Guildford Direct Railway Act was passed on 6 August 1860, with a clause that required the London & South Western Railway to allow the company to use one and a half of its line, still unfinished at that time, between Peasmarsh and Guildford.

Baynards station was built for Lord Thurlow, the owner of nearby Baynards Park, whose land was on the route of the proposed line. As a condition of sale, Lord Thurlow insisted on having a station built to serve his estate, despite there being no large settlement nearby.

Construction of the Horsham & Guildford Direct railway started early in 1862 with five stations planned at Bramley, Cranley, Little Vachery (later changed to Baynards), Rudgwick & Slinfold. The opening of the line, on Monday 2 October 1865, was marked by a celebration at the station. The arrival of the first train was serenaded by a band and the directors of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway attended a lunch at Baynards Park.

The station had two platforms and a 17 lever signal box, which controlled the level crossing immediately to the south. Baynards station comprised the stationmaster's house, two waiting rooms, covered platforms, storage sheds, a booking hall, a porch and a large goods shed with a 1-ton capacity crane. A private long-siding served a Fuller's earth manufacturer, which became the site of Steetley chemical works in 1937. Freight trains served the nearby brickworks. Baynards was the only place on the single-track line with a passing loop for passenger trains. To the south of the station the line ran through Baynards Tunnel, where it crossed the county boundary between Surrey and West Sussex. In the 1890s, the station also functioned as the local post office.

Near the station was the Baynards Brick and Tile Works, which was served by its own private siding. In early years it was a brickworks, producing Fuller's earth for the wool industry, and then foundry clay in later years. It then became a chemical processing works, receiving annually 400 tons of goods by rail (including sulphur).

There was a proposal to electrify the line between Peasmarsh and Cranleigh in the 1930's to allow a through service to Waterloo but the proposal was dropped with the coming of WW2. During the war there was a camp for American troops at Baynards Park. The station was heavily used to supply the training facilities with armoured vehicles and ammunition. In the 1950s and 1960s Geoff Burdfield, the signalman who lived in the station house, cultivated 240 varieties of dahlia, amounting to around 1000 plants in total, on the station platforms.

During the 1950's passenger numbers were poor and the branch was considered for closure. The 1955 rail strike prompted several of the companies that received or sent goods via the Cranleigh line to transfer their operations to road haulag. The traffic didn't return after the strike and the line began losing money. Like other stations on the Cranleigh line, Baynards was listed for closure in the first Beeching report, published in 1963.

The goods service was withdrawn from the five stations including Baynards on 10 September 1962 although a private siding remained open for a while. The 1956 Handbook Of Stations lists a siding for for FW Berk & Co, Ltd. With only 5000 passengers a week using the line and 5000 tons of freight passing over it, the branch was listed for closure under Beeching's 'The reshaping of British Railways' and closed from 14 June 1965.

The final day of operation of scheduled public services was Saturday 12 June 1965. After the last service train, a Railway Enthusiast Club special The Guildford - Horsham Farewell ran from Guildford to Horsham and back to Guildford. The following day the LCGB The Wealdsman Railtour ran from Waterloo to Three Bridges, Hastings, Eastbourne, Haywards Heath, Horsham and then along the branch to Guildford before returning to Waterloo. There was a 14 minute stop at Baynards. This was the final passenger train to operate on the Cranleigh line. The following day, a locomotive completed a round trip from Horsham to Baynards to collect a set of empty goods wagons from one of the sidings.

With the growth of the population of Cranleigh, Surrey County Council commissioned a study to look into rail improvements in the county in 1964, one of the proposals was to reinstate the rail service between Guildford and Cranleigh and in 1996 British Rail looked into the technical feasibility of reinstating the line but the proposal was not economically viable and was dropped.

The track was lifted c1966. In June 1973, the station was sold to Fraser Clayton for conversion into a private residence, to fund the construction of a bridleway along the course of the old railway. The works to create the path included sealing the entrance to Baynards Tunnel with concrete blocks and filling the cutting on the northern approach with inert waste to create a ramped access to Cox Green Road. The bridleway was officially opened as the Downs Link at a ceremony at Baynards on 9 July 1984.

The goods shed was not included in the initial sale in 1973, but it was acquired by Mr Clayton in 1984. The project to restore Baynards station was recognised by an award given by the Surrey Industrial History Group in 1985.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Baynards was used as a location for films and television. These were:

These films were:

The Black Sheep Of Whitehall (1942)
They Were Sisters (1945)
The Railway Children (1957 TV series)
The Grass Is Greener (1960)
The Horsemasters (1961 TV film)
Monster Of Terror (1965)
Rotten To The Core (1965)
Poirot (ITV TV Series) The Hollow - Series 9 Episode 4 (2004)

Click here to see details and photos of the various films that included Baynards.

Tickets from Brian Halford and Michael Stewart

Train ride from Guildford to Cranleigh and Horsham in the early 1960's Although this film lasts less than two minutes it has sound and includes all the stations and shows signalman Geoff Burdfield at Baynards.

Other web sites:
Railways of Southern England
The Cranleigh Railway Line
Sussex Industrial Archaeology

To see the other stations on the Horsham & Guildford Direct line click on the station name: Bramley & Wonersh, Cranleigh, Rudgwick,
Slinfold & Christ's Hospital