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Synopsis of Talk given by Tony Adfield at Steyning Grammar School on Friday 8th November 2002 on 'Henfield Railway Station during the War'.

I moved into the Station House, Henfield, during 1935 at the tender age of five. My father was Porter/Signalman at Henfield Station. Porter/Signalman was a railway grade of which I always thought was badly named. The job description, if such a thing had been available at that time, would have shown that the job was far more skilful than the name would seem to indicate. The job required ticket office experience, dealing with both goods and parcels traffic, manning the signal box and being the general 'dog鈥檚 body' around the Station when manned by just one person.

I can recall Friday 1st September 1939. I was on holiday at my Grandmother鈥檚 home in Southwick. The international situation had deteriorated, Germany had invaded Poland and my mother decided that I should be brought home as war was imminent. So it was on the evening of Friday 1st September 1939 that I travelled with my mother on the train from Southwick to Henfield. A 鈥淏lackout鈥�, as a national air raid precaution, had just been decreed by the Government and joining the Brighton to Horsham train on that evening was my first experience of the 鈥淏lackout鈥�. As far as I can remember, the train consisted of a steam tank engine and a two coach pull and push set. All of the lights on the train had been painted blue, giving just enough light to see but not enough to read by.

Come Sunday 3rd September 1939, we listened, at Station House, Henfield, to the now famous broadcast by Neville Chamberlain at eleven o鈥檆lock in the morning, which announced that Great Britain was at war with Germany. Immediately after the broadcast, the air raid siren sounded and tens of people rushed up to the road bridge over the railway in front of the Station Hotel (later to become the Cat & Canary and is now called the Old Railway Tavern) half expecting to see hoards of German bombers coming over from the east. The bridge has now been filled-in but one can still stand on the road where the bridge was and appreciate the vantage panoramic view to the north, west and south. Little did we realise at the time that within the next twelve months we would be standing on that same bridge witnessing the 鈥渞eal war鈥� in the form of the Battle of Britain being fought in the skies over Southern England. The excitement of the declaration of war and the sounding of the air raid siren was just too much for one Air Raid Warden, he ran up and down the road outside of Henfield Railway Station in his pyjamas with his gasmask and steel helmet on, blowing his whistle and yelling at people to get indoors. History records that it was a false alarm and the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� was sounded at midday about five past twelve.

Then came the period of about eight to nine months of the 鈥減honey war鈥� when life carried on as normal at Henfield Station. People were being called up to the Forces but my father was considered to be in a 鈥淩eserve Occupation鈥�, which meant that being a signalman he was considered to be essential to the war effort and, therefore, was exempt from conscription to the Forces. In any event, dad was getting towards his fortieth birthday and I do not think that conscription had reached that age group at that time. However, he was enlisted into the Local Defence Volunteers, later to be renamed the Home Guard, and also had to carry out A.R.P. Fire Watching activities.

The normality was to end with the German invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium and the subsequent collapse of France, with the Battle of Britain starting in May 1940. Completely ignoring their thoughts of safety, people would stand on the previous mentioned road bridge over the railway line and watch the aerial dogfights with all the vapour trails criss-crossing the sky and the planes falling out of the sky and crashing as they were shot down. It is interesting to note that, human nature being as it is, any plane that was shot down must be a German, that was not always so and this was perfectly illustrated in the October of 1940. At the time there were two young teenage booking clerks working in the ticket office at Henfield Railway Station. Because of the invasion

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threat, both the booking clerks had been enlisted into the Local Defence Volunteers (later to be called the Home Guard) and a couple of rifles with ammunition were kept in the booking office at Henfield Station. On this particular day there had been some enemy aerial activity, machine gunfire, etc., but there was nothing to see because of cloud cover. The two young clerks were standing outside the booking office, gazing into the sky, when a parachutist appeared through the clouds. Their first reactions were that it must be a German parachutist, so they rushed into the booking office, grabbed the rifles and ammunition and started running down the railway line towards Steyning. It is said that somebody did actually fire shots at the parachutist but I have no evidence of that. The parachutist was in actual fact a Spitfire Pilot who, it is reported was not badly injured, had baled out after his plane had been shot down. It is alleged that he was on a training flight when he ran into a squadron of Messerschmitt ME 109s. The Spitfire crashed northeast of Henfield on the Hurstpierpoint road just past the Wheatsheaf Public House and the parachutist pilot landed in the area near to Rye Farm, Henfield, to the west of the railway line.

From now on and for the next few years, enemy activity was going to cause severe disruption to the train services and the line through Henfield was no exception. Right through from the first days of the Battle of Britain with the daylight raids, onto the switching to the mass night-time bombing raids and the blitzing of cities such as London, Portsmouth and Southampton, had a severe knock on affect to the Steyning Line trains in addition to all the local bombing. It is alleged that official records show that some 100 high explosive and 1000 incendiary bombs were dropped in the Henfield area during the war.

During the height of the Blitz, trains could be running several hours late or not at all. Often there was no information as to when the next train would be coming along (so what鈥檚 different I hear you ask!). On such occasions, especially if it was in the evening, my father would suggest to waiting passengers at Henfield that they should repair to the Station Hotel bar and he would let them know when any trains were on the way. Partridge Green would telephone my father to advise of any trains travelling south and, likewise, Steyning would advise of any northbound trains. Upon receiving such advice, dad would proceed to the Station Hotel to inform the passengers and, after the trains had departed, he would return to the Station Hotel to enjoy a few drinks left over the bar for him by appreciative passengers.

Whenever there had been enemy activity and bombs had been heard to explode in the locality, before any train was allowed to proceed the line had to be examined physically by a person actually walking the track to ensure that it was clear and safe. For example, if bombs had been heard exploding to the north of Henfield, a member of the staff on duty at Henfield, and sometimes that was only one person i.e. my father, would walk the line as far as the Betley river bridge where he would meet up with a member of staff who had walked down from Partridge Green. If no person was available from Partridge Green, then the Henfield man would walk on to Partridge Green to examine the line. Only then when the track was given the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� would trains be allowed to pass over that part of the track and even then only 鈥� at caution鈥�. Likewise, the same procedure would be carried out if bombs were heard south of Henfield with the meeting up point being at Streatham river bridge with somebody walking up from Steyning.

To my recollection there was only one occasion when the railway track was damaged. That was on Monday 4th November 1940, at about 4.45pm., when a Junkers 88, a German twin engine fighter/bomber, dive bombed the railway bridge over the river Adur at Betley. I can recall being in the garden at Station House, Henfield, hearing a low flying aircraft I looked up and saw the German plane gaining height after making its bombing run. The official log states that there was machine
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gunfire but I do not remember that from the aircraft. It may well be that some Army units in the area
fired off their weapons. The aircraft had released two high explosive bombs. One bomb landed beside the railway embankment about two hundred yards south of the river bridge and the other bomb had hit the railway down line, ricocheted along the track for about a hundred yards badly scoring the wooden sleepers, bounced off the railway track and landed flat on its side in a field to the east of the track in front of a farm cottage before it exploded. It is said that this was the bomb that had the greatest blast effect, shattering shop windows in Henfield High Street about a mile away. There is an interesting story about this bombing incident. About two hundred yards south of the Betley river bridge there used to be a hut used by railway platelayers (a term used then for railway maintenance workers). On this particular day, the gang of platelayers based at Henfield and Partridge Green, were sitting in the hut at the end of the day鈥檚 work, finishing their flasks of tea, etc., and sandwiches, when they heard the low flying aircraft followed by a thud and a tremendous rush of wind. Upon opening the door of the hut they found that they were on the edge of a massive bomb crater. To give some idea as to the size of the crater, it took twenty railway ballast wagons of chalk to fill it. The last time I went up the site of the old railway line to Betley, one can still see the site of the crater, it now takes the form of a farmyard pond. It is reported that one of the platelayers had returned to work that day after being off sick for a time with a nervous breakdown!

Despite there being masses of Army units (mainly Canadian) based in the Henfield area, there was not a great deal of actual military traffic at Henfield in the form of troop trains, tank trains, etc. There was the occasional military vehicle, brengun carrier, or the likes, dispatched by goods train from Henfield to a repair or maintenance depot. There was one military project that did involve the Henfield Railway Station and that was the receiving of open railway wagons loaded with rubble from bombed buildings in blitzed cities such as Portsmouth and London. This rubble was unloaded and used by The Royal Canadian Engineers to build a causeway across the brooks near Catsfold Farm at the end of West End Lane in Henfield. The purpose of this causeway was to give road access to the river Adur in order that the Canadian Army could exercise Bailey Bridge building and the standard Brigade exercise for river crossings in the build up to D-Day. It is interesting to note that when the Bailey Bridge was in position, it did provide a short road route from Henfield to Ashurst and it was thought at the time that the local authorities would make it a permanent road crossing after the war, taking off quite a bit of mileage from the road route to Steyning. The remains of the causeway can still be seen to this day and I have even heard it referred to as 鈥渢ank road鈥�.

Earlier on I did refer to the 鈥淏lackout鈥� which was imposed right from the beginning of the War and hefty fines were levied on any person who was reported by the police or air raid wardens for showing unnecessary lights which could been seen by enemy aircraft. So there was no street lighting, all windows in buildings had heavy blackout curtains and railway stations were very dimly lit with a minimum amount of lamps being lit and those were painted over with blue paint. To illustrate this, my mother and I were travelling back from Hove one evening during the 鈥淏lackout鈥�. We were standing on the platform at Hove Station waiting for the Henfield train. Whilst waiting, I had just made out, in the gloom, a courting couple standing three or four yards away from us. The man of the couple took a few steps towards the edge of the platform, looked down the line towards Brighton, came back and took my mother into his arms and said 鈥淚t鈥檚 coming now, darling鈥�. I don鈥檛 know who was the most embarrassed but the lack of light did avoid seeing the red faces.

Henfield Station played a part in helping with the war economy as far as providing the nation with food supplies. With the Battle of the Atlantic going on, no sugar cane was being imported to this Country, shipping space was being used for far more important commodities essential to the war effort. As a substitute for sugar cane, British farmers were growing sugar beet, a root vegetable from

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which sugar could be manufactured. Many farmers in the Henfield area were growing sugar beet and
the crops were loaded into open railway wagons at Henfield Station for dispatch by goods train
to the sugar processing factories. Jim Hills of Swains Farm, Henfield, will recall loading sugar beet at Henfield Railway Station. Also, wagon loads of potatoes were sent away from Henfield Station to help feed the nation, potatoes being an important part of the national diet. Remember 鈥淲oolton鈥檚 Pie鈥�, named after Lord Woolton when he was Food Minister. That dish consisted of mainly potatoes.

As the years of the war passed by, gradually the pendulum began to swing in favour of the Allies. America had now entered the war and by 1943 the Allies were under enormous pressure from the Russians to start a second front on the continent of Europe, so plans were being drawn up for the invasion of France, namely D-Day. There was a massive build up of troops, vehicles and equipment in Southern England and in the interest of secrecy, security and intelligence, a restricted zone was set up all along the South Coast. This restricted zone extended to some fifteen to twenty miles inland and Henfield was one of the first villages coming into to the zone, the zone border running along the north of Henfield from Betley Bridge, through Mockbridge and on to Wineham. Therefore, as far as the railway was affected, Henfield Railway Station was the first station in the restricted zone on the Steyning Line when travelling from the Horsham direction. This meant that all passengers on down trains arriving at Henfield had to produce identity documents or passes to the police who would go through the train inspecting the documents or passes. Anybody who did not have papers to show that they either lived in the restricted zone or that they had official passes authorising them to travel in the restricted zone, were taken off of the down train, escorted over to the up platform and put on the next up train to take them out of the restricted zone. Not even close family members who resided outside the restricted zone were allowed to visit relatives who lived within the zone. However, I do remember on one occasion my aunt, my father鈥檚 sister who lived outside the zone, was sneaked in through the back door to Station House which opened onto the down platform. The police on that occasion had agreed to turn a 鈥渂lind eye鈥� but my aunt dared not to venture out as constant identity checks were being made on strangers in the village.

All throughout the war, the area around the Railway Station at Henfield was almost a little community on its own. There was a Co-operative Society Grocery and Butchery Store, Paige the Coal Merchant who also had the franchise for the local delivery and collection of railway parcels and goods train packages, Burchett and Hards who were Coal Merchants and General Hauliers, Hales who was yet another Coal Merchant, Groves the Greengrocer and Newsagent, Adams鈥檚 Sweetshop and Tobacconist, a Southdown Bus Company garage and, of course, our very own Pub in the Station Hotel. Sadly, as far as I am concerned, time has changed the area. The Co-operative Society has closed its stores, there are no longer any Coal Merchants, there is still a Bus Garage and Groves鈥檚 shop is still there, albeit under different management. The Station Hotel is now called The Old Railway Tavern of which half is a Bar and the other half is a Chinese and Thai Restaurant. The site of the Railway Station is now a housing estate appropriately named 鈥淏eechings鈥� but the original steps that led down to the Station entrance all through the war are still there, leading down into Beechings. The franchise for goods and parcels delivery and collection was taken over by National Carriers before the eventual closure of the Steyning Line. Although the area around where Henfield Railway Station used to be has changed almost completely, there are still landmarks that can be recognised and bring back memories of Henfield Railway Station during the Second World War.

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