East Kent Mining X Railways Project
Audio Guide
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Coal and the railways - the beginning
Mining in the East Kent Coalfield is linked arm in arm with the railways, and it always has been. Coal was first discovered in Kent in 1890 during excavation works for the first attempt at a Channel Tunnel at Shakespeare Cliff. The first coal mine in Kent was Shakespeare Colliery, taking over the very Channel Tunnel works that originally found coal in the first place once that project fell through, and sinking of the first shaft began in 1896. Unfortunately, they encountered water, which would prove to be a problem throughout the entirety of the mines lifespan. By 1907, the colliery was producing eight tonnes of coal a day, but this wasn't even enough to power the collieries own machinery, and so the mine was led to closure in 1909. It had a short renaissance from 1910 to 1915, but eventually was scraped in 1918. Thus ended the first coal operation in Kent, which was directly initiated by the ambition of the railways to build a tunnel to France.
Arthur Burr and Colonel stephens - the men responsible for the East Kent Light railway
Arthur Burr was the man who almost single-handedly kept the East Kent Coalfield alive for its first 20 odd years of operation. He is the man that was responsible for the colliery at Shakespeare Cliff, and despite its failure, he opened another five collieries between 1904 and 1910. None of his collieries produced commercial coal until 1912, but he managed to be crafty and showed profits, leading to an inferred demand for transport. With this, the East Kent Light Railway was proposed, and then constructed between 1911 and 1917. It was part of the light railway network built up and down the country by Colonel Stephens. Construction of the line was tense, with many issues. While Stephens and others had extensive plans for a railway network in the East Kent Coalfield, this never came to fruition, but through Stephens’ own hard (and often unpaid work) a limited network emerged. The line was originally intended to link the coalfield to a coal port at Richborough, but delays and issues in construction, along with the need for a line to provide materials to the collieries being built at Tilamanstone and Guilford meant that construction began from Shepherdswell (to provide a link to the London, Chatham and Dover’s line). This line was temporary, and was completed by the end of 1911. This led to a situation where railways were required to have collieries in the area at all, but railways needed the collieries to be there for them to survive the financial pressures they faced, leading them into a loop. Arthur Burr's craftiness eventually caught up with him in 1914, leading the railway to take over its own construction in 1916, as it was previously being built by one of Burr's companies.
A fictional poster, inspired by the work of Tom Eckersley announcing that the East Kent Light Railway is under construction.
Trouble for the East Kent Light Railway
The railway was connected to collieries at Wingham, Tilmanstone, Guilford and Woodnesborough. Unfortunately, of the collieries that the line was connected to, only Tilmanstone was ever commercially successful – having a ropeway built to it from Dover harbour spelled trouble for the railway; except this ropeway struggled to find success with the coal mostly being sold to London, as it could not find a place in the export market, therefore allowing the line to continue operation. Although, the success of Tilmanstone did allow the mainline to remain open and in use until 1986, this was the main use of the railway, as with the other collieries never materialising into anything commercially viable, only the portion between Tilmanstone Colliery and the junction with the South-Eastern and Chatham Railway mainline was used regularly for coal freight. This meant that the once planned to be sprawling network ended up being a short branch between the mainline SECHR railway, and Tilmanstone Colliery, with other traffic carried on the other parts of the line. While Fire clay and gravel were carried from time to time, this was nowhere near the original intent of the line. General goods such as fruit and vegetables were carried often when they were in season as the line provided a good connection to the outside world from the communities which it served. The line was in practice shut in 1984, with a useful life span of 73 years.
Other railways in the East Kent Coalfield
Other collieries got their rail connection from the more traditional mainlines in Kent. Notably, Snowdown Colliery was connected to the London Chatham and Dover Railway's line, and Betteshanger Colliery was connected to the 'Dover and Deal Joint Railway', now known as the Kent Coast Line. Betteshanger's junction only faced towards London, with trains unable to make their way to Dover (in theory, they could reverse, but they didn't do this in practice). This is further evidence that Kent coal simply did not find a foreign export market. Railways were the main export method from each colliery, with the majority of their coal going via the lines. Without them, none of the collieries could ever reach financial viability. It was only in the final years of Betteshanger Colliery that exports began to move significantly towards trucks.
A fictional livery for a Class 47, based around the NCB Kent region.
Modern Kent Railways
Even after their closure, the collieries maintained an impact on railways in Kent and beyond. The same lines that once hosted noisy Class 47's, Class 33's and more now play host to fast and quiet Southeastern Railway passenger trains wizzing up and down the coast into London. The East Kent Railway is now a heritage railway from Shepherdswell to Eythorne, serving a reminder of Kent's once prosperous industrial railways. Most impactful is the experience that miners gained while working in the collieries; it was this experience that they took with them when many of the miners went to work on the Channel Tunnel after the closure of the last mines in Kent. The very same Channel Tunnel that we have today that takes high speed trains to France carrying passengers and freight, one of Britain's major arteries. While it can be quite easy to forget, it's important that we remember the contribution of these former miners to the tunnel that keeps Britain competitive, and its also important we remember the tunnels history in discovering coal in Kent in the first place. HS1 was later constructed, just skirting around the edge of the former East Kent Coalfield to carry high speed trains from London down to Kent, and straight through the tunnel. The side effects of this were that high speed trains could join the line at many points, increasing the speed of travel to London for the majority of Kent. Nowadays, the final remaining former miners from Kent could be found working on the Jubilee Line extension of the Tube in the 90's, or the Elizabeth Line project that recently completed. Mining and miners in Kent ended exactly where they started, with the railways.
Class 374 (Eurostar) Train Front digi-print
Class 375 Train Front digi-print
The pieces you see here are depictions of modern trains running through the former East Kent Coalfield, or as a result of the coalfields legacy.
A fictional livery design for a Class 395, celebrating Kent's mining history.
