Martin Mill railway station serves Martin Mill

Martin Mill

Martin Mill is a village in east Kent, England. It takes its name from the nearby village of Martin. Martin Mill railway station is on the Dover to Deal railway line....

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southeastern

Southeastern (train operating company)

London & South Eastern Railway Limited, trading as Southeastern is a train operating company in south-east England. On 1 April 2006 it became the franchisee for the new Integrated Kent Franchise , replacing the publicly owned South Eastern Trains on the former South East Franchise...

.

Service

the typical off-peak service from the station is one train per hour to Ramsgate

Ramsgate railway station

Ramsgate railway station serves the town of Ramsgate in Thanet in Kent, England, and is located about 10 minutes away on foot from the town centre. The station lies on the Chatham Main Line 127 km east of London Victoria, the Kent Coast Line, and the Ashford to Ramsgate line...

 and one train per hour to London Charing Cross

Charing Cross railway station

Charing Cross railway station, also known as London Charing Cross, is a central London railway terminus in the City of Westminster, England. It is one of 18 stations managed by Network Rail, and trains serving it are operated by Southeastern...

 via Dover Priory

Dover Priory railway station

Dover Priory railway station is the main station in Dover in Kent, with the other station being Kearsney situated on the outskirts of Dover. . All train services are provided by Southeastern...

 and Sevenoaks

Sevenoaks railway station

Sevenoaks railway station serves the town of Sevenoaks in Kent. Train services are provided by Southeastern.Trains from the station run northbound to London Bridge, Cannon Street , Waterloo East and London Charing Cross via Orpington, to London Blackfriars via Swanley and Catford, and southbound to...

.

History

Martin Mill also served as an important station during both the First and Second World Wars. During the construction of Dover Harbour in 1897 a single track branch was constructed to bring in materials from Martin Mill. The track ran over the surface of the high chalk plateau parallel with the Dover-Deal main line

Kent Coast Line

The Kent Coast Line is railway line that runs from Dover Priory to Margate in the English county of Kent.It was electrified by BR under the 1955 Modernisation Plan.- Services :...

, before climbing up to the summit just at the entrance to Guston tunnel. From there, it ascended to the cliff top, 350 ft above sea level. It then descended in a zig-zag formation on a vertigious shelf which was cut into the cliff, leading down to the eastern part of the harbour. The route was reopened during both wars, and operated mainly by Royal Engineers

Royal Engineers

The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

 to deploy mounted artillery on the cliff edge. During the Second World War, the branch served the many gun batteries

Cross-Channel guns in the Second World War

During the Second World War, cross-Channel guns were long-range coastal artillery pieces placed on the English Channel coasts of Kent, England and the Pas-de-Calais, France, at the point at which England was closest to continental Europe, with which to bombard enemy shipping in the Channel and...

 along the white cliffs

White cliffs of Dover

The White Cliffs of Dover are cliffs which form part of the British coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliffs are part of the North Downs formation. The cliff face, which reaches up to , owes its striking façade to its composition of chalk accentuated by streaks of black flint...

 between Dover and St Margarets

St Margaret-at-Cliffe

St Margaret-at-Cliffe is a three part village situated just off the coast road between Deal and Dover in Kent, England. The heart of the village is about two miles from the sea with the residential area of Nelson Park further inland and St Margaret's Bay situated along and below the cliffs north...

. Along this track ran two track-mounted 14 inch guns/cannons nicknamed Winnie (after Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

) and Pooh (after the fictional bear

Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...

). During the war they fired into France at German targets, but accuracy was a problem and more damage was done to local property than their actual targets.

This line also ran down to Dover Harbour along a cliff road.

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