The Headcorn and Maidstone Junction Light Railway was a proposed railway in Kent. An Act of Parliament authorised its construction, but only a short branch at Tovil, opened to goods only, was built. Background Maidstone, the county town of Kent, had been reached by the railway in 1846, when the South Eastern Railway built a branch from Paddock Wood. In 1856, a branch was built from Strood to make an end-on junction with the branch from Paddock Wood at what is now station. Headcorn had been reached by the railway in 1842, on the main line between Tonbridge and Ashford. This situation left Maidstone in a position where there was no direct access to either London or the Channel Ports by rail. In 1874 a branch was built by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway from Swanley to the current station. This line was extended in 1884 to Ashford. There were various railways proposed to link Maidstone and Headcorn: Maidstone and Loose Valley (1856–57) Loose Valley (1877) Lydd Railway (Various Powers) (1877) Tenterden (1894–95) Headcorn Junction and Maidstone Light Railway (1904–05). Geography The main obstacle to building a railway was the Greensand Ridge south of Maidstone, with the villages of Chart Sutton and Town Sutton (Sutton Valence) on the ridge. The line from Paddock Wood to Maidstone had already taken the only gap in the ridge south of the town. But the River Loose had cut a channel into the ridge, which could possibly be used to drive a railway through to reach the top of the ridge. Route The line was seen as an extension of the Kent & East Sussex Railway northwards from Headcorn, making an end-on junction and crossing the SE&CR main line by a bridge of span and climbing towards Sutton Valence, 244 ft in 2½ miles (74 m in 4 km). Having reached Sutton Valence the line then had to drop 300 ft in 4¼ miles (91 m in 6.85 km), passing the quarries at Boughton Monchelsea and following the Loose Valley to link up with a branch from the Medway Valley Line at Tovil across the River Medway to a goods station in Tovil, which had opened in 1886. This line crossed the Medway by a substantial girder bridge. The entire line was to be single throughout and have 17 level crossings, all ungated. The line was to be constructed under the Light Railways