Many of us love railways, especially the steam variety, and the October 2022 talk about  “The Kent & East Sussex Railway, Past and Present”  attracted a large audience to the Friends’ Shop in Fremlin  Walk, Maidstone. Doug Lindsay’s long, deep and wide-ranging experience and knowledge of this line, from its conception in the late 1800s, opening in 1900 as the Rother Valley Railway, its extension to Tenterden, Biddenden and Headcorn, subsequent closure and partial reopening as a 10-mile heritage steam railway between Tenterden and Bodiam, shone through his illustrated talk.

This was the story of Colonel Holman Fred Stephens, the railway engineer who invested his skills, energy and money in the development of 17 lines nationwide, starting with the Rother Valley, one of the country’s first light railways. We heard about his frugal ways, his headquarters and home in Tonbridge, and the Museum dedicated to his memory in Tenterden. But why did he commission stations so far from the places that bore their names like Wittersham Road and Rolvenden? This was the railway that brought tourists and hop-pickers to the Garden of England, and gave farm businesses easier and quicker access to market.