About Cranleigh Station
The railway came to Cranley as it was then spelt in 1865 as part of the Horsham and Guildford Direct Railway. There were intermediate stations Christ’s Hospital, Slinfold, Rudgwick, Baynards (now preserved as a private dwelling), Cranleigh, and Bramley and Wonersh. A passing loop was added in 1880 when there was a choice of five trains a day to Guildford and seven to Horsham. This old postcard from 1906 shows a train arriving from Horsham
In 1961 the timetable indicates there were eight trains each way on weekdays and four each way on Sundays. The next photo shows the front of the station as it was in the 1960s.
The line was a victim of the Beeching cuts and closed just a few months short of its centenary. On 12 June 1965 the last train is reported to have carried over 400 passengers. A surviving ticket from the final day is shown here.
Soon afterwards the station was demolished and rebuilt as the shops and flats called Stocklund Square. The original platform levels can still be seen in the private car park at the rear of the shops. The adjacent public car park was the site of sidings used among other things as a coal delivery yard. The single track bed is of course now widely used as part of the popular walking and cycling route from Guildford to Shoreham known as the Downs Link.
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