Hollingbourne Station Railway 200 Heritage Day, Sunday 19 October 2025
The Community Interest Company at Hollingbourne Station hosted a highly successful Railway 200 Heritage Day open to the public and attended by visitors from as far away as Paris!
Our regular volunteer Chris Anthony and Therese set up the Kent CRP stand at 10.30am in anticipation of a busy day. The day was overcast and a little drizzly however, the weather couldn’t dampen the spirits of approximately 200 visitors who attended. Attractions included a model railway, specially prepared rail history boards and photographs, local gin and vodka tasting, a raffle for a Railway 200 hand painted bottle of gin (which raised £650 for the Hollingbourne project), stalls selling railway memorabilia, BBQ, the sale of postcards depicting our volunteer Dominic Noades’ train photos, the café kitchen offering light lunches, drinks and cakes and a fantastic 15 piece jazz band keeping us all in the party atmosphere!
It was wonderful to catch up with Kent CRP’s first Chairperson Mike Fitzgerald MBE who emailed after the event, “So lovely seeing you yesterday at the KCRP event at Hollingbourne, really impressed with the transformation and the support you have brought together, the future looks ensured.” It was beneficial to have the support of past and present Partnerships Chairs Mike and Chris together with our Kent Downs Line Chair Clive – thank you all.
As well as celebrating 200 years of UK passenger rail the event marked the 141st birthday of Hollingbourne station. Many shared stories of their experience of travelling via the station prior to the building hiatus for 32 years. These stories are being captured for future sharing. Kathy, a very dedicated Director of the CIC told me we need to preserve these stories, or they’ll be lost forever. It is reassuring that such a steadfast group are ensuring Hollingbourne’s history will be preserved for future generations.
It is estimated that Chris and Therese engaged with around 150 people and delighted all visiting children by presenting them with our specially commissioned red Railway 200 pencils whilst engaging them in a little UK passenger rail history. Tote bags were popular together with leaflets of the North Downs Way for walking and cycling from Hollingbourne Station – access to the North Downs Way is just off platform 2. Active travel leaflets for Maidstone, Ashford and Canterbury were also popular.
This was a great opportunity to promote community rail and our future events such as music and mince pies on 1 Dec at Ashford Station being hosted by Ashford Internation’ s adopters at Ashford College.
