Bishopstone railway station is on the western side of the town of

Seaford, East Sussex Seaford is a town in East Sussex, England, east of Newhaven and west of Eastbourne.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. In the Middle Ages, Sea ...

, England. It is situated close to the coast, and about from the downland rural village of Bishopstone after which it is named. Train services from the station are provided by

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

, and the station is on the Seaford Branch of the East Coastway Line, measured from . Before this station opened the first Bishopstone station was further west at

Tide Mills Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

. That was closed in 1938 when the current station opened, but was subsequently reopened under the name of , and survived as such until 1942.

Buildings and structures

Bishopstone railway station1808680 08ebb65b

The present station was designed by the architect James Robb Scott and opened on 26 September 1938, the same day that the original Bishopstone station at Tide Mills was first closed. The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

design is said to be inspired by that of

Arnos Grove tube station Arnos Grove is a London Underground station located in Arnos Grove in the London Borough of Enfield, London. It is on the Piccadilly line between Bounds Green and Southgate stations and is in Travelcard Zone 4. The station opened on 19 Septem ...

, which was designed by

Charles Holden Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, and was intended to be the centrepiece of a proposed residential development that never took place due to the outbreak of 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 opposi ...

. The main building of the station is symmetrical, with an octagonal central booking hall and two extended wings. One of these wings formerly contained the ticket office and parcels office, and the other contained a waiting room and toilets. As-built, the station had two side platforms in a cutting, accessed by stairs from a footbridge linking to the main station building. In 1940 a pair of pillboxes was built on the roof of the main station building, flanking its octagonal tower. Despite the times, considerable effort was made to blend these into the original structure, and they are thus well camouflaged. The last member of staff, station manager Una Shearing, was withdrawn in 1988. The old booking office and parcel office was restored in 2022 in phase 1 of a restoration project with the support of Friends of Bishopstone Station. This is now run by the Friends as The Old Parcel Room Community hub. The remaining station facilities will be restored in phase 2 of the project. The main access to the trains is still accessed via the octagonal booking hall, which is top lit by glass pavement lights supported by a concrete grid. The line was singled in 1975 and all trains now use the former up platform. Bishopstone Station is a

grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

, which is on

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

's at-risk register.

Services

the typical off-peak service pattern in trains per hour is: * 2 tph to * 2 tph to Seaford There are also two through trains to on weekday mornings, and one in the opposite direction in the evening.

Incidents

On 3 July 1940 ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

'' fighter aircraft machine-gunned and bombed a train near Bishopstone Station. The train driver was killed and several passengers were wounded.

References

External links

{{TSGN and SE Stations, Coastway East=y, Mainline East=y, FCC None=y, SE None=y Seaford, East Sussex DfT Category F2 stations Railway stations in East Sussex Former Southern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1938 Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway James Robb Scott buildings