Carriage Shop

This is a carriage shop and sawmill, built between 1858 and 1871 for the South Eastern Railway, with subsequent extensions and additions around 1898. The complex comprises two parallel gabled ranges constructed of red brick with stone quoin pilasters, now topped with modern steel sheet roofs, with the water tower featuring a probable lead roof.

The original block is a 21-bay building with tall round-headed arches made of rubbed brick, separated by pilasters. A wide opening is present in the sixteenth bay on the north elevation. The building has a double-pitched roof. Around 1898, the carriage shop, by then a sawmill, was extended to the southeast with a narrower five-bay range, half the width of the original, continuing the exterior arched arrangement. A four-storey water tower, in an Italianate style, was also added at this time. This square tower has a doorway in the northeast re-entrant angle and square-headed windows on the ground, first, and second floors. The third storey features round-headed windows with a central keystone, rendered quoins mimicking masonry, moulded corbelling beneath the eaves, and a low-pitched pyramid roof. The south-east gables were closed in with brick in the 1990s and now contain two arched windows. The north-west gables retain openings for access to internal roads.

A partial inspection in 1998 revealed that the original building's interior is framed by pairs of timber trusses, supported centrally by squat cast iron columns. These trusses are fitted with queen posts, princess rods, and metal straps. The extension block has nearly identical trusses. The spaces between the cast iron columns have been infilled with breeze blocks.

The building first appeared on an Ordnance Survey map in 1871, initially built as a carriage shop. By 1898, when the extension and water tower were added, it had transitioned to a sawmill. The Railway Magazine of 1898 noted it was the sole railway workshop in England fitted with a completely automatic fire extinguishing apparatus. By the 1980s, the building served as a wheel shop for British Rail Engineering Ltd. In 1998, it was operating as a carriage repair shop for Balfour Beatty.

The building’s significance stems from its relative lack of alteration compared to other early buildings at Ashford Works and its continued use for a similar purpose, preserving its original function.