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Alderbury & Whaddon Local History Research Group |
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Alderbury Junction and the Railway Several
rail routes to Salisbury were considered between 1837 and 1844 when a branch
from the London to Southampton main line was authorised. It was to run from
Bishopstoke (Eastleigh) to Milford through Alderbury and was owned by the
London and South Western Railway. An industrial estate off Tollgate Road is
on the site of the Milford terminus. When
opened in 1847, first to freight, then to passengers, the branch ran close to
the route of the old Salisbury to Southampton Canal from Alderbury to the
River Test, then on to Romsey and Eastleigh. The first 22 wagons to enter
Salisbury station carried coal for the needy. The train was described in the
Salisbury and Winchester Journal as ‘an
engine scampering along dragging after it twenty or thirty wagons’. At
this time, trains to London ran from Salisbury, past Alderbury and via
Eastleigh to Nine Elms. Down trains from London to Salisbury ran five times
per day and up trains four times daily. As well as the London trains there
were also six trains per day to and from Gosport, making 21 passenger trains
alone passing through Alderbury. There
was never a station at Alderbury, either on the main line or the branch line,
although there was a small ‘halt’ on the main line for railway employees and
their families to board trains for Salisbury. However an Alderbury resident
had the distinction of being the first passenger. The line had been constructed
from Romsey as far as Alderbury and the railway’s chief engineer, accompanied
by the contractors, boarded an inspection train at Romsey for Alderbury where
the official party adjourned to Phillip’s Hotel for lunch. (this hotel has
not been identified at the present time but does not appear to have been
either the Green Dragon or the Three Crowns as both held those names prior to
1846). Mr. Buckell, a Salisbury dental surgeon who lived in Alderbury, had
been treating some patients in Romsey and managed to get a ride on this
train. The Salisbury Journal also records that for the return journey some
Alderbury residents begged an ‘experimental trip’ as far as Grimstead.
Reluctantly this was agreed to but to their dismay the train did not stop at
Grimstead, continuing to Romsey where the unfortunates were left to plod the
eight miles back to Alderbury, the victims of what the Journal later
described as a ‘droll practical joke’. In
1866 Salisbury and Dorset Junction Company opened a branch line from Alderbury
to West Moors. This joined the Castleman Line, named after a Wimborne
solicitor who promoted it, and dubbed the ‘corkscrew’. The Alderbury to West
Moors link made it possible for passengers to travel from London to
Dorchester and Weymouth via Salisbury, cutting out Southampton. Furthermore,
it was expected that imported goods from Poole would be transferred inland;
people from the hinterland south of Salisbury with their produce would use it
to reach the market, and watering places on the south coast would become
accessible to more people. There were four trains each day but only third
class carriages were available between Wimborne and Salisbury. Was this some
comment on those who used the line? The
branch was closed on 4 May 1964, at the time when Dr Beeching was closing
many rural lines. The alignment of the junction had been altered in 1943 and
the junction was removed altogether in August 1970. The signal box to the
south-east of the junction was closed four months later. The abandoned line to
West Moors crossed part of the old canal near the village school in Firs
Road, crossed the road by a bridge near the present post office, then ran
between Matrons College Farm and The Three Crowns on its way to Downton. It
can be seen as a white chalk scar when looking west from Witherington Down.
The route used today to reach Southampton by train from Salisbury is the same
as that which brought the first trains to Salisbury in 1847. You can read more about
the West Moors branch line in: Woods,
T. (2005). The Branch that Served Three Counties – West Moors Branch. Railway
Bylines, Volume 10, issue 10, pp470-483. |
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Alderbury Junction (courtesy Edwin Wilmhurst) |
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Alderbury Junction (courtesy Edwin Wilmhurst) |
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© 2008
Alderbury & Whaddon Local History Research Group – See our privacy
statement |
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Dismantling the railway bridge at Whaddon |
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