Summary
Railway goods shed, built in around 1856 for the South Eastern Railway on the Medway Valley Line.
Reasons for Designation
Aylesford Goods Shed, built in about 1856 for the South Eastern Railway, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* as an 1850s South Eastern Railway goods shed of which there are currently only three other listed examples at Appledore, Canterbury West and Wateringbury (all Grade II-listed in Kent).
Architectural interest:
* goods sheds were typically functional structures and this example displays a good level of architectural quality with cast-iron Regency style windows and pilasters;
* the interior retains an impressive queen post roof structure comprising seven tie-beams with a pair of queen posts and struts to each;
* overall the goods shed survives relatively well, retaining its external details, cast-iron windows, roof structure and legible track openings.
Group value:
* with the Grade II-listed Aylesford Railway Station, the Grade II-listed level-crossing keeper’s cottage (now 5 Mill Hall), and Grade II-listed signal box; the cottage and station appear to have been given a finer design than other such buildings on the line given that the track passed through the nearby Preston Hall estate of railway contractor Edward Betts (1815-1872) who laid out the line.
History
For over 100 years, railway companies derived more income from goods traffic than passengers. Goods sheds formed the conduit through which wholesale and retail distribution flowed throughout the country. The first recorded example was built at Darlington, County Durham, for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1827 (demolished), although goods sheds were only built in large numbers from the 1840s. They have not been used for their original function for about 50 years. A goods shed was, in most cases, a building that was largely open inside with a platform on which goods could be offloaded or stored. It would often have a jib crane swivelling from a bearing mounted on the platform and often secured at the top to a roof truss. Wagons would enter by rail though the ends of the building and carts would back up to an opening to put down or collect goods. An office would be provided for the goods staff where the paperwork was carried out, either in a partitioned area within the goods shed itself or in a small wing at one end of the building. The goods process worked as follows. When a goods train called at a small goods yard, the wagons would be set down and the staff would examine the invoices. They would notify the customer that their goods had arrived, and the goods would be unloaded on to the platform to await collection. The customer would arrive with a cart (or, from the 1920s, a lorry or van), deal with the paperwork, and draw up to the platform to load up. The procedure was reversed when goods were sent from the yard to other destinations (Historic England 2016).
Aylesford Goods Shed is situated immediately to the north-west of Aylesford Railway Station (Grade II-listed, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry: 1186882) and just to the south of the River Medway. It is considered to have been built at about the same time as the station, which opened in 1856 on the Medway Valley Line of the South Eastern Railway. The goods shed is shown on the earliest available OS map of 1868 (1:10000) with one railway track running through the building. The 1896 (1:2500) OS map shows a crane to the east of the goods shed and an additional railway track curving down to a quay on the River Medway. On the 1909 (1:2500) OS map the track is annotated as a travelling crane but by 1938 the crane and rail line had been removed. In 1963 there was a rail track still in place going through the goods shed but by 1968 it had been removed and the goods yard was annotated as a transport depot on the OS map (1:2500). A track remained on the south side of the goods shed until at least 1989 but was removed in about the early 1990s. In the 2010s, the goods shed was used as a storage building.
Details
Railway goods shed, built in around 1856 for the South Eastern Railway on the Medway Valley Line.
MATERIALS: built of red brick with a slate roof covering.
PLAN: a single-storey rectangular building open internally to the roof. Formerly a railway track ran through the south length of the building and there appears to have been a central platform for unloading goods and a cart entrance at the north.
EXTERIOR: a large single-storey building, about 26.5m long and 13m wide. It is built of red brick laid in English bond with round arched fixed windows and a hipped roof. The windows have cast-iron frames dividing each into 12 panes. Each window bay is separated by Doric pilasters. The north elevation serves as the main façade facing the former goods yard. It is five bays wide with a central cart entrance and four round-arched windows. The entrance and ends of the buildings are flanked by pairs of pilasters but the bays are otherwise divided by single pilasters. Originally there would probably have been a pair of timber doors to the entrance but these have been replaced by a roller shutter. A modern fascia has been added to the eaves of the roof and probably conceals the original dentil cornice. The west end of the building has two blocked round-arched openings flanked by pilasters and a central arched window; the southernmost bay contains a small square-headed doorway. At the east end the southern bay has been opened out to form a square-headed opening containing a roller shutter and there is a square-headed doorway and window to the northern bay and a single square-headed window to the central bay. The south elevation matches the north façade but the central bay is blind (without any openings).
INTERIOR: the goods shed is open to a timber queen-post roof structure. There are seven tie-beams, each with a pair of queen posts joined by a straining beam and straining sill. Most of the trusses have struts to each side of the queen posts and there are purlins supporting the common rafters. The queen posts and trusses are strengthened with iron bracing. An axial or central beam is joined to the bottom of the trusses and runs the entire length of the building; originally a jib crane on a central platform may have been secured at its top to this beam. There is a small enclosed office in the south-east corner of the shed and a concrete floor.
