Cuckoo Line
Coordinates: 50°49′52″N 0°15′11″E / 50.831°N 0.253°E / 50.831; 0.253
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'The Cuckoo Line' (Tunbridge Wells West to Polegate) |
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The Cuckoo Line is an informal name for the now defunct railway service which linked Polegate and Eridge in East Sussex, England, from 1880 to 1968. It was nicknamed the Cuckoo Line by drivers, from a tradition observed at the annual fair at Heathfield, a station on the route. At the fair, which was held each April, a lady would release a cuckoo from a basket, it being supposedly the 'first cuckoo of spring'.
The railway line served the following Sussex communities: Polegate, Hailsham, Hellingly, Horam for Waldron, Heathfield, Mayfield, Rotherfield and Eridge. Services continued through Eridge and onward via Groombridge to Tunbridge Wells.
The Hailsham-Eridge section closed in 1965, the Polegate-Hailsham branch surviving until 1968. Eridge-Tunbridge Wells closed in 1985, and this line has been resurrected as the Spa Valley Railway.
Famous quotes containing the words cuckoo and/or line:
“When daisies pied and violets blue,
And lady-smocks, all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckooO word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“Theres a line between love and fascination thats hard to see on an evening such as this.”
—Ned Washington (19011976)