Longfield Halt (also known as ''Longfield Halt for Pinden and Westwood'') was a railway station on the

Gravesend West Line The Gravesend West Line was a short railway line in Kent that branched off the Swanley to Chatham line at Fawkham Junction and continued for a distance of 5 miles (8 km) to Gravesend where the railway company constructed a pier to conne ...

which served the settlement of Grubb Street in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The line was opened 1886 but it was not until 1913 that the station was opened as part of a drive by the

South Eastern and Chatham Railway The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC),Awdry (1990), page 199 known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Easter ...

(SECR) to cut costs and increase revenues on the Gravesend West branch. Longfield Halt was now the first station on the line and was situated ¾ mile from Fawkham Junction in a chalk cutting just to the south-west of a road bridge carrying Whitehill Road over the line. The station was constructed entirely of wood, with access being had from a staircase leading down from the overbridge. Its opening coincided with the introduction by the SECR of push-pull trains, initially worked by H class 0-4-4Ts with ex- South Eastern Railway 4 wheel coaches, running between Swanley Junction and Gravesend West Street. Although ultimately never successful, the line began to suffer in the face of competition from local bus services following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and freight dropped off. The decision was therefore made to close all stations on the branch line to passenger traffic as from 3 August 1953. In 1959, the line was singled and the platform buildings at Longfield Halt were demolished along with those at neighbouring

Southfleet Southfleet is a small village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the borough of Dartford in Kent, England. The village is located three miles southwest of Gravesend, Kent, Gravesend, while the parish includes within its boundaries the ...

. The line running through Longfield remained open for freight until 1976, and the track remained even as late as 1985.

Present day

The site of Longfield Halt has been incorporated into the

Channel Tunnel Rail Link High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...

(CTRL) which runs from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

through

to the British side of the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

. Works on the CTRL commenced in 1998 with the lifting of the remaining track on the Gravesend Branch and the excavation of a new trackbed. CTRL services followed the alignment of the Gravesend Branch as far as Fawkham Junction where they joined the

Chatham Main Line The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England that links London VictoriaQuail Map 5 – England South ages 2–13Sept 2002 (Retrieved 14 December 2011) and Dover Priory / Ramsgate, travelling via Medway (of which the town of Chatham is ...

to proceed to

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

.Department of Transport, "The Channel Tunnel Rail Link: Introduction".
CTRL trains ceased using this route in 2007 when trains were diverted to St. Pancras. The line is still occasionally used for empty stock trains.

References

{{coord, 51.4051, 0.2977, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Disused railway stations in Kent Former London, Chatham and Dover Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1913 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1953 1913 establishments in England