Signal Box and Railway Level Crossing Gates

Details

995/0/10114
03-JUL-07

ISFIELD
STATION ROAD
Signal box and railway level crossing gates

II

Signal box and railway level crossing gates, c.1880, restored in late C20 and early C21.

SIGNAL BOX: This is a small, rectangular signal box of two storeys with a brick ground storey, wooden upper storey with sliding casements windows, and hipped slate roof. It is situated at the southern end of the eastern platform of Isfield station, adjoining the level crossing.

Exterior: On the lower brick storey there are two sets of segmental-arched windows on the two long sides (east and west), and a segmental-arched door on the north side. An external wooden staircase on the south face provides the entrance to the upper storey operating floor. On the upper storey are sliding casement windows within wooden framing, and toplight glazing in a cornice band. The hipped slate roof with overhanging eaves is externally supported on curved brackets, and there is a chimney-stack on the west. The upper storey is currently painted in Southern Railway green, with white window surrounds. There is a nailed-on period name plate and other wooden lettered boards.

Interior: the upper storey operating floor contains a restored frame lever signalling array imported from a signal box of similar date. However, some origianl signalling equipment remains, including rodding connecting the signal box to former semaphore signal positions, There is an original fireplace with console brackets, a 'Belfast' sink on the west wall, and an original free-standing stove.

LEVEL CROSSING GATES: The level crossing gates are timber with metal fittings, rectangular with cross bracing, of traditional type.

HISTORY: Isfield signal box was built in c.1880 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) by the major Victorian signalling equipment contractors, Saxby and Farmer. The signal box operated a block on the Lewes to Uckfield line, which was part of a secondary route of the LBSCR connecting Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells to the south coast, opened in 1858.

The first signal boxes, as a recognisably substantial structure, appeared in the 1860s, following developments in signalling railway technology in the 1850s, notably John Saxby's innovation of 1856 of interlocking lines with points. Early signal boxes (before c.1875) tend to be plain and functional structures in appearance. From the 1870s signal boxes became more commonplace on British railways and standardised in design. They also tended to have some degree of architectural finish, such as gabling, a development which this signal box exemplifies this well. This Saxby and Farmer design dates from 1876, with the signal box at Drayton on the LBSCR being one of the first to be erected in that year. It proved a highly successful type, and numerous examples were built from the late 1870s to the 1890s, especially on the LBSCR.

The line which Isfield signal box served closed on 22 Feb 1969 and the signal box went into a state of disrepair. The semaphore signal formerly adjacent to the box during its later years of operation was lost in this period. Some fixtures and fittings were removed by the Bluebell Railway for their own use during this period, including much frame lever array. In the 1980s Isfield station, signal box and a stretch of the former railway track bed passed into private ownership, and the owner started to re-lay the track. In the 1990s it was sold to the Lavender Line Preservation Society and restored.

The same set of level crossing gates that were in existence before 1969 remain intact, and are included in the listing. They are of a traditional design that dates from the 1840s.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE
Isfield signal box represents a successful type of signal box manufactured by the contractor, Saxby and Farmer that became common on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and other railways from the late 1870s to the 1890s. Some survive, and a few have been listed. Although it has lost much of its former operational signalling equipment, Isfield signal box is otherwise well preserved. It has group value with a well preserved set of level crossing gates, of traditional type.

Listing NGR: TQ4520617082

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

496375

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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