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51 Local History

from New Milton Mail June 2021

by Prince Publications

from New Milton Mail June 2021, page 56

Local Groups

Local History

Brockenhurst to Christchurch

Now, I love my railways. One regret during the pandemic has been my inability to take to the tracks. In normal times, I write for the railway press, which includes sampling interesting routes ‘a la’ Michael Portillo (minus outlandish costumes), then reporting on them. It’s a nice way to earn a living. Even today, with the railways slightly less genteel than formerly, it’s a mode of travel knocking spots off automotive hades. Thanks to railway bogeyman Dr. Beeching, we’re not as well blessed locally as we were, having lost many of our routes in the 1960s, including the first one to cross the New Forest, a line from Brockenhurst north-west to Holmsley (formerly Christchurch Road) and Ringwood, a portion of ‘Castleman’s Corkscrew’ as it became known, which opened in June 1847. Christchurch Road was the nearest railhead for the Priory town until Christchurch got its first town centre station in 1862, which prompted its renaming as ‘Holmsley’ . The whole of that first line closed to passengers in May 1964

The Railway Hotel in Ringwood, a reminder of the town’s lost station.

One of the developments that undoubtedly contributed to the closure of the circuitous B r o c k e n h u r s t - R i n g w o o d Wimborne route was the opening of another, later line west from Brockenhurst, the southern, ‘coastal’ route through Sway, New Milton and Hinton Admiral, which opened through to Christchurch and beyond in March 1888. The irony was this being the ‘new kid on the block’ as far as local railways were concerned, yet seeing off the earlier, established competition.

444027 at Brockenhurst’s Platform 1 with a Lymington branch train far right on Platform 4.

Brockenhurst was a busy junction with the Ringwood and Sway lines, plus the Lymington branch, which opened in July 1858, so predating the Sway line by around 30 years. Movie aficionados might be interested to know that a 1974 remake of ‘Brief Encounter’ was shot at Brockenhurst. It starred Richard Burton and Sophia Loren. I’m heading down the ‘new’ route, so it’s next stop Sway, which opened with the line in March 1888.

Sway station.

Between 1956 and 1967 there was a camping coach here (two of them from 1959), the holiday destination of choice for folk maybe heading here from Waterloo and provincial stations further afield with their luggage, intent on a bit of kip and self-catering in a converted rail carriage while express trains thundered through. It seems a very British kind of holiday. New Milton (again, March 1888) could have been named, well, almost anything. It seems ‘Milton’ was favoured, except there were other Miltons in the country (confusing), so ‘Barton’ was posited as an alternative, except for other Bartons (same problem), eventually leading to ‘New Milton’ being adopted when a new sub post office opened with that name.

New Milton station viewed from the footbridge.

Hinton Admiral opened as plain ‘Hinton’ (March 1888) before becoming the extravagant ‘Hinton Admiral for Highcliffe-onSea’ (May 1888), then today’s ‘Hinton Admiral’ at some mists of time moment.

Hinton Admiral station.

It’s funny the station is called that as there’s no place called Hinton Admiral as such, but there is the Grade I listed, early-18th century Hinton Admiral House it shares its name with. None of this is surprising as there is some odd nomenclature on the UK rail network, including stations named from pubs. Hinton had its camping coach too, briefly before WW2, and then again from 1954 to ’65. According to my records, today’s Christchurch station opened earlier than the others on the Sway line, in May 1886. How come? Well, because the railway had already arrived in Christchurch, courtesy of the light railway that opened between Ringwood and the town in 1862 (prompting the renaming of Christchurch Road to Holmsley). The 1862 station was t’other side of Bargates from today’s. In 1870, this line was extended on to Bournemouth, crossing Bargates via a level crossing (thank goodness that’s not the case today!)

Back in the days of South West Trains 444005 at Christchurch’s Platform 1 with a train bound for London Waterloo.

The new station (today’s) opened in 1886, in readiness for receiving the line from Sway, which duly arrived in 1888 turning Christchurch into a small junction (until the 1930s when the line to Ringwood was closed). The Bargates level crossing was replaced by today’s roadbridge (thank goodness), along with further bridge works to cross the Avon, all in readiness for the line’s opening. On 19th May 2012, a day of celebration was held at Christchurch station, including a mayoral visit (by train obviously) to celebrate 150 years of Christchurch station. You needed to be on the ball though. What was being celebrated was a century and a half since the first town centre station opened, not the current one, which remains resolutely 1880s. It has some nice late-Victorian features though including a ‘VR’ letterbox by the main entrance.

The entrance at Christchurch station. The letter box to the right of the door is Victorian

Take care & stay safe folks. Steve Roberts Steve Roberts’ first book, ‘Lesser Known Christchurch’ , was published in August 2015, by Dorset book specialist Roving Press. His second book, ‘Lesser Known Bournemouth’ , was published in November 2019. For more information visit the publisher’s website www. rovingpress.co.uk or the author’s website www.steveroberts.org.uk (Twitter: @SRChristchurch)

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