PADDOCK Wood residents have expressed their anger at the "thoughtless" demolition of part of the town's heritage.

The former stationmaster's house in Hop Pocket Lane was knocked down by landowners Botanix Ltd last week to make way for what is understood to be a new car park.

Believed to date from 1842, the brick-built house was one of the last vestiges of Paddock Wood's origins as a railway town.

Town and borough councillor Elizabeth Thomas, a member of the Paddock Wood History Research Group, said she was surprised at the loss of the building.

Mrs Thomas said: "I can't think of anything that is older in the town. It is yet another Paddock Wood building that has been removed without any thought for its history.

"It was a little bit of the 1840s which reminded us why Paddock Wood is here in the first place."

Fellow councillor Peter Waldock added: "It is a great shame that one of the older buildings in the town has been lost."

Local historians have previously fought against the loss of other historical sites, including the Parochial Hall which stood at the north end of Commercial Road until its controversial demolition in 1969. Almost all that remains from the town's first phase of concerted development is a short terrace of railway cottages in Station Road.

Mrs Thomas said: "I tried to have some other railway cottages retained as they dated back to the 1840s when the railway started, but English Heritage said they weren't sufficiently well preserved or unique.

"Now this is another one which has gone."

Planning rules dictate permission is only required for demolition of listed buildings. If no such protection exists, the owner need only notify the council of their intention to knock a property down.

A council spokesman confirmed brewing industry suppliers Botanix had warned them in October, but had not stated their intentions for the land's future use.

Despite repeated requests, no one from the company would speak to the Courier this week.

Although in recent years the house had been dwarfed by large industrial buildings, the town map of 1872 shows it as a freestanding structure some distance to the south of the Maidstone Road Inn. The pub was later rebuilt as The Hop Inn, but that too was demolished last year and replaced by a block of flats.

Mrs Thomas said: "There was very little in Paddock Wood back at that time. It was all connected with the railway and they have almost all been demolished.

"We've lost, architecturally anyway, the history of Paddock Wood."

The History Research Group is holding an exhibition of historic photographs at Paddock Wood Primary School today and tomorrow, between 10am and 4pm.