Baynards was a railway station on the Cranleigh Line, between ,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and ,

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. The station opened with the line on 2 October 1865. The station comprises the stationmaster's house, two waiting rooms, covered platforms, storesheds, a booking hall, a porch and a large goods shed. The station covers in all .

History

Baynards station was built for

Lord Thurlow Baron Thurlow, of Thurlow in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created on 11 June 1792 for the lawyer and politician Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, with remainder to his younger brothers and the heirs ...

, the owner of nearby

Baynards Park Baynards Park is a estate and site of a demolished country house with extant outbuildings, privately owned, in the south of the parishes of Cranleigh and Ewhurst, Surrey. History In 1447 William Sydney the younger obtained a licence to impark ...

, whose land was on the route of the proposed railway 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.The line was built as a single track, but since Baynards was approximately midway between Guildford and Horsham, the station was constructed with two platforms and a signal box to enable trains to pass. Baynards Station - geograph

The station was also used as the local post office in times when up to 30 horses and carts would queue outside on market days. 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 A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

, producing

Fuller's earth Fuller's earth is any clay material that has the capability to decolorize oil or other liquids without the use of harsh chemical treatment. Fuller's earth typically consists of palygorskite (attapulgite) or bentonite. Modern uses of fuller's ea ...

for the wool industry, and then foundry

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

in later years. It then became a chemical processing works, receiving annually 400 tons of goods by rail (including

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

from Italy ''via'' the Thames docks,

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

from

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

and packaging from Sittingbourne), whilst also sending out its own goods, from

seed dressing In agriculture and horticulture, a seed treatment is any additional material added to the seed. By the amount of material added, it can be divided into: * A seed dressing, typically containing a "protectant" ( pesticide) applied to the seed and po ...

s to polishing compounds. During the Second World 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. Baynards goods yard closed in September 1963 and the station closed in June 1965 when passenger services on the Cranleigh Line were withdrawn as part of the ''

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

''. The station was restored and most of the buildings (including the engine shed) and the platforms remain intact.

In popular culture

The station was used in the 1957 BBC television adaptation of '' The Railway Children'', and several films including: ''

They Were Sisters ''They Were Sisters'' is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring James Mason and Phyllis Calvert. The film was produced by Harold Huth, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by ...

'' (1945), '' Room at the Top'' (1959), ''

The Grass Is Greener ''The Grass Is Greener'' is a 1960 British romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Jean Simmons. The screenplay was adapted by Hugh Williams and Margaret Vyner from the play of ...

'' (1960), ''The Horsemasters'' (1961), and '' Rotten to the Core'' (1965).

Other Cranleigh Line stations

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

* * * * * *

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

References

Sources

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External links

Baynards railway station
at Disused-Stations.org.uk
"Cranleigh Line" website

{{coord, 51.10509, -0.46305, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(TQ077351), display=title Disused railway stations in Surrey Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1865 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Beeching closures in England Former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway stations Cranleigh