i'm not even sure why we need waders today but apparently i need waders today
oh yeah let's go
all right down pathway we should find a david
so another local story for us today and we're back on the tracks this is an old
railway that linked southampton to its north and uh yeah one we've been saving for quite a while
and we're back in lockdown now so perfect opportunity
although why we need waders on what was quite cheap built line i've no idea
all right so found david morning david good morning good morning um you know when you
go to a foreign country i like a like a bit of a dodgy foreign country you need a fixer
or today david is not only our local historian but he's also our fixer and um we'll explain why
in a minute although david still still hasn't explained why we need waders yet so we'll look
forward to that a little while perhaps i've um part one of two of david's fixing today
is got us permission to go in someone's back garden um where there was the old bridge we're
gonna see if there was parts of the old bridge in their garden the first garden of the day was
on the corner of watery lane where there used to be a road over bridge shown here by the national
library of scotland maps the bridge has long since gone and the road now completely flattened out
we did find a little bit of the old bridge here but unfortunately that's all we found apart from
of course this lovely bit of embankment in their garden which used to house the line so we headed
so whilst david counts the actual amount of arches because we're not sure it was 9 or 13
obviously david has got us permission to be in this person's garden which is great so we can now
walk along here and try and find the old alignment try and work out whether this bridge was part of
the first bit of the line when it was um 1865 or whether it's actually built for the doubling of
the line the dueling of the line um it's quite quite impressive um structure 13 13 david says
i never realized how impressive this was from underneath i know we've been under it once
three four years ago perhaps um but i didn't i've forgotten how impressive this structure really is
so before i get up on the um the signal because i think that's compulsory
um yeah is is a 13 arch bridge rare we think it is um i'm lucky for some i like it for some
just hugely i feel over engineered for what it is yeah the rest of the line was done on
the cheap they tried to avoid bridges and then they used level crossings wherever possible yeah
there was hardly an embankment on this line it was yeah as you say so
cheap there's a few iron bridges you know going over the rivers along the
way
so this is a distant signal which remains today
so distant signal i understand meant that there was another
important signal possibly a danger up ahead so this gave the drivers fair warning of that
clatford, paul's going to power on, we're going to pass it looks like we're going to power on
but it feels like we're powering well actually if we just watch the video from the side it would be
too old to old men waffling and yeah anyway so we're gonna head further south past clatford we're
gonna head towards fullerton um and see a couple of old remnants that we've again never seen before
before we go back and answer the question about the arch at rooksbury mill
we're halfway between goodworth clatfood and fullerton now i
guess because we know this line the sprout and winkle line was built with
very little budget we're not expecting to find a great deal but we note on there is a feature down
here worthy of our attention and we should do that as the last thing before we get our waders out
um well i assume that there might be a bridge here or something because on the map it shows
a crossing point but as ever with this railway it's just built on a budget so yeah again there'd
be a level crossing they wouldn't know i guess farm access crossings of some kind
all right so as far as south as we're going to go today we're now venturing back
through the mud and we're just right next to the sewage works as well so while i turn the camera on
now i don't know we're heading back now to where we're gonna have a look and try and decipher the
mystery of the article we found in the end of advertise from 1880 whatever they were going to
have to double the track and they were going to have to build another arch where was that arch
we got a couple of ideas go and join us in a second with a pair of waders at hand
so here we are back closer to andover now now previously we found an old article in the paper
from around 1885 when the line was doubled it made reference to an additional arch being put in
near rooksbury mill now this is the only bridge near rooksbury mill that we could find
so is there any evidence of that or any evidence at all of the line being doubled the navies were
engaged in constructing another arch right and our theory was this should be almost like a different
design if you will but it's actually it's the same design as the other side isn't it just saying what
if there's a break in the middle i mean we could get the waves out here come here david we're good
and have a quick peek in yeah because at least then we'd see if a there's a break in the middle
which would imply if it was a one of those beamed in the middle's beam construction if
there's almost like a gap or gap in the brickwork or if this is not the bridge they're talking about
do
the conclusion that we came to from this little scout in the river was that a lot
of the original 1865 features have sadly been lost and replaced completely when the line was doubled
so our theory was we were going to see a different brick this side or a gap in the
middle or something but we didn't did we yeah um so at least we've i said we have solved the
mystery at all have we we've just deepened the uh deepen the question but hey next time
well so that concludes our adventure today hope you've enjoyed the slightly more local
railway that we've um saved thankfully we've saved because we can now use and deploy such videos in
in lockdown um again sorry for the lack of rebecca again you have the glamorous david
um but he has done a lot of fixing for us today should we say
and obviously giving us his local historian aspect on such matters we will see you next
week
you