IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Railway Hill, CANTERBURY, CT4 6PY

In the past, a resident of No 3 Railway Cottages (the white building in this view) was Jack Heathfield, who was born in 1873. He had started employment with the South Eastern Railway in 1899 as a porter at Walmer station until he was transferred to Barham station in 1914. He retired at the age of 74 when the Elham Valley Railway closed completely. In 1960 the railway land between Railway Hill at Derringstone and Green Hill, as well as the station, was sold off by British Railways for £850 and three years later the site was cleared for a housing estate. As a tribute to Mr Heathfield, the former Station Road was renamed Heathfield Road in 1964. Further down the hill, just beyond the blue car is the Image

Planning permission has been approved by Canterbury City Council under application number CA//22/01884 for a “single-storey, part rear, part side extension following demolition of existing conservatory and detached garage”.

EVL stands for Elham Valley Line and refers to the railway that ran along the valley from Cheriton to Canterbury until closure in 1947. A rail bridge crossed the road at this point of which only a truncated abutment of its northeastern side remains.

A close-up of the white Image The white building above the remains is named Railway Cottages.

The road has a steep incline.

This was Image in May 2020, when the Nail Bourne was flowing across the road. Now the surface is completely dry.

Barriers have been erected to divert the floodwater of the Nail Bourne into Image and this has meant the closure of Railway Hill. An almost identical view of Image was taken in April 2020. I have never known the river to flood in consecutive years, in the twenty years I have lived in the area.

It is possible to access Image, now that the barriers have been partly removed, but a slow sign has been installed to warn drivers of vehicles to proceed with care through the floodwater.

Grade II listed.