Lost In Time

Godstone station gives the appearance of being lost in time. For starters its two miles south of the village which shares its name.

It was built in 1842 and is one of the oldest stations in Surrey. The South Eastern Railway [SER] didn't actually want to build the line at all. They wanted to go direct from Charing Cross to Dover (they had to wait another 25 years for that to happen). Parliament on the other hand had different ideas and gave authority for the SER to join forces with the London and Brighton Railway to share facilities to Redhill (in those days called Reigate Junction) and then build their own line across country to Tonbridge and then down to Dover. Because local traffic wasn't really in their mind, the SER literally went in a straight line from Redhill to Tonbridge.

Today, the station sees a train every hour in each direction to Tonbridge or Redhill. You can get to see it about 4 minutes before it actually arrives!