ORIGINS
The mystery of how the Guildford via Cobham railway came to be built is told in all its exciting detail for the first time. For 20 years the LSWR maintained its obstinate refusal to countenance a railway to Cobham, including two to which Queen Victoria was opposed because they were too near Claremont.

A collapse in agricultural land values, brought about by a harvest catastrophe and cheap grain from North America, brought a proposal by the largest local landowners for a new railway from Guildford via Kingston to connect with the recently opened District Railway’s extension at Fulham, giving access to the underground railway to the city at Mansion House.

With the LSWR’s loathing of competition, no price was too high to protect their monopoly. The gladiatorial fight in Parliament, which resulted in a compromise from which was built the Guildford via Cobham line, is covered in all its dramatic moments including why Cobham’s station was built in Stoke D’Abernon.

IMPACT
The book explores the variable impact that the new railway had on all the station settlements on the Guildford via Cobham Line. Slow everywhere. at first, the different styles of development in Claygate and Oxshott are traced to their respective and very differently motivated landowners. Cobham’s development had an impetus of its own, but its appeal to incomers who had their own transport in the early 20th century is explained.

Serving a small population the original steam service was infrequent and slow but the highly popular electrification of the line in 1925 with its dramatic improvement in service frequency, speed and cleanliness brought increased demand, and rapid development followed especially in East and West Horsley.

The book concludes with a discussion of the on the origins and impact of the Metropolitan Green Belt and its role in preserving Guildford via Cobham as a country railway.
 

ISBN 0 9543934 2 2. 278 pages, hardback with full colour dust jacket. 

£25.00