IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Manor Way, POLEGATE, BN26 5AT

Now a pub of the same name. This was actually the second Polegate station built. The original was erected on the current site but was moved when the line to Hailsham was constructed in the 1860s. It remained here until that line was lost to the Beeching Axe in 1968 and the station was moved back to its original position on Polegate High Street. The old platforms are still visible on the track.

Opened in 1881 by the London Brighton & South Coast Railway on the line from Lewes to Hastings, the station was a replacement for an earlier 1846 station, slightly further west. It was sited just beyond the end of the car park on the left, but closed in 1986 when a new (3rd) station was built on the site of the 1846 original. View east towards Hampden Park and Hastings. The 2nd station building still survived when this image was taken, hidden by the trees beyond the railings.

Old Station House, in the East Sussex town of Polegate, is a recent development of apartments with a convenience store on the ground floor. It occupies the site of former railway station. The station at this site closed in 1986, replaced by a new station around 300 metres to the west. A photo of the old station building, which was demolished in 2017, is here: Image More informaiton about the old station can be found on the Disused Stations website: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/polegate/index.shtml

This rather dilapidated station closed within a few years of the photo being taken when a new station was built west to be beside the level crossing in the High Street. Ironically, the first station was in fact in the same position as the present, before the station in the photo was built, so to call the above 'old' is slightly misleading, if that makes sense! The platform to the far left served trains for the Cuckoo Line to Tunbridge Wells.

The Junction pub is opposite the old railway station in Polegate. The station, however, closed in 1986, being replaced by a new station about 300 metres further west. Polegate was once at the junction of four railway lines, from Lewes, Eridge, Eastbourne and Hastings. The line to Eridge and the direct line towards Hastings have been closed for many years, so Polegate is no longer a railway junction. Trains still run from here to Hastings, but they now go via Eastbourne.

This photo was taken from the footbridge at Polegate station, looking over the station car park.

This runs alongside the railway and used to be an unmade road from the old Polegate Station to the High Street. It was owned by the railway and was called the Black Path because cinders from the steam engines was used to surface it. When it was taken over and surfaced by the council in the 1980s it was named "Black Path Road" but locals used to tape over the word "road" so it is now just called "Black Path". The new Polegate Station can be seen on the far left.