The Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth railway
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- This time Ross and I follow the path of the old railway line that ran between Ringwood and Christchurch, and then on to Bournemouth. We look at the history of the line and what's left today.
My mother was from Ringwood, and father came from Bournemouth. We lived at Ensbury Park from 1948 to 1957. We used to use the train from Ringwood in the summer, as my grandmother lived in Westbury Road. These were “Railway Runabout Tickets “ which were valid west of Brockenhurst (including Lymington) to Swanage and Weymouth. So we traversed all the lines over a week. At Wool we walked to Lulworth Cove. On several trips the train from Ringwood used the line from Broadstone to Hamworthy Junction. Sadly the line to Christchurch had long closed, but my model railway based on Ringwood has trains still running via Hurn! It’s a “what if” layout, of course. My cousin still lives near West Street, Ringwood, and my youngest brother lived at Hurn Lane for a while. I could see my cousins property from your drone sequence. Thanks for a very interesting look back in history!
A great video, thank you for all of your hard work.
Hi , very interesting , thanks for another interesting video . 👍🚂🚞🚞🚞
Great video.. thanks for posting
Amazing video as always, fascinating the history all around us, keep up the excellent work 👏
Great video
Excellent video. I live close to the Railway pub so know the line well.
The old mineral lines in Purbeck are worth exploring if you haven't already done so. I've walked all three over them over the years.
Every day is a school day - I didn't know they existed! I think that's one I'd like to look at at some point.
When walking around the Matchams View area, my son and I did spot a couple of concrete posts with rounded tops like half of a sphere. I've seen similar ones around other former Southern Railway stations and I believe they were manufactured at the company's own concrete works at Exmouth Junction. If you walk the line east of Ringwood there are two crossing-keepers cottages now used as private homes. At the easternmost one you can still see the double tracks where they cross a narrow road at the former level crossing.
At the end of the road at Matchams View there are some brick-built buildings belonging to the Water Company. These were erected in the 1920s, some 10 years before the line closed. They can be easily seen from the A338 Link Road. I remember seeing a photo of a Christchurch or Bournemouth-bound train, headed by an Adams O2 tank engine, passing these buildings running along what is now the A338. Has anyone else seen it? It may well be in one of Leslie Oppitz's Railways Remembered books. It's not in the Oakfield Press 2-volume history of Castleman's Corkscrew by B L Jackson..
If you go into Upton country park, part of the castlemans is within it, with an impressive telegraph pole and p way hut. You can also head to the railings at the back of hamworthy lidl and get onto the bridge. It’s quite scary up there tho I must warn! It was cool to have actually got on it though even though I had to turn back due to safety issues!
I have a couple of bits from there including that bridge support strut that is shown in this video!
Very accomplished video. My grandfather George
Searle was Stationmaster at Ringwood from about 1943 - 1946, and my father occasionally traveled the line from Ringwood to Christchurch in the 1930s.
The WWII pillbox in the video is actually called a Section Post, and is recorded on the national database of WWII defensive structures. It was so called because it was designed to accommodate a large number of firing positions manned by a company of men called a section. It's the only one of its type in the area, where most pillboxes were simply small hexagonal structures. Ringwood railway station assumed quite some importance during the war as much in the way of war material passed through this little country station at the time.
very good
Thank you :)
First time I've come across your channel. I love anything connected with railways, new or old and found the content extremely interesting, especially that pub at Hurn. Thanks for your extensive research.
We used to go to the Avon Causeway lunchtimes at college (the Lansdowne) rather than the in town pubs. We all used to cram in my Vauxhall Viva HB and leg it down the spur road. Happy memories :)
Wasn't there an article on local news, meridian/coast to coast? some years back with Fred Dinage, reporting a railway group determined to reinstate this line??
Lol remember trying to cross bridges, one had huge gaps over river..back in 1979 (19 at time)
That's a while back - Fred Drainage! I think he's been on since Southern TV? There may well have been some interest, but unfortunately it's not been possible for many years as firstly the Avon Castle estate was built on top of the line. Secondly, a big chunk of it is now buried underneath the A338 northbound. It's a huge shame these old lines have gone never to return, so I think it's important to remember them, and thankfully there are quite a few TH-camrs doing this.
Some years ago the Association of Train Operating Companies compiled a list of lines in England that might be considered for re-opening. Ringwood to Brockenhurst came near the bottom of the list of around 40 lines. Re-opening a railway in England appears to be much more difficult than in Scotland or Wales.
Nice work guys. Funnily enough I rode this line a few months back after watching your video on (and riding) the Castleman Corkscrew. Where next?!
Thank you :)
Well, next up is the Southampton to Salisbury canal - Southampton leg. The Castleman is actually built on top of it through central Southampton to Redbridge. We did most of the filming when we had a sunny autumnal day a couple of weeks back, and I'm currently putting it together.
We are looking to do the rest of the Southampton to Salisbury canal next year, plus I think I'd like to do the Southampton to Andover canal / Spratt and Winkle line. But I've yet to look into that.
The other one I've started (filmed the intro and some town scenes) is the Bath to Bristol route that goes along the Kennet and Avon towpath through Bath and the old railway line into Bristol.
These are the current projects, but at some point something or other will hit us over the head as a "Must do" project.
Fogmens hut. They had small braziers to one side
You used to be able to see old railway fencing in the narrow strip between the Spur Road and Matchams Lane...I'm not sure if the former completely covered the old trackbed?
I wasn't really looking out for that TBH. But there are very few signs left. The bit between the Avon Causeway towards St Catherine's hill has some old fencing by what was the track though.
At 3:20 in the video! It was loose on the ground so I picked it up! Also got a couple of ceramic insulators from a collapsed pole on the large bridge near ringwood
It`s a bit late and i`m off to bed, but i`l make a comment later.
Most of the new forest is a no drone fly zone. I have no idea why, maybe because of the animals?
Did you say ‘kittens bum’ 🤪
Enjoyed this and feel more informed.
Not sure there is physically much left but perhaps you can do another video on the two small lines that were around lilliput/south western crescent (i think it was the Jennings clay quarry???) and the line that was around bourne valley (Guest avenue etc.).
Thanks :) I'm actually working on this right now! I'm doing a film about the Blue Lagoon / Salterns area and part of the film will be Ross and I exploring the route of this railway. It went from Salterns pier to the Pottery, and then to Parkstone station. I've ridden the route on my bike a couple of weeks ago to research that bit, and I'm now waiting for a good weekend day to film it. Currently I'm putting together some graphics for the project.