Wittersham Road was one of the original stations on the 12 miles (19 km) line opened by the Rother Valley Railway between Rolvenden and Robertsbridge in 1900.[3] The remote location of the station meant that there was no particular settlement for it to serve, the village of Wittersham being some 2.75 miles (4.43 km) away, a distance reflected in the decision to name the station "Wittersham Road".[4] The station consisted of a single platform and two sidings on the Down side facing Tenterden.
As with the station buildings at Bodiam and Northiam, a corrugated iron structure was provided at Wittersham Road, but this time lacking a platform awning.[5] Unlike however all the Rother Valley stations, the station building at Wittersham Road was built at a right-angle to the platform.[6] According to a 1948 timetable, the station was a compulsory stop for all trains from at least 1929 and possibly even earlier.[7]
Between February 1941 and August 1944, a rail-mounted howitzer named SM Cleeve, belonging to the No. 4 (Suffolk) Super-Heavy Railway Battery RA, was stationed at Wittersham Road. Weighing 86 tonnes (85 long tons; 95 short tons) and capable of firing 9.2 inches (230 mm) shells, it was only fired once, causing all the windows in the station to break.[8] Three GWR Dean Goods Class locomotives were on hand to move the howitzer.[9]
^Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN1-85260-508-1, p. 253.
^Clinker, C.R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830–1977. Bristol: Avon-AngliA Publications & Services. p. 150. ISBN0-905466-19-5.
^Course, Edwin (1976). The Railways of Southern England: Independent and Light Railways. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 39. ISBN0-7134-0490-6.