Rye and Camber Tramway

Rye Station 1921 Courtesy of The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum

The Rye and Camber Tramway was an English narrow gauge railway in East Sussex. It was of 3 ft  (914 mm) gauge. It operated from 1895 until 1939, connecting Rye to the nearby coast at Camber. It was a short line, only about 13⁄4 miles (2.8 km) in length, and had three stations - Rye, Golf Links and Camber Sands. It operated mainly to transport golfers from Rye to the nearby golf links and holidaymakers to the coastal dunes. Read more 

Lowry refers to the tramway in a letter to Conrad Aiken dated 5/8/1946; "I hope you and Mary are by now ensconced in Jeakes House, Rye and that the sea-poppies and Camber Castle, not to say tram, and the ships blithely sailing down the meadows are still there, and that that which was once the province of the sea is not now too much a province of the same again by virtue of being a naval base." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 623). Lowry stayed on many occasions with Aiken in Rye travelling out to Camber a few miles from the town to swim in the sea there. (Gerald Noxon, Miguel Mota, Paul Tiessen On Malcolm Lowry and other writings Pg. 8 and 15). Lowry either walked or took the tramway as he recalled in letter dated 26/8/1940 to Gerald Noxon;  "Ten years ago we took a Camber train, walked Camber beach: Hugh Sykes was going to be married. We drank much beer, and smoked Balkan (it's like eatin') Sobrainie." (The Letters of Malcolm Lowry and Gerald Noxon Pg. 28). For a detailed walk on the former route - read the Worthing Wanderer.

Camber Golf Links Station

Camber Castle

Camber Castle is one of Henry VIII's Device Forts, also known as Henrician Castles, built to protect the huge Rye anchorage.

Between 1512 and 1514 Sir Edward Guldeford built a circular tower to defend the harbour. This tower was incorporated into a new fort which was built between 1539 and 1544. It was expanded to become a highly symmetrical artillery fort. The original tower was augmented with four outer towers linked by an octagonal wall concealing a covered passage. Part of this construction was directed by Stefan von Haschenperg. Finally, four large D-shaped bastions serving as gun platforms were placed in front of the earlier towers. As the shoreline receded south the height of the central tower was raised in order to maintain the range of the castle's cannon.

However by the end of the 16th century the silting of the Camber made the castle largely obsolete and in 1637 it was disbanded. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the castle in a letter to Conrad Aiken dated 5/8/1946; "I hope you and Mary are by now ensconced in Jeakes House, Rye and that the sea-poppies and Camber Castle, not to say tram, and the ships blithely sailing down the meadows are still there, and that that which was once the province of the sea is not now too much a province of the same again by virtue of being a naval base." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 623). Lowry stayed on many occasions with Aiken in Rye travelling out to Camber a few miles from the town to swim in the sea there. (Gerald Noxon, Miguel Mota, Paul Tiessen On Malcolm Lowry and other writings Pg. 8 and 15). The castle lies several hundred metres from the beach on the edge of Camber.