the closed section of line. A short length of track used as a headshunt remained south of Uckfield until the construction of Uckfield bypass in 1983. Private ownership and initial restoration On 16 June 1983 Isfield railway station was purchased at auction by Dave and Gwen Milham both as a depot for their landscaping business and with restoration of the station in mind. The booking hall and signal box were renovated, the station awning refurbished, and all the platform signs were replaced. The original down platform waiting room had been purchased by the Bluebell Railway in 1978, and resituated at Sheffield Park station. Two months were spent constructing a replica on the original foundations, completed in January 1984. In cooperation with the Bluebell Railway Dave Milham purchased track material from British Rail, made available from work being done at Croydon. Initially track was laid as part of a cosmetic restoration with a static locomotive but this later became a working railway. Restoration of the station was completed by the spring of 1987 with the reinstatement of of permanent way on the original track bed. A new engine shed was constructed at Isfield as an extension to the owner's groundworks machinery shed. The total cost of restoration exceeded according to the Milhams. The station was named 'The Lavender Line' since A.E. Lavender and Sons were the local coal merchants who had operated from the station yard. Two engines were purchased for use at the station: 'Annie', a Barclay 0-4-0 saddle tank previously in service at Bury Transport Museum, and 'Ugly', RSH 0-6-0 saddle tank number 64, purchased while on loan at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. A third engine, a 2-10-0 built in WWII by the North British Locomotive Company was shipped from Greece to the United Kingdom. The engine was christened 'Dame Vera Lynn' by Dame Vera Lynn herself at the station on 6 August 1986. This engine proved too large for the then railway, however, and was sold to Clifford Brown, a British-born American businessman living in Virginia, USA. Mr Brown sent the engine to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway where it now resides. Preservation Society Mr Milham's business failed in 1991 and the Lavender Line was put up for sale, initially for £1.3 million. This sale and a later auction seeking around £500,000 were not successful. Eventually, in November 1992, the railway (without the station house) was bought