The colliery at Stonehall (near Lydden, on the main Dover-Canterbury railway line) was abandoned at the outbreak of war in 1914 without reaching coal.
I can remember walking through the site of Stonehall Colliery as a child in the 1950s, when trains still occasionally stopped at the small halt. A footbridge crossed the line from Stonehall village to the old colliery, from where we walked to the top of the hill near Coldred to gather fir cones. Little remains of the colliery today and the old bridge has been demolished as unsafe. Stonehall is on the OS map adjacent to the village of Lydden.
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Just one building remains to mark the site of the old Stonehall Colliery, near Lydden. The land is now used for grazing sheep. A bungalow nestles at the foot of the hill, hidden behind the old colliery building |
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The old footbridge that used to span the line now stands forlorn in the field waiting to be cut up for scrap |
The Dover to London express train passes the spot where once stood the old Stonehall Halt |
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