Cuckoo Line

Cuckoo Line
Cuckoo Line
Overview
Status	Disused
Owner	LB&SCR;; Southern Railway ; British Railways
Locale	East Sussex and Kent.
Termini	Polegate; Eridge;
Stations	8
Service
Type	Branch Line
System	National Rail Network
Services	Eastbourne to Tonbridge
Depot(s)	Eastbourne Depot;; Tunbridge Wells West
History
Opened	1880
Closed	1965-1968
Technical
Number of tracks	Single
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map
	Hastings line
	to Tonbridge
	Hastings line
	to Hastings
	Oxted line
	to London Victoria
	Three Bridges–Tun. W. Central Line
	to East Grinstead
	Oxted line
	to Uckfield
	265 yd
	242 m
	Ouse Valley Railway
	to Bulverhythe
	Ouse Valley Railway
	to Balcombe
	East Coastway line
	to Lewes & Eastbourne

50.831°N 0.253°E / 50.831; 0.253

The Cuckoo Line is an informal name for the now defunct railway service which linked Polegate and Eridge in East Sussex, England, from 1880 to 1968. It was nicknamed the Cuckoo Line by drivers, from a tradition observed at the annual fair at Heathfield, a station on the route. At the fair, which was held each April, a lady would release a cuckoo from a basket, it being supposedly the 'first cuckoo of spring'. The railway line served the following Sussex communities: Polegate, Hailsham, Hellingly, Horam for Waldron, Heathfield, Mayfield, Rotherfield and Eridge. Services continued through Eridge and onward via Groombridge to Tunbridge Wells.

The Hailsham-Eridge section closed in 1965, the Polegate-Hailsham branch surviving until 1968. Eridge-Tunbridge Wells closed in 1985, and this line has been resurrected as the Spa Valley Railway.

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