Tram Lines, Teynham Lane and all that.....

I see by today’s ‘East Kent Gazette’ [Summer 1994] that the railway crossing and the closing of the access to the Conyer footpath is still causing problems to the Village.

When I was at school, some 60 years ago, the ‘Tram Line’ ran from Teynham brickfield up to the railway sidings near to the old oast house. Flat bottomed trucks with high ends, built for carrying bricks, were hauled by horses up to the station to be off loaded onto railway trucks. When we came out of school, at about 4 o’clock, we would run down to the station and if any empty brick trucks were there the brickfield workers would let us (unofficially) take them back to the ‘field’. This entailed about four or five boys pushing like mad to where the signal box used to be and, as we turned the bend, we had enough speed for us to jump aboard. I reckon we must have hurled down the track, by the sewage works, at about 20 or 30 miles an hour! I wonder what public reaction would be today to such activities.

Some while ago, whilst chatting to Cllr. Ron Boorman in the street, our conversation inevitably turned to Teynham Lane/Station Road; at what date did the railway arrive; when was the name changed from Teynham Lane to Station Road; should it have been changed etc. etc.

All of this prompted the following verse, not to be taken too seriously I hasten to add, a bit of fun really. Far be it for me to get involved in village politics, after all you still haveLynsted Lane, Frognal Lane and Marsh Lane: but then again what ever happened to MILL LANE????

Teynham Lane vs. Station Road