Signal Box And Railway Level Crossing Gates

Signal box and railway level crossing gates, circa 1880, restored in late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The signal box is a small, rectangular two-storey structure situated at the southern end of the eastern platform of Isfield station, adjoining the level crossing. The ground storey is constructed of brick, while the upper storey is wooden with a hipped slate roof.

The lower brick storey features two sets of segmental-arched windows on the long east and west sides, and a segmental-arched door on the north side. The upper storey contains sliding casement windows within wooden framing and toplight glazing in a cornice band. An external wooden staircase on the south face provides access to the upper storey operating floor. The hipped slate roof has overhanging eaves supported externally on curved brackets, and a chimney-stack sits on the west side. The upper storey is painted in Southern Railway green with white window surrounds, and displays a period name plate and wooden lettered boards.

The upper storey operating floor contains a restored frame lever signalling array imported from a similar signal box of the same period. However, some original signalling equipment remains, including rodding connecting the signal box to former semaphore signal positions. The interior features an original fireplace with console brackets, a "Belfast" sink on the west wall, and an original free-standing stove.

The level crossing gates are constructed of timber with metal fittings, rectangular with cross bracing, of traditional type.

The signal box was built circa 1880 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway by Saxby and Farmer, the major Victorian signalling equipment contractors. It operated a block on the Lewes to Uckfield line, which formed part of the secondary route of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway connecting Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells to the south coast, opened in 1858. The Saxby and Farmer design dates from 1876, with the signal box at Drayton on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway being one of the first examples erected that year. The design proved highly successful, with numerous examples constructed from the late 1870s to the 1890s, particularly on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

The line closed on 22 February 1969 and the signal box fell into disrepair. The semaphore signal formerly adjacent to the box was lost during this period. Some fixtures and fittings were removed by the Bluebell Railway for their own use, including much of the frame lever array. In the 1980s, Isfield station, signal box and a stretch of the former railway track bed passed into private ownership, and the owner began re-laying the track. In the 1990s it was sold to the Lavender Line Preservation Society and restored.

The level crossing gates that existed before 1969 remain intact. They are of a traditional design dating from the 1840s.