The main station building stands on the up platform and is an attractive creme brick - all intermediate stations between Maidstone East and Ashford being to this standard design. Bearsted, Hollingbourne, Harrietsham are, and the long since demolished Hothfield was, built with this material, whilst Lenham and Charing are built with red brick, and slightly more substantial.Harrietsham station from the footbridge on 22nd September 2008.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

Harrietsham Station was built by the London, Chatham and Dover railway and opened, along with the other stations on the Maidstone East-Ashford line, on 1st July 1884. The station building, in common with all the intermediate stations on the line, was based on the design of Sevenoaks Bat & Ball and is a carbon copy of the station at Hollingbourne, the preceeding station on the line.

Harrietsham station from the footbridge on 22nd September 2008.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

In common with the other intermediate stations on the route west of Maidstone, the station had a dock platform for loading cattle which was immediately beyond the site of the concrete footbridge (a 1961 addition in connection with the Kent Coast Phase II electrification) and the platform narrows at this point. Lenham retains it's dock thanks to the conversion of the former siding to a passing loop, however at Harretsham this has been removed and the once complex layout of sidings is now entirely absent. The station buildings were renovated in 1984.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

As mentioned above, the footbridge was a late addition, being a product of Exmouth Juntion installed in connection with the Kent Coast Electrification in 1961, access to the down platform having previously by means of a walkway at the eastern end of the platforms. The nodescript modern barn-like structure beyond stands on the site of the former dock siding, where the platform narrows. The down platform hosts a standard LCDR shelter, reduced in depth compared to the others on the line. In the distance can be seen the goods shed. The down platform is not original - it was rebuilt in prefabricated concrete during the Southern Railway's tenure. Both platforms were extended in 2003 in connection with the end of Slam Door services.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

Continental freight traffic on the Ashford-Maidstone line is common, the line always having been considered secondary to the Ashford-Tonbridge route. EWS Class 92 dual-voltage Co-Co electric locomotiveNº92015 'D.H. Lawrence' passes through Harrietsham with an intermodal train on the morning of 22nd September 2008.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

A shot showing the intricate detail of the down platform shelter's two cast iron supports. The former end window can also be seen to have been bricked up, a fate which befell all the former LCDR canopies on the Maidstone-Ashford route. The canopy.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

Southeastern branding on the forecourt canopy, showing the intricate design of the valance. This design once adorned the platfom canopy valances but for some reason during the South Eastern & Chatham Railway's tenure, the fronts of the valances were removed from the platfoms both here and at Hollingbourne. Quite why this was done is a mystery, since their counterparts at Bearstead, Charing and Lenham were left alone until the 1990s. The platform canopy valances were replaced in with simpler ones during the 1984 renovations, making modifications to permit the passing of continental container freight (undertaken on the other stations on the line in 1991) unnecessary.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

The goods yard at Harrietsham closed as early as May 1961, five months before the commencement of the new electric service. Happily, both the goods shed and it's small office annexe, built to a standard LC&DR design, have survived and from the state of renovation work seen here in September 2008, their future seems assured.

photograph by Stephen Roffey

Another view showing the renovation of the LC&DR goods shed for modern business use. The grey sliding doors are perhaps a little unfortunate, but the cream brickwork has cleaned up beautifully. The same cannot be said for the lineside aspect of the building which, not being visible to the general public, is absolutely filthy!

photograph by Stephen Roffey