Knockholt railway station

Coordinates: 51°20′45″N 0°07′51″E / 51.3459°N 0.1307°E / 51.3459; 0.1307
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Knockholt
South Eastern Railway
Pre-groupingSouth Eastern and Chatham Railway
Post-groupingSouthern Railway
Key dates
1 May 1876Opened as Halstead for Knockholt
1 October 1900renamed Knockholt
Other information
External links
Coordinates51°20′45″N 0°07′51″E / 51.3459°N 0.1307°E / 51.3459; 0.1307
 London transport portal

Knockholt railway station is on the

Sevenoaks
. The boundary is the farm bridge at the southern end of the platforms.

Location

The station is 4.8 km (3.0 mi) north-northeast of the village of Knockholt but closer to several other settlements. The station serves several small communities in the Sevenoaks district in addition to Knockholt; Badgers Mount 1.3 km (0.81 mi) to the southeast, Well Hill 1.3 km (0.81 mi) northeast, and Halstead 2.2 km (1.4 mi) south. Within the Bromley borough Pratt's Bottom is only 2 km (1.2 mi) west-southwest; and also Chelsfield (although having its own railway station, is in parts closer to Knockholt station) at about 2.7 km (1.7 mi) to the north and west. To avoid confusion with Halstead in Essex it was named after the next closest village.

Services

All services at Knockholt are operated by Southeastern using Class 376, 465, 466 and 707 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[2]

Connections onto fast services to London, Tunbridge Wells and Hastings can be made by changing at Orpington or Sevenoaks.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Southeastern

History

When the

South Eastern Railway (SER) opened their "cut off" line through Orpington, Sevenoaks to Tonbridge in 1868, there was no station between Chelsfield and Dunton Green. A Knockholt Vestry meeting in March 1871 resolved to request the SER to build a station for Knockholt but this request was initially refused. Eventually, the SER agreed to provide a station if a £3,000 contribution was provided by "local parties," (equivalent to £300,000 in 2021).[3] This was raised and "Halstead for Knockholt" (the station being much closer to Halstead than Knockholt) was opened in 1876.[4]

Between 1887 and 1915 a twice daily bus service operated from Knockholt village to the station.

In 1899 the SER joined with its arch rival to form the

Alfred Smithers
, who had moved to Knockholt in 1881, became deputy chairman of the SECR. At the strong suggestion of Smithers, the station name was changed to "Knockholt" in 1900 to avoid the confusion which had arisen with Halstead Station in Essex (and coincidentally giving Smithers a local station named after his village).

References

External links