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Noreen Avenue, SHEERNESS, ME12 2EJ

The Sheppey Light Railway ran from Queenborough to Leysdown-on-Sea. It was built to the designs of the renowned light railway engineer, Colonel Fred Holman Stephens, and was opened in 1901. Traffic was never busy on the line and it was taken over by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1905, finally closing in 1950. The Costcutter store more or less occupies the site of the former East Minster station with the track crossing Minster Road here. Curiously, and possibly confusingly for the stranger heading east on a train towards Leysdown, East Minster station was reached before Minster on Sea station.

The grassed area was the former trackbed of The Sheppey Light Railway, which would have crossed the road ahead and continued on its way to the left of the shop (where the tree is), after stopping at the station of East Minster-on-Sea just across the road. According to http://www.sheppeywebsite.co.uk/index.php?id=95 the railway opened on 1 August 1901 and closed on 4 December 1950. The total length was 8 miles 52 chains. It ran from Queenborough (where there was a north-facing bay platform on the east side of the station) to Leysdown with intermediate stations at Sheerness East, East Minster-on-Sea (which was actually west of Minster), Minster-on-Sea (they're only given as Minster in the link), Brambledown Halt, Eastchurch and Harty Road Halt. Today, one can trace most of the route from the air and on the Ordnance Survey map (Explorer 149). On the ground, one can find sections overgrown with grass, brambles and trees, sections built over, sections concreted over to form a permanent way or landscaped to form paths for pedestrians.

Not impressively broad, but certainly very straight for most of its length.