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On 25th November 1837 the South
Eastern Railway had begun the construction of its main Dover
trunk line, which followed a route through the Weald of Kent. By
July 1849 the company had also completed its North Kent Line via
Dartford as far as Strood, but rather than continue thereafter
to towns on the other side of the Medway, the SER instead
decided to extend the commuter line southwards to Maidstone
(West), such being completed on 18th June 1856. Concern was
raised by the inhabitants of the Medway towns and the general
North East Kent area, outlining that their locations had been
bypassed by an important railway connection to the capital. At
the centre of the railway debate was Faversham and subsequently
in 1853, the ''East Kent Railway'' was established to rectify
the situation and connect the town with London. The company had
been granted an Act of Parliament to link Canterbury with Strood,
the latter at which trains would veer onto the SER North Kent
Line, eventually giving access to London.
On 25th January 1858, Sittingbourne was placed on the railway
map when the East Kent Railway initiated its first train service
on newly-laid lines between Faversham and Chatham. Its
connection to the capital was not yet physical, but a horse and
cart service operated between Chatham and Strood stations, where
passengers were transferred onto SER services. The layout at
Sittingbourne consisted of two platforms either side of a
double-track, the ''up'' side incidentally playing host to a
two-storey brick-built station building. The main building is of
particular architectural interest: a larger structure, but of
similar design, had appeared at Faversham in the same year.
However, at the intermediate stations of Gillingham and Rainham,
the smaller station designs now seen at Sole Street and
Farningham Road were to be found. Even at the end of the line,
Chatham, was only a typical building akin to the aforementioned
locations provided, which makes the much larger building at
Sittingbourne - also just an intermediate station - an anomaly.
The station's importance increased when it became the
interchange point for branch services to Queenborough and
Sheerness-on-Sea, these of which commenced on 19th July 1860,
but the later arrival of these trains does not help to answer
the question surrounding the seemingly large size of the station
building. The Sheerness shuttles did see a third platform face
come into use, however, which made the ''down'' side an island.
From the outset, a single-track goods shed and associated
sidings had been present on the ''up'' side, to the east of the
station building.
Through running between Canterbury (LCDR) and Victoria commenced
on 3rd December 1860, and an overall roof appeared at
Sittingbourne some three years later. It is probable that only a
small timber waiting shelter was on the island before this and
indeed, the station building would very likely have had just a
small canopy valance protecting the platform entrance. The
overall triangular pitched roof became a fairly common feature
on both SER and LC&DR lines - examples being extant at
Canterbury West and Dover Priory to name but two - and unlike
trainsheds of most terminals, where the supporting pillars were
affixed to the platforms, it was usually the case for the
columns to be located at track level, quite often in-between
parallel lines. This was certainly the case at Sittingbourne,
the arrangement being necessitated to provide full cover for the
third platform line of Sheerness trains. After 1899 a few
significant changes at the station occurred, one of which was
the building of a footbridge to complement the existing subway.
The footbridge shared the same fundamental design as that which
can also still be seen at Chatham, but the latter appeared just
before the formation of the SE&CR. At Sittingbourne, the
turntable on the ''up'' side was also removed and its truncated
siding left in place, whilst the island platform received
lengthening at its western end and the side platform at its
eastern end (during the SE&CR period, platform extensions were
still undertaken using brick).
The Southern Railway took over in 1923, but the station had been
''Sittingbourne and Milton Regis'' since the formation of the
SE&CR. On the larger station name boards the additional suffix
''change here for Queenborough and Sheerness'' was present. The
station became just plain ''Sittingbourne'' 1970. Under Southern
Railway ownership, Goods sidings appeared on the site adjacent
to the Sheerness platform, but the station remained little
changed. It was not until British Railways days that serious
alterations began occurring. The first was the removal of the
overall roof in 1952 and the installation of standard platform
canopies - eventually all intermediate stations of the SER and
LC&DR which had the trainshed, subsequently lost it during the
modernisation pioneered during the 1950s. In 1958, work began at
the station in connection with the Kent Coast Electrification,
which involved lengthening both platforms with concrete at their
eastern ends to accept EMUs twelve vehicles long. With these
platforms came concrete bracket lamp posts and on the ''up''
side, to the east of the platforms, a then new ''power box'' was
installed, replacing both ''A'' and ''B'' boxes of 1890s
lineage. The power box came into use on 24th May 1959, but full
electric working on the ''Chatham'' main line to the Kent Coast
did not begin until 15th of the following month. Colour lights
replaced semaphores, but goods facilities remained active at the
station until as late as 1976, possibly due to traffic still
generated by the nearby paper mills. Since 1974, the ''down''
side goods loops had been used by chemical trains bound for
Sheerness Steel.
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