Railways & Rivalries

Ok, so possibly 99 out of 100 people will find this pretty boring, but I'll share it anyway just in case the 1% lurks among us!

Being originally from Eastleigh (now living in a PO postcode, but Stubbington's a nice place - honest!) and having a family who pretty much originate from there and Southampton, it was likely in the event that I was the focus in an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?", that you'd have quite a lot of railway-based history. And you would - generations of my family have worked on the railways in and around Eastleigh and Southampton.

I'm not much of a train buff myself. I enjoy the Watercress Line and all that, but I couldn't tell the difference between different steam engines. Apart from Mallard. Oddly, however, I quite like disused railways, and tracing old routes that no longer exist. I quite enjoy local history and changing landscapes, so it probably stems from that. And the railway links, of course.

So, potentially mind-numbingly boring fact no.1 - Rivalry:

We're back in 1834. Some top hat-adorned gentlemen formed the London & Southampton Railway Company, one of the intentions of which was to build a network of railways around the Solent. They'd opened the main route from London to Southampton in 1840, and it was a roaring success. They wanted to build railways in the area quicker than their rivals would get a chance to, so formed plans to cover the south in their tracks.

One of the most obvious routes here would be to link the two biggest cities (may have been towns back then, I'm not sure) together. Southampton (because they'd just built a railway into it anyway), and the hive of scum and villainy on the opposite side of the harbour which faces Gosport. A station was built at Eastleigh (then Bishopstoke Junction, as the town Eastleigh didn't really come about until the railway moved in), and the line was constructed south-east through Botley towards Fareham.

The site of Fareham station seems a bit daft, if you're looking at Google Maps, because the track comes out and immediately has to turn sharply left to begin to head around Porchester Harbour. Would've made sense to position Fareham's station further north, making the route to Portsmouth more direct.

Only, it was never going to go to Portsmouth. Why? Because Portsmouth's residents didn't want a railway company whose name included 'Southampton' heading into Portsmouth. So, the decision was made to take the line to Gosport (which Portsmouth still referred to as 'their' station, despite having to use a boat to get to it because of their pettiness) instead and the line was completed in 1841. That's why if you look at Google Maps, the route naturally flows into Gosport, and the Portsmouth bit looks like an afterthought. It only got extended to Portsmouth in 1848, just after the London & South-Western Railway name was adopted, and 'Southampton' was dropped from the company's title. The extension along the water through Swanwick, Sholing, Woolston etc came even later, in 1889.

So, around 45 years before the young men of St Marys church began kicking pigs bladders around, the rivalry was very much there!

Potentially mind-numbingly boring fact no.2 - A Small Valley:

So, the L&SWR had a monopoly on the area. They were building railways at a rate of knots, even to complete ****holes like......well. They were knocking them together quicker than anyone else could get a chance to challenge them, and it was working.

That didn't stop another band of top-hatted gentlemen deciding they could get in on the act, though. The fact that a network was already in place was irrelevant in the name of competition! And so, in 1873, and act of Parliament was passed that allowed the gentlemen to get their shovels out, and begin building the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway. They'd had ideas about doing this almost immediately after the L&SWR had formed their network out of London to the South, but hadn't managed to get their ideas approved until the '70s. The 1870's, that is.

So, plans afoot, they cracked on. They begin constructing a line out of Didcot, through Newbury and down towards Southampton. 'The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway' name, then, was quite a good one. The line would go south through Newbury, Whitchurch, Winchester (a second station, not Winchester's main station as that was L&SWR), Twyford, Allbrook (where it would cross over the normal route still there today), Chandlers Ford, cross through Lordswood and through the sports centre site all the way through the edge of Shirley before heading up an embankment in Hill Lane. The Southampton station would be of a pier-type, and be located roughly where Mayflower terminal is now.

It didn't get that far. The line was opened in 1882 as far as Newbury, and then extended through to Winchester (Cheesehill - now Chesil) in 1885. The Chesil Street multi-story car park now occupies the site of the station, and the tunnel that served it is still there. The council use it to store wheelie bins!

However, money had now run out. Nobody was using the new railway, as it didn't actually go any further than Winchester, and if more people used the regular L&SWR line through Winchester city centre, the fares could be lower as a result. Thus, the DNSR couldn't compete.

Didn't stop them trying though. They bought a load of land in the Milton Road & Hill Lane areas, and knocked down houses that stood in the way of the proposed route. They built the embankment in Hill Lane (still there today) and had every intention of following their dreams.

Having spent £100,000 already in the Southampton area (Winchester council invested £15,000, and Southampton £70,000!) the company ran out of money. The existing line was struggling for the aforementioned reasons, and in the end a deal was struck to connect the DNSR line to the main L&SWR line just south of Winchester, north of Twyford. Great Western Engines would actually run the line with their coaches etc, but weren't allowed south of the near connection at Hockley as L&SWR didn't want GWR engines on their laaaaaaaaaaand. So, they used to disconnect before venturing onto L&SWR tracks, which, they accessed by a viaduct. The Hockley viaduct, was the last piece of the railway built, and you've probably seen it quite a few times already, just next to the M27.

So why's this relevant to Saints? Well, all the land in Southampton that had been purchased for the new railway was flogged off in the late 1800's, to try and recoup some of the lost investments.

One of the pieces of cleared land, was in a small dell, and was purchased by a recently formed football club, who moved in in 1898.

Very interesting, many thanks for this.

Incidentally, the station name of Bishopstoke was changed to Eastleigh because it had been causing confusion with Basingstoke.

A bit more detail on the route from Wikipedia:

"Deposited plans held by Hampshire record office show that the route was planned to run south from Winchester through Twyford, Allbrook (where it was shown to cross the LSWR main line at Allbook Lock), Chandlers Ford (crossing the LSWR Salisbury line to the west of Oakmount Road), pass under the current Leigh Road / Bournemouth Road junction, climb to a tunnel near the current Chilworth Arms Public House, descend through Lordswood and the current Sports Centre area to traverse the east side of Dale Valley, swing south east under The current Winchester Road, pass through the site now occupied by Shirley Junior School, run to the south west of the current Wilton Road before crossing to the east side of Hill Lane and heading south towards the intended bridge over the LSWR.

This final stretch is the area in which work commenced and the location of the surviving embankment, part of the land upon which preparatory clearance and culvert work was undertaken later became The Dell (Southampton) football ground between Archers Road and Milton Road north of the unused embankment.[12]

The main passenger station was to be at Bargate Street, reached by a bridge over the LSWR Southampton to Dorchester railway, and this area was to be widened throughout its length with considerable reclamation work and a sea wall built alongside the Central station (at this time the LSWR Southampton West station was somewhat east of the present Central station position).[13]

Intermediate stations were to have been provided on the route and a story grew up that the St James' Park, Southampton site in Shirley was excavated for this purpose, often repeated in local books.[12][14] Deposited plans, however, show the park site already existed within the surrounding road layout and was not part of the planned route, which ran to the north east of St James Church; its current sunken appearance was caused by later gravel extraction.[15] There are Didcot, Newbury and Stratton (formerly Station) Roads to the south of this park. Station Road did contain a Police Station at one time.[16]

The only physical remnant of the project in Southampton is the tree covered embankment hidden behind current properties east of Hill Lane between Milton Road and Commercial Road. The deposited plans for the route through Southampton[15] and current land levels suggest this was also the location of the viaduct work described by Sands.[11] A photograph described as illustrating the part built viaduct appears in the book An illustrated history of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway."

The disused tunnel at Winchester is occasionally open to the public. As you say, it's now used for storage and they don't allow you to explore the whole length.

Where's the embankment on Hill Lane then?

Edit: that has just been posted!

The disused tunnel at Winchester is occasionally open to the public. As you say, it's now used for storage and they don't allow you to explore the whole length.

Used to store Wheelie Bins.

The exit of the Tunnel towards Winnall has a more interesting purpose though. It's home to Itchen Valley Shooting club! They use the tunnel as a firing range.

Used to store Wheelie Bins.

 

The exit of the Tunnel towards Winnall has a more interesting purpose though. It's home to Itchen Valley Shooting club! They use the tunnel as a firing range.

Didn't know that, cheers!

Found some pics on the DNSR here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91463401@N08/sets/72157667823506732/with/26800669321/

Didn't know that, cheers!

 

Found some pics on the DNSR here:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91463401@N08/sets/72157667823506732/with/26800669321/

Excellent! Use some of the old line as a walking/jogging route around Kings Worthy/Worthy Down. Thanks for sharing.

A station was built at Eastleigh (then Bishopstoke Junction, as the town Eastleigh didn't really come about until the railway moved in)

Amazing how often that happened. The large village I live in didnt exist until the railway line was built. The licence to build the line from London to Brighton stipulated there should be a set number of stations. The fields near where I live were very chalky and full big tough tussocks of grass and empty - so cheap. The ideal place to build your contractual station. The town / village built up around it after.

Amazing how often that happened. The large village I live in didnt exist until the railway line was built. The licence to build the line from London to Brighton stipulated there should be a set number of stations. The fields near where I live were very chalky and full big tough tussocks of grass and empty - so cheap. The ideal place to build your contractual station. The town / village built up around it after.

The railways were a MASSIVE deal. They changed so much about the way people lived their lives, not just the way they got to work. Utterly fascinating when you get into it.

The fact that we wouldn't have had The Dell if it weren't for the railways is just a tiny piece of a much bigger jigsaw!

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That is interesting! Cheers.

 

Where's the embankment on Hill Lane then?

 

Edit: that has just been posted!

To walk off the post-Xmas excess, I had a stroll down to have a look.

There's a path off Wilton Avenue just before the junction with Milton Road which comes out in Sandhurst Road. The embankment is still quite visible but there's not a lot of it.

Excellent! Use some of the old line as a walking/jogging route around Kings Worthy/Worthy Down. Thanks for sharing.

4 photos of bridges and/or old train line paths from my old walk from the Park and Ride to work in that lot.