Bat & Ball Station South East & Chatham Style bench update
Published: 24 May 2023
Since our bench has gone off for restoration after a few vandals damaged it, we’ve had a few ‘hiccups’ since. It wasn’t quite clear how much damage the bench sustained with vandalism and decay running rife within the wood, almost rending a few elements near impossible to repair. The carpenters David and Brian have been left to improvise a few design elements of the bench and match it as close as possible to other similar South East & Chatham Style benches. The style of bench isn’t as common as it once was, which proved tricky when designing it; most railway platform benches bare no resemblance to the heritage benches, being the newer metal South Eastern benches.
As previously mentioned, we are obtaining a new replica SE & Chatham bench which will sit alongside the original and replace the metal South Eastern benches, funded by the Railway Heritage Trust. We’ll hopefully have both the benches back at the Station by summertime!
Below are a few updates from the restoration carpenters:
(five new short ‘front to back raisl)
(Image above: new rear bench legs awaiting completion of mortices)
(The picture below shows a number of the repaired portions of the original bench; It should be noted that all turned front legs are new as are the arms, the only short (front to back) rail that was salvageable was the central one)