Kent and East Sussex Railways

The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum records the career of Holman Fred Stephens, light railway promoter, engineer and manager, his family, his railways and his successors.

The museum is based at Tenterden station on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, which was the quintessential Stephens' light railway and was always the heart of his empire.

The collection began in the 1960s largely through the foresight of Philip Shaw, the Kent and East Sussex Railways Historian, who began putting aside items donated by former employees of the Stephen's empire. W H Austen junior in particular, was a considerable source of material, much of which he had inherited from his father.

Hidden behind the public display is the heart of the research section, the historical papers and undisplayed artifacts dating from about the 1880s occupy 20 steel cabinet filing drawers and some 60 metres of racking.

The photographic archive is considerable, though seldom are we given original negatives. Although never counted, there are probably somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 photographs, the earliest of which were in the Colonels collection.
https://www.hfstephens-museum.org.uk/