The Cuckoo Line

Serving the Sussex countryside from Rotherfield through to Polegate, the ‘Cuckoo Line’ was a typical example of a cross-country branch line which failed to survive into the modern era. Serving towns including Mayfield and Heathfield, a single line of rails provided a service to the local community for over 80 years falling casualty in the days of Dr Beeching with the last passenger trains running in 1965. Half a century later the opportunity came to take a new look at this railway the course of which has all but disappeared from the landscape to be replaced by roads, housing and industrial development. Using three new sources of previously unpublished photographs and descriptive notes on train and locomotive working, The Cuckoo Line presents a vivid portrait serving as an example of just how much life has changed in the ensuring half century.