Sevenoaks Railway Camps

Its amazing what areas family historians venture when ancestor hunting.
One of our members asked about the temporary camps set up to house the navvies working on the railway in the Sevenoaks area.

The answer to the query is given in 'Sevenoaks, an historical Dictionary' compiled by David Killingray and Elizabeth Purves and published in 2012 by Phillimore & Co Ltd for Sevenoaks Historical Society.
 

The railway lines were built:-

Line through Dunton Green to Tubbs Hill 1868.

Line through Otford to Bat and Ball 1862 and was extended to Tubs Hill in 1869.

 The ‘Sevenoaks, A historical dictionary’ says the railway camps were moving camps.

The Polhill tunnel is 1 mile 850 yards long was built through chalk under the north downs. The workers camp was at Bogs Island, Dunton Green.

 

The Sevenoaks tunnel 1 mile 1691 yards long runs under the Kippington estate  through the greensand ridge. More difficult to cut it was built in 1863. The workers were housed in huts at White Hart Wood. The line was fully opened in 1869.

 

The family for whom the query arose was living in the Vines area in c1865, is just north of Sevenoaks at the Junction of Dartford Road and Seal Hollow. See modern map, it has ‘The Vines’ cricket ground and just north of it Vines Lodge.

 Its lucky for us books of this type are written by the local history societies and their members.