AN ASHFORD couple have told how they both narrowly escaped with their lives on the night of the Lewisham rail crash - even though they did not know each other at the time.

Ken French, from Kennington, and his future wife Barbara both avoided travelling on the ill-fated 4.56pm service to Ramsgate that would crash in thick fog into another train outside the south London train station and bring down the supports of an overhead bridge.

Ken, now 67, said: "I think about it every December 4. It never goes away."

Ken was 19-years-old and working on tug boats at Wapping 1957, and for several weeks he had been boarding the Ramsgate-bound train at New Cross to travel to his then home of Catford but on the night of the crash, fate intervened.

"The day before I had got my push bike back from the repairs shop, so I cycled home," he explained. "If I hadn't, I might have been killed on the train."

As Ken and a friend cycled into Deptford, which was on their route and very close to the crash site, they were met by policemen who told them they would have to walk their bicycles through the High Street.

He explained: "We had no idea what had happened and when we came onto the High Street, it was covered with bodies. Most were covered up, but some weren't.

"We could hear all the commotion coming from the tracks, but couldn't see what had happened. We just saw all these bodies in the street."

Meanwhile at Cannon Street, 17-year-old girl Barbara was on her way home from her job in a Bermondsey biscuit factory, and fought through crowds of commuters at New Cross station to reach her train, but just as she put her foot on the carriage, it moved off without her. The train was the same ill-fated Ramsgate service that would crash at Lewisham.

She explained: "I got a later train, and a couple of minutes after we left the station the train suddenly stopped and all the lights went off. A guard came in with candles and said there was a fault on the line, so we just sat chatting and waiting, with no idea of what had happened."

Eventually, the guard returned and told the passengers they would have to disembark and follow him on foot along the tracks to St John's Station.

"When we got off, we saw bodies lying all along the track. I had to step over one body and I could see the person didn't have a face anymore. It was very difficult.

"When I got home, all the neighbours were sitting with my parents waiting to hear if I was alright. They thought I was on the train that crashed."

A year later, Ken and Barbara met and were evenutally married. They now have four children and nine grandchildren, but every year they spare a thought for those who lost their lives in the horrific rail crash.

Barbara, 65, said: "What I saw has never left me, and it was especially hard in the days afterwards, having to make the same journey to and from work. In the end I had to give up my job as I couldn't face making the journey ever again."

Ken added: "We still think about it every year - our daughter was born on December 4, but we'll never forget what we saw that night. I'm still in shock today."