Shakespeare Cliff Halt is a private

halt station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing such ...

on the

South Eastern Main Line The South Eastern Main Line is a major long-distance railway route in South East England, UK, one of the three main routes crossing the county of Kent, going via Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Ashford and Folkestone to Dover. The other routes are the C ...

. It is located to the western end of the dual bore

Shakespeare Cliff tunnel William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

on the

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

, England. It never appeared in any public timetable and has been used successively by railway staff, coal miners, the military and

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. ...

workers.

History

Shakespeare Cliff near

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

was the location of the first attempt to construct a tunnel under the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

in the late 1870s, when a diameter Beaumont-English boring machine dug a pilot tunnel from the location. The project was abandoned in May 1882, owing to British political and press campaigns claiming that a tunnel would compromise Britain's national defences. A further shaft was made in 1890 and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

was struck about below the surface; Shakespeare Colliery was opened on the site in 1896 and was producing of coal per day by 1907. In 1913, 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 ...

opened a halt primarily for the use of miners at Dover Colliery, who worked the mine until its closure in 1915. At least from 1920, the station was used by the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

, as well as by railway staff who lived nearby in railway cottages; the halt was convenient for Shakespeare

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

and

siding Siding may refer to: * Siding (construction), the outer covering or cladding of a house * Siding (rail) A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch l ...

. The station was never advertised in any public timetable because members of the public alighting there would find themselves on an isolated wedge of flat land carved into the chalk cliff face. For some years a watchman was based at the station and a zig-zag path was provided to give access from the top of the cliff. The

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

used the station during 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 ...

to serve a nearby military camp, and medical staff are also recorded as having used the halt in the post-war period. Shakespeare Cliff Halt was given a new lease of life when work began again on the abortive

of that time. Workmen carrying out preliminary work used the halt between November 1973 and January 1974, and it was used again in the early 1990s during the actual construction of the Channel Tunnel. At that time, the up platform was rebuilt and lengthened, and a substantial timber footbridge was built across the rail tracks, with offices on the bridge. Special season tickets were issued by British Rail for people involved in constructing the Tunnel. The last use of the halt was by those constructing Samphire Hoe Country Park on the site of the Tunnel workings. B W Hughes 5370

Present day

The halt has fallen into disuse since completion of the Channel Tunnel in 1994. The timber shelter provided for users is barely standing, and the nameboard has gone, although its concrete supports remain.

References

{{coord , 51, 6, 27, N, 1, 16, 42, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB-KEN, display=title Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1913 Private railway stations Disused railway stations in Kent 1913 establishments in England

History

Present day

See also

References