Disused Stations: Brasted Station

Click here for Brasted Station Gallery 6: August 1968 - 1976

On a wet day in August 1968 the photographer takes advantage of Brasted's canopy as he looks towards Westerham. Despite dilapidation generally, the area beneath the canopy appears to be quite sound. It is strange to think that today, when some people rush to Facebook to post in disgust about a train being one minute late, they are probably unaware that in 1968 there were many still-open stations in no better, if not worse, condition than Brasted was at that time.
Photo by Nick Catford

Looking north-east at the east end Brasted's platform c1970 with the station building behind the photographer. At this time the lamp room beyond the end of the platform is still standing. Lying in the undergrowth left of centre is what appears, under magnification, to be odd lengths of rail. When the Westerham branch was lifted, the work began at Dunton Green and worked back to Westerham. This, of course, required the use of road vehicles to take equipment to the work site and to remove the scrap. When this method was used, rails had to be cut into short lengths for ease of removal. Very often, odd lengths were simply left on-site for some unknown reason'
Photo from DK Jones collection

For comparison with the similar 1974 view, this was the scene on an apparently wet day in August 1968. Signs of decay are already apparent on the roof of the station building. In the former goods yard a lorry, possibly a Bedford, and a Mini van, can be seen. It is not known if the occupiers of the goods yard used any part of the station building although it is hard to believe they did not.
Photo by Nick Catford

Thirteen years after closure, this April 1974 view shows Brasted being taken over by undergrowth and with the roof, at least, of the building becoming very dilapidated. The former goods yard, right background, appears to be still in commercial use. As was often the case with derelict railway stations and other such sites, there is evidence of what we now call fly-tipping. The object on the platform looks like an old wash boiler or top-loading washing machine.
Photo by Nick Catford

Another April 1974 view looking north-east along Brasted's platform. By this time it would be difficult to recognise this as a railway station, albeit a disused one. There are two giveaways: the Southern Railway fencing, left, and the exposed length of platform edging, bottom right. The station building is in front of the photographer; the top of the canopy can just be made out.

Photo by Nick Catford

Again in April 1974, looking towards Westerham from the overgrown trackbed. Although the building is very dilapidated by this time, the canopy has survived very well. The long overdue coat of
paint will never come.
Photo by Nick Catford

Brasted station in April 1974 from the approach road and showing the dilapidation rather better. It is surprising the largely wooden station building was not set fire to by the local naughty boys, this sort of vandalism being by no means a modern thing. Vehicles include a MkI Ford Cortina, three lorries one of which is a Bedford while sitting in the shade on the right is what appears to be a Mini van or pickup. The latter version of the Mini was always relatively uncommon and is extremely rare today. The goods yard is still in use by a coal merchant and it was common for goods yards to continue in such use long after the railways which once served them closed. One of the lorries is identified as belonging
to G. Bowser Ltd.
Photo by Nick Catford

The Station Road bridge just west of Brasted station in April 1974. Undergrowth had by this time obscured any view of the station which had existed previously. Within three or four years this scene would be swept away and ultimately replaced by the motorway bridge which stands today.
Photo by Nick Catford

A 1975 view of the decrepit Brasted station. The former goods yard is still in use by coal merchants. On the left, some of the Southern Railway fencing still stands while nature has taken over the trackbed with a vengeance.

Photo by Brian Halford

A walk on the wild side in 1975 leads us onto the platform at Brasted. In the foreground the cobbled area in front of what had been the way out from the platform can be seen. Considering that by this time the wooden station, which stands at a quite exposed spot, has seen over a decade of dereliction it survives remarkably well. This was all to change within a couple of years, however.
Photo by Brian Halford

Peering through the undergrowth along Brasted's platform sometime in 1976. By this time parts of the canopy valance are coming adrift, perhaps harpooning -the ‘Omen’ style - unsuspecting explorers on the platform. The undergrowth on the trackbed, right, has taken hold fairly quickly; presumably the removal of the ballast, which seems to have occurred a year-or-so after the track was lifted, was the cue seeds needed to take root.
Photo by Ian Baker

Brasted in 1976, this time viewed from across the trackbed and showing rather less undergrowth. We have been informed by an eye witness who explored the Westerham branch after closure that the object resting on the platform and stretching across the trackbed was a pair of steel girders which rested on concrete blocks opposite the platform. Apparently lorries, presumably coal lorries, were driven onto these girders to allow maintenance access to their undersides. This maintenance probably involved chassis cleaning and oil changes for engines, gearboxes and differentials. By 1976 other once-regular tasks such as chassis lubrication, via grease nipples, on commercial vehicles had largely become automated. Whatever the maintenance comprised, the set-up at Brasted would appear to have been rather precarious and would be frowned upon by today's Health & Safety people.
Photo by Ian Baker

Click here for Brasted Station Gallery 7: 1976 - January 2016

[Source: Nick Catford]