Aylesford Goods Shed

Railway goods shed, built in around 1856 for the South Eastern Railway on the Medway Valley Line.

MATERIALS: built of red brick with a slate roof covering.

PLAN: a single-storey rectangular building open internally to the roof. Formerly a railway track ran through the south length of the building and there appears to have been a central platform for unloading goods and a cart entrance at the north.

EXTERIOR: a large single-storey building, about 26.5m long and 13m wide. It is built of red brick laid in English bond with round arched fixed windows and a hipped roof. The windows have cast-iron frames dividing each into 12 panes. Each window bay is separated by Doric pilasters. The north elevation serves as the main façade facing the former goods yard. It is five bays wide with a central cart entrance and four round-arched windows. The entrance and ends of the buildings are flanked by pairs of pilasters but the bays are otherwise divided by single pilasters. Originally there would probably have been a pair of timber doors to the entrance but these have been replaced by a roller shutter. A modern fascia has been added to the eaves of the roof and probably conceals the original dentil cornice. The west end of the building has two blocked round-arched openings flanked by pilasters and a central arched window; the southernmost bay contains a small square-headed doorway. At the east end the southern bay has been opened out to form a square-headed opening containing a roller shutter and there is a square-headed doorway and window to the northern bay and a single square-headed window to the central bay. The south elevation matches the north façade but the central bay is blind (without any openings).

INTERIOR: the goods shed is open to a timber queen-post roof structure. There are seven tie-beams, each with a pair of queen posts joined by a straining beam and straining sill. Most of the trusses have struts to each side of the queen posts and there are purlins supporting the common rafters. The queen posts and trusses are strengthened with iron bracing. An axial or central beam is joined to the bottom of the trusses and runs the entire length of the building; originally a jib crane on a central platform may have been secured at its top to this beam. There is a small enclosed office in the south-east corner of the shed and a concrete floor.