page_title: Hawkhurst branch line
section_title: Official opening
hierarchical_section_title: Hawkhurst branch line / Operations / Official opening
caption_attribution_description: Baggage label issued by the Southern Railway in respect of Hawkhurst railway station at some point prior to nationalisation in 1948.
context_page_description: The Hawkhurst branch line was a short railway line in Kent that connected Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Horsmonden with the town of Paddock Wood and the South Eastern and Medway Valley lines, a distance of 11 miles 24 chains.
  The line was promoted by the Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway, which was incorporated in 1877, but took until 1892 to open the first section of the line to Hope Mill. Services were worked by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway. The line was extended to Hawkhurst in 1893. In 1900, the SECR absorbed the C&PWR. Sunday services ceased in 1917. In 1923, the SECR was absorbed into the Southern Railway at the Grouping. The line became part of British Railways at Nationalisation on 1 January 1948. The line was closed in June 1961, before the Beeching Report was published.
context_section_description: Following a satisfactory inspection carried out by Major Marindin of the Board of Trade on 3 September 1892, the line between Paddock Wood and Hope Mill, for Goudhurst and Lamberhurst was opened to passenger and goods traffic nine days later. The first service drawn by Cudworth E1 class 2-4-0 No. 112 left Hope Mill at 08:25 and free travel was offered throughout the day. The official opening took place on 1 October 1892, and services were extended to Hawkhurst on 4 September 1893. The line was worked by the SER (soon to become the SECR) which formally absorbed the Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway on 29 January 1900.
  Shortly before the entire line was opened the residents of Cranbrook, regretful that the village was not directly served, approached the SER with a proposal to construct a 2-mile (3.22 km) "light line" between Hartley and Cranbrook at an estimated cost of £10,000, which they offered to guarantee themselves. The scheme never came to fruition.
caption: Luggage label issued by the Southern Railway
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