Before I discuss my experiences, it would be as well to outline the history of this fascinating line, which has stood the test of time and is now going strong as a preserved railway, after first being thought about by the good people of Tenterden as far back as the 1850s.
The southern slopes of the North Downs are chalky, so it is no surprise that the area around Tenterden, and southwards to the valley of the River Rother, where the Kent & East Sussex Railway sprung up from, was famous for its agricultural productivity, and in particular for the growing of hops and apples.
When every town and a great many villages too, wanted to be connected by the sudden development of the steam locomotive in the mid-19th century,âŠ