#EveryDisusedStation #Gosport #Railway
Welcome to this weeks installment of abandoned and disused railways. You find us in Hampshire asking the question as to why, when you want to build a railway to Portsmouth, you instead build it to Gosport! In 1841.
Paul and Rebecca are attempting to visit Every Disused Station in the UK. Thats all 6800 of them. Join them on their adventures.
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This is wonderful. I moved away from the area 44 years ago but have so many memories of Gosport and Fareham. My grandmother and best friend lived in Gosport and I so often heard about the station there, viewing it a few times long after it had closed. Thanks for this video...I'll ensure I show my mother and I've subscribed to your channel.
I am amazed by the amount of railway abandonment that came to the UK in the 1950's. One of the things that interests me is the quality of the infrastructure on these lines but also the size as it all looks so small and quaint to my American eyes. The only place I can imagine seeing rail lines like these is in theme parks. It makes it that much more surprising that it was still in operation in the 1950's and 60's. It must have been quite a shock to see it disappear the way it did. Railways always seem like such permanent things. Hard to except their fragility.
Great to see my local towns. The G'Spot on the road was redone by the council after they realised the mistake. It went a few years back. It was at the Peel Common roundabout
8( Bureaucrats... no sense of humor
guess too many people found it for their liking
I too saw it and thought that it was the Peel Common roundabout!
We wish we'd known you were coming our way! Amanda and I live in one of the old railway cottages alongside the Stokes Bay Railway. We have a very interesting 1860s map of the line we could have shown you while having a freshly-ground coffee. We couldn't help noticing that you missed out Jackie Spencer's bridge - next time, perhaps? Cheers, Paul M.
I think I read somewhere that the reason Portsmouth didn't originally have a line was because they didn't want a breach in Hillsea Lines defences at the north end of Portsmouth island. This was subsequently allowed which is why a line now exists.u
I can't believe that you two where here! You must have walked past my house when you couldn't walk down where the buses go! I have lived in Gosport for 16 years and didn't realise that you could walk most of the old train route, but now I know I will go and look for myself! Thank you to both of you as this has made my Sunday!
And much of the bits that you can't walk, you can ride, on the busway that is built on the first 3 miles from Fareham.
@@iankemp1131 I've done the bus ride loads of times! but I didn't know about the platforms just passed the old station house! when it gets warner I'm off to have a look.
@@valfaulkner648 - At the point where pedestrians are disallowed, presumably one can bicycle?
@@gregtaylor6146 Yes you can! I keep saying I would love to either cycle or walk, but haven't yet! It's beautiful when you look down the old track!
@@valfaulkner648 - Many thanks Val, I'm obliged.
Thank you for exploring this one, I grew up in Gosport but now live in Australia, so its great to relive some old memories and see how places have changed.
When I was a kid Gosport full of old railway artifacts. That location at the 5 minute mark, here were sleepers in the ground everywhere you went. My mum remembers seeing little scorpions there which fell off the banana boxes the trains would bring in.
I used to live in Fareham and often drove past the derelict Gosport Station site. I thought back then that the magnificent façade and all the land would be a wonderful development opportunity. And you just showed me that someone else thought the same thing in about the last four years...
Keep watching, more videos to follow!
The railway wasnb't allowed to enter Portsmouth because of the fortifications at Hilsea (one of the Portsmouth Papers books covers this pretty well) After a while the War Office relented and the lines could be penetrated by the railway, who had to fund the drawbridge, cost of tunneling through Hilsea Lines and the defensive doors at each end of the tunnel. The line was jint LBSCR/LSWR. If you take the walk along the Lines quite a bit of this is still visible, the tunnel obviously, the place where the doos were and some of the mountings for the swing bridge, even though it is now fixed. Just the other side of the road at Gosport Station is a similar tunnel through Gosport Lines wich can be seen quite easily. The station did have an overall roof but wartime bombing put paid to that. There's more to see at Fareham where the line wnt towards Eastleigh with the old pre tunnel route and the Meon Valley junction and line.
I wonder when the whole thing about it being due to rivalry started. Was it assumed to be so by the residents in the very beginning, or did they only think about it afterwards?
Yeah the fourtifications are a problem
One of my earliest memories is of being in a pushchair at the level crossing at Fort Brockhurst station, waiting whilst a (steam) train passed by. Just down from the station the line passed the end of my aunties back garden.
I remember being told decades ago that the Stokes Bay line was laid to enable Queen Victoria to catch her vessel to the Isle of Wight and Osborne House without having to alight at a normal station and then drive to the sea terminal. (Keeping away from the hoi-poloi y'know')
Always thought that the powers that be missed a trick with a light rail / tram scheme that could have used much of these old rail routes - gosport is I think the largest town in the U.K. without a rail link. Great video 👍🏻
Agree - though they did actually put a proposal together but it lost its funding. The Admiralty didn't help - it included a submersible tube from Gosport to Portsmouth but they vetoed it because of the new aircraft carriers. Light rail/tram would have solved Gosport's problem that the station was half a mile from the harbour, again due to Admiralty reluctance in the 1840s to let it near the fortifications. That contributed to its original demise in 1953 - it was quicker to take the ferry to Portsmouth Harbour and hop on an electric train to London there.
I’ve been advocating this for at least 30 years that old beds should have been used for light railways or trams, the amount of millions£. wasted on surveying, ripping up and filling in these structures that are already there is incredulous to the local people who want a proper public transport system, when I see in my own lifetime the amount of tram systems ripped up in nearly every UK city and now the obscene amount of money being used reinstating the lines and as usual the taxpayers and ratepayers are paying for these policies, even scrapping the trolley buses was a short sighted idea as they are now installing battery buses but what do these urban planners care they are quite happy wasting money and time to secure their worthless jobs when everything was already in place, sorry for the rant but stupidly is high on my list of pet hates and local government and parliament are full of worthless idiotic people
There were railcars trialled on the gosport branch after closure but it didn’t save that line or any others.
@@highdownmartin Though they helped revitalise a fair number of lines, and definitely saved one - Witham to Braintree which was listed for closure by Beeching, received railbuses and the traffic grew so much that two-car dmus were needed and the line is now an electrified outer suburban route. Conversely, Witham to Maldon didn't gain much traffic and was closed - it would be useful now.
Interesting to go back and look at it. The busway could potentially be extended with the current cycleway shifted to one side in places, and the overbridges are all still in place, but there are a few places where new buildings have been put in the way and getting round Fort Brockhurst and Gosport stations is tricky. Reinstatement as heavy or light rail would have been reasonably OK up to about a mile from Gosport town centre, after which street running would be needed; the line really would need to reach the harbour and the Portsmouth ferries.
My uncle took me and my cousin to Gosport station when it was derelict in the late 70's. No fences to stop you looking around. Amazing place. I think the platform roof was partly burned down in the second world war.
It's a god job that you didn't find that G'spt joke! But it's lovely to find Gosport Station, Wouldn't mind visiting Gosport Station one day myself. Great Video Paul and Rebecca
Lovely walk to the fort etc xx liz ❤❤❤❤
first walked it in the 80s , that's where i have my track clip etc from :) which is next to me as i type... have not been back walking the line since it was converted into a busway. there were plans for trams etc etc across to Portsmouth, back up across and down ... If only ... such a shame that Gosport now looks like it does :(
My home town Gosport. My parents lived in Station Rd when I was born. I don't remember the house as we moved to Gilkicker when I was a baby.
This station was on cockleshell heroes xxx❤❤ we live in gosport and love it. queen victoria travelled by train to go to her pad osbourne house isle of wight. Xx stokes bay had a pier which has now gone.
I grew up in Fareham and on the Eastleigh line there was a small piece of track that came off the main line and rejoined further near Wickham, this land was filled in and our gardens of the whole street was extended. This was in Hetaher Gardends and from Highlands road you can follow the old path on foot under the motorway and up to near the old site of Knowle hospital.
Paul and Rebecca are the Burns and Allen of historical transportation locations, amazing chemistry and comedic timing that only a loving couple could give
“Say goodnight Rebecca”.
Ultimate pedantry - in Sussex you're always unsure whether places are by-sea or on-sea, but Lee is technically Lee-on-the-Solent. But plenty of people locally call it Lee-on-Solent.
Also , the Pompey / Southampton rivalry pre-dates the football clubs. Its all about the dockyards. You may want to investigate this further. Anyway , great vid and well done..from a Gosport resident 👍
I remember when the gosport station was derelict. Xx
Interesting video from the largest town in the UK without a railway station! I remember a few years ago there was talk of building a tram/light rail net work in Portsmouth with a tunnel to Gosport and then the line would run up the old trackbed of this line to Fareham.
Always liked Gosport, really interesting video
i used to love watching the trains from my Nans back garden Oakdene when i was a kid
Hey! How dare you come to my home town without popping by for a cuppa! Love your vids, amazing you were here.
Remember gosport station derelict in the 1970s. Great to see it repurposed and looking good. It took a long time to persuade the admiralty to allow the lines to be pierced.
That beginning 😊
Where youve walked is our local cycle track xx the black bridge. Gaffers its like being on holiday living here. Xxx❤❤❤❤ liz
When my dad lived at Gosport I would often walk or cycle along the course of the stokes bay line and go swimming in the sea! It passes a place called anglesea which is an uncompleted crescent like that at bath,!
I appreciate all the in-depth behind the scenes research that makes your videos informative and entertaining. Great work.
You missed the tracks and tunnel leading to Clarence Yard,in St George's barracks. Prince Albert had to get a law passed to have the tunnel built because it went through the defensive embankment of Gosport. The Station Masters house ,with its mysterious slot in the back wall for handing documents to the crew. You'll have to do a follow up. Love the videos by the way.
That Royal Victoria Gosport station screams "THIS IS A STATION" and adds in a little footnote (for Their Majesties of course as you already know...)
I know the area quite well. I think there was a branch off to the armaments stores also. Many thanks as always for your very interesting subject. Take care.
Fascinating line, which looks as if it might have made a great heritage ride had it survived!
Have always hoped you'd come to my town. Gutted to have missed you. Would have loved to bump into you.
My partner is from Gosport and he showed me the old station and where the line was. Really interesting to learn more from your video 😊
Lol, visual gags work fine too.
You need to visit Saltburn station in Cleveland. The line from the station used to go a short distance into the back of the former Zetland Hotel.
Thanks for this one. I spent 6 months at HMS Sultan (next to fort brockhurst) in 2006/2007 on the network rail apprenticeship scheme, brought back many happy memories
You mentioned the station (at 6:46) with a design you hadn't seen before. This looks like a transshipment point for two railroads of different gauges. This was used sometimes in the pre-Civil War American South. Tracks of the two different lines would be parallel, and freight could be cross-loaded between the cars directly using the inside doors and terminating freight offloaded to the warehouses on the outside doors. I don't know if that is the case with your station, but that is what immediately came to mind when I saw that station layout.
Great Stuff as always!! Thanks for giving up your time for the likes of Us, your dedicated followers.
Hilarious, especially the joke that wasn't. Funniest bit though was the "No Pedestrians" sign and saying you would have to find another way when you were standing right next to a bus-stop. 👍😂
Lovin your films. Helping me thru being bedridden & recovering from the flu. Knew about Elmore halt but not the Gomer & Browndown ones. Love being able to understand the historical landscape better when I dogwalk round there. Thanks for doin the research & making it fun. GB
The station did previously have a roof - two in fact but not at the same time! First one was bombed and destroyed in WW2 and the second erected afterwards and pretty-much lasted until the end of freight services (1969). The latter was largely just made-up of a basic steelwork design and not a patch on the original version which was more ornate. Funny enough, the station was a fortified structure given it's proximity to Portsmouth and use by the Royal Navy. Anyway, hope this helps and I look forward to more videos in the near future. And if you haven't been there before, try to visit Calshot. Although no railway-related stuff there, there's a huge old hanger which was used to build and store flying boats during and after WW2. It's a great building (now re-purposed for leisure use) but still worth a 'mooch'. Enjoy!
Excellent to see my local area. Many years ago, my friend and I walked the route from Brockhurst to Fareham when the track was still intact.
Would love to have seen that
I have a photo from maybe 2018 with the track all covered in snow from by the leisure centre
Absolutely fabulous vlog ❤️. Thank you. You both really work hard. Love your boundless enthusiasm. So entertaining. 🙏🙏👌🙌
The road crossing at Fort Brockhurst Station features in the 1955 film 'The Cockleshell Heroes'
I know Gosport because my Nanna and few of my cousins live in Gosport and I got a cousin who lives in Fareham. Such a shame that Gosport no longer has a railway line and railway station. And the A32 road travelling to and from Gosport is always as busy even in rush hour.
Another lovely video, Paul & Rebecca. Sadly, some gremlin seems to’ve gotten to you vid a misspelt Gosport as Gospprt. Know it couldn’t have been either of you! See you next week!
Welcome to my local area. I use alot of the roads / cycle lanes you've walked and showed to day. Plus I know where the appreviation is (bottom of Newgate lane east)
I literally used to live right near here! And I’ve got photos of from where there was old track until a couple of years ago when they ripped it up to extend the bus route
I also used to regularly run / cycle the exact route you walked! This was very weird to watch 🙈
Gosport Station is one of the most disused stations that I know of. Fantastic.
Wonderful video, thanks for sharing.
Also, if possible.. as my OCD is kicking off.. the writing about the stations in the video it shows Gospprt instead of Gosport in various places.
I noticed that too. (and ‘instead’ is just one word.😉)
Had you crossed the road opposite Gosport Station and continued a little bit further on towards Royal Victoria you would have seen some tracks in situ and evidence of the level crossing.
the crossing just before the Royal Engineers mews is in situ, as is a section of track across the road and it looks like the former goods branch into the harbor itself is still there but reused by utility companies
grand show
Well thanks
Born in Fareham, grew up in Hill Head, never thought I would see the area immortalised in you-tube!
Enjoyed this one. Gospprt.
1:20 - ‘Straight outa Fareham’ - wasn’t that an NWA album?
Amazing one.
Many years ago I used to sit in the parking bays overlooking Stokes Bay after dropping prisoners off at Haslar when it was a detention centre, we were always amazed at the number of foxes roaming around picking up food off the beach. (summertime)
Your love for each other keeps these videos very entertaining and pleasing.
I really enjoy your videos, and wish I had known you were coming to Gosport, I’d have joined you and shown you the bits you missed. If you had continued to follow the route of the railway past Gosport station, you would have seen the tunnel through the old town ramparts and some of the actual track of Queen Victoria’s private line as it approaches Royal Clarence Yard. You could also have seen the route of the track leading to her private station.
I remember a proposal for a new Portsmouth tram system with tunnel to Gosport be built by dropping segments into the water then connecting them up and pumping the water out. I wonder what happened to that, but don't try walking THAT route!!!
Great stuff as usual. I'm sure you know this but the London & Southampton railway originally terminated at Nine Elms/New convent garden not Waterloo. The line is pretty straight til there but bends around quite a bit to get to Waterloo as land had been sold off and they therefore could not continue straight on to the Waterloo site. (At Waterloo there is a very interesting war memorial at the main entrance/exit to all the railway workers who died in the great war. I bet most travellers never even notice it but I think it's quite poignant).
I live in gosport and if you had crossed the road by the station that's now houses and you mentioned kings and Queens had gone through the opposite side of the road behind bushed and a French is where the other private stop was
😂😂😂
Station house on military Road is my parents house 👀👀
This was a wonderful look at the disused railways of G'spot LOL. To have a abandon railway in your back garden is such a cool thing. Nothing like that in my country!
Many thanks!
The closest I can think to the treatment of Gosport station post axe was that of Wolverhampton Low Level where some attempt was made to preserve the station's historic façade whilst inserting modern housing elements. Also closing Gosport has always seemed like one of the more obvious mistakes of Beeching, as it was (is) quite a large town not to have a railway station.
Gosport Station closed to passenger traffic in 1953 - which is well pre-Beeching. It closed to remaining freight in 1969 - which is well post-Beeching...but never mind let's slag off the good Doctor again...everybody blames the Doctor and he's everybody's favourite scapegoat...really because all political parties opposed the cuts in opposition, yet implemented them in government...every party. So rather than blame every party and the politicians responsible, it's convenient to have a scapegoat, who, it must be recognised was appointed and empowered by a Tory Minister who owned a road building company, and ultimately fled abroad to Monaco to avoid the UK tax authorities...nothing shady there then... Incidentally, I'd love it if all the people who so readily bandy around the phrase "Beeching Cuts" were prepared to read the two Beeching Reports (Blue Book and Red Book) and their Addenda (they are most revealing) then follow up with "Off the Rails" the Richard Marsh book, which offers considerable insight into some of the subsequent politics...you'll find a story of successive governments on both sides quite happy to perform cuts( in the Doctor's name of course), but unprepared, until it was all too late, to put in (or in many cases even acknowledge the need for) the required accompanying investment.
I really don't like what they have done to Gosport Station. I went around it and took some photos years ago for a uni project and it was derelict but it's grandeur shone through. It looks a bit like a toytown station now, especially the half arches and lintel across the former track bed which is far from how it used to look.
@@cogidubnus1953 Plus Beeching strongly advocated and supported key improvements like Inter-City and Freightliner that helped establish the modern railway. Most (but not all) of the lines he axed would be of little use today. Some of the worst closures came after him in the 70s. Agree about "Off the Rails", a great book.
If you come back down here to do Lee On The Solent branch, you could also look at the branches to Frater and Priddys Hard.
Loved it 🙂 Thank you
Fab to see the whole line. We used to live very close to the station at Brockhurst. The line was made into a cycle way quite nearby. We didn't realise there were so many stations. There were lots of fragments of rails left in the early 300's when we were looking for a house. You could see them beside houses in the nearby estates. We were hoping they would put light rail back in , but instead chose a bus. It would be ridiculouly popular now with the trouble getting on and off Gosport at commuter times.
I never knew that! Another brilliant bit of discovery and history! 👍
From stokes Bay I think it went on to the olympia amusement arcade which was once a station in lee on Solent
Lee on THE Solent
This was part of Queen Victoria's preferred route to and from Osborne, Paul - hence the name of the station and pier inside Royal Clarence Yard. Much as he may have wanted to, the Prince Consort did not enjoy the title of king; therefore the only kings passing this way would have been the guests of Her Majesty, including those taking part in her funeral procession, as she made her final journey out of Gosport in January 1901. Osborne fell out of use after her death, and so did this Royal Route. Thanks for this reminder of my old stomping ground - I lived just behind the factory to the left of Leesland Crossing for over 11 years, from 1995. I can also remember seeing a train serving the RN Yard at Frater, incidentally - one of the last, I'm sure.
you walked right pass my house in alverstoke lol
Nice one Paul
Haven’t read so not sure if it has been said, I’m sure I read the Gosport station was bombed in the war and the roof caved in.
Thanks Paul and Rebecca. According to an excellent publication by Gosport Railway Society, there was no direct physical rail connection at Fort Brockhurst with the branch to Lee, except by complex reversing moves. There was also a proposed triangle junction to give direct access between Gosport and the Lee branch, but never built. If you ever come to north Herefordshire, give us a shout. Plenty to explore around here!
My neck of the woods, used to drive over the G'SPT every day but it got changed to GOSP'T - its at the bottom of Newgate lane on the roundabout.
Sad times.
I love these videos. Don't tell: The captions insist that it's Gospel, not Gosport. X-D
You walked past my parent's house on your way to the main Gosport station.
I have been to Stokes Bay from Gosport. Just another pommy gravel beach! As is most of those southern beaches.
That's what we locals loved about it. Kept people like you out wanting tacky food and other tacky totally unnecessary paraphernalia for freely enjoying natural surroundings unsullied by the reek of stale fish and chips and rubbish littering the joy of finding fascinating designs on stones and sea shells and the like.
Yeah, if you want south coast sand, go to Bournemouth, Weymouth or the Isle of Wight.
Lovely to see my home town....there were other lines in Gosport that ran to Priddys Hard RN Depot and Frater/Bedenham Depots
I've done a quite a bit of research on the Gosport branch. Portsmouth objected because they wanted to have a direct line from London, not be on a mere branch line from the London to Southampton railway (L&SR) line. The L&SR made a name change to LSWR but that did not placate Portsmouth! When the line was proposed to Gosport the Royal Ordnance Board got a clause written into the Railway Act that they had to agree the station design as it was being built just outside the military defences - Gosport was the Victualling Yard for the Royal Navy. The architect (Sir) William Tite and the LSWR had an almighty battle over the design. In the end they agreed not to make it too high (1 storey) and to incorporate defences within the station building (e.g. cover for riflemen). [Philip Eley did the research on this]. Ironically the publican of the nearby Railway Inn saw a business opportunity, leased some spare land from the railway and built a 3 storey hotel next to the station! [it was a guest house last time I looked] Also, ironic is that a few years after opening Prince Albert, on behalf of Queen Victoria, persuaded the Board to allow an extension railway through the ramparts to the Yard where Queen Victoria had her private station built. Apparently she hated the town's folk ogling her when taking a horse and carriage from the Station to the Yard to get her Royal Yacht to the Isle of Wight. In WW2 it got hit by an incendiary and burnt to the ground with just the walls remaining. It stood like that for about 50 years with various schemes proposed for the site. Hampshire Council bought it and proposed demolishing it for housing but it was listed. Eventually they held a competition to resurrect it for housing with the winner getting if for a £1 (I think). I think the developers have done a superb job. You should have gone to the west side and seen the magnificent colonnade in Portland stone. There is a Gosport Railway Society.
Council removed the G’SPT road marking pretty sharpish after they realised the joke. It was on the Newgate Lane Roundabout and was painted as part of the Peel Common Improvements project.
Just when I ran out of things to watch :)
Excellent
Loved how tell the history and show the places of old as much as you can. Can't wait untill next sunday!
The Objection mentioned was to do with the LSWR's previous name the London & Southampton Railway the People of Portsmouth objected because the Company had the Name "Southampton" in it's name hence why 1 of the main reasons the L&SR changed its to the "The London & South Western Railway" to alleviate the issue and because the issue was no longer there the LSWR could then build their line to Portsmouth! That's what I researched years ago
You missed the only part of the line with track which can be walked along (it's not long) and can be accessed from Weevil Lane, just a few minutes walk from the old Gosport station.
Wish i'd known you two were in the area, that's where i work, i'd have got you both a coffee... you missed a trick on the brockhurst road station house, opposite, on the cycle lane, is a still existing signalling pole with the insulators still intact :)
Brilliant and I was just down in Portsmouth.
A brilliant video as always. :)
Yes that was unusual and interesting thank you
What a great explore with an interesting story attached. Most enjoyable. You had a lovely day too for the walk. Thank you.