Here we go, my name is Rebecca, no wait, my name is, your name is Paul, I am Rebecca
Railways canals old Roman roads anything where there's a route involved speaking of
roots we're back at our roots today we're doing an old abandoned Railway oh yeah and we've got
a court Cafe you today speaking of corks we're doing the Castleman Corkscrew Castleman Trail so
welcome to every disused station who knows what episode who cares what episode we're starting
today our journey just north of Paul actually on the spot where a Broadstone station was in
the Somerset in Dorset line we're branching off with one of the earliest Railways in the country
and we're going to find out why exactly it was so bendy let's go so this is all the
start of our journey Broadstone station as I said probably I think built for the Somerset in Dorset
maybe 35 years after our line today was built nevertheless it's the start of today's journey
and all this just here where the sports centre and their library is now I think was part of
this uh station there's a few lovely pictures here because it was quite a big Junction in its heyday
what's up we've headed north now a few miles and we're at the first stop on
this line wimborne now we're just trying to navigate our way through an embankment
the river stour is just there so we assume there would have been a huge
Viaduct or something significant there but there isn't any more we've just got
100 yards or so to go and we've climbed up this embankment because it's here so why not
ah opens up a bit now right so 100 ahead of us was wimborne now like Broadstone that
acted as a junction and an interchange uh when the summer setting Dorset came along
lost Rebecca so again like Broadstone it was a significant station and we'll come
to that shortly and we'll also start asking the question of why this line was so bendy
they're just ahead of us it looks like the site of wimble station is now an industrial estate
but we've still seen a few little bits to the south of wimborne on the floor some ground frame
I think for signals and bits like that so it hasn't been a wasted Journey on this embankment
so we're slowly heading towards the good stuff and I had good stuff I mean a bit more Scenic
a bit more rural bit prettier yeah I mean look where we are now we're just approaching Ashley
Heath which is pretty cool now we can start to think about the story of why this Railway a bent
so much and why I love it so much and we've been meaning to do it for a very long time I don't know
why we haven't really ticked it off because it has such an important story in the development of the
Railway you see the first Railway in this area was the London and Southampton Railway built 1839 1840
by London and Southampton Railway company now within a year or so they changed their name to
London and South Western Railway highly likely to mark their desire to to grab a bigger territory
and be a big player in this new fangled Railway scheme now a man called Castleman who lived back
in wimble he was a solicitor and he did something extremely clever I'll come to that just after the
next stop here which I can see ahead of me look at this Rebecca this is Ashley Heath Holt okay
Heath wasn't expecting this love this as we always say when there's a little bit of the
community have come together and somehow oh well they did at one point make an effort
to recognize the heritage in the area actually keep hope sign uh you know Railway sign there
it's a hefty halt it's a hefty halt just doing a bit of TLC I guess it's coming
up to the main road I think we're across the main road and carry on the castle on the trail
just left Ashley Heath an emerging Town hence the need apparently to put a halt in in 1927.
so Castleman gathered a team to propose a route now as a solicitor and not a railway
company that seems quite bizarre but I guess if he for what the better word patented that route
or sold the idea of that route he could get on board and maybe get some shares or profits from
the line so he did just that and he gathered a man in particular called William Moorsom,
Moorsom had worked on the London and Birmingham Railway sort of about eight
or nine years prior to this and they came up with a route but they needed to do something
else they couldn't just sit and go hey here's a route they needed the backing of
a significant company so he approached London Southwestern Railway as his next move foreign
behind we didn't stop at Ringwood we've been there before we've ticked off but now we're
on to the bit that we've really been Keen to walk along we're coming up to Holmes I think which is a
nice little tea room so we might be able to grab ourselves a cheeky sandwich a bit peckish good
right that's coming up getting back on the history Castleman approached London Southwestern Railway
as we've discussed with this wonderful route have them get down to Exeter all planned all drawn out
for them they didn't need to do any work they said no they said well we're going we're going
bar Salisbury this prosperous town of Salisbury business on the way Carson was a bit guide because
you can think of all the time and effort that he had invested and the money he probably paid
the other people in his little uh little group and um he did something exceptionally clever
he approached gwr now they bit his hand off as you can imagine gwr all of a sudden on their
table lay this route that would take them to Southampton London South Western Railways now
Hometown London Southwestern Railway proposed another a separate route and it was seen as a
dirty tactic by locals and uh one that wasn't really gonna persuade anybody this was for the
good of the Town folk so it went to Parliament and on that same day I don't mind this is very
early Railway Mania on the same day there are 258 other Railways proposed the railway
board the Board of Trade all were deciding which routes would be picked they didn't
want too many roots in the same area and it was approved just like that it was approved
Castleman very happy gwr extremely happy but there was one drawback when this was approved
it was actually done so with the backing that and the Proviso that castleman's route would be
taken up by London Southwestern Railway not by gwr now how that came to uh conclusion I have no idea
but ironically castman got his original wish that route would be run by London Southwestern Railway
question number one what's for lunch oh something tasty yeah holmesley's just
like a half a mile ahead if that question number two um oh this is clamber up why was
this Railway so bendy especially through the New Forest we still haven't addressed
that yet but we will do very shortly but have a look at this little Brook down there it's all
lined by sleepers so I guess that's post post Royal maybe they did that during the railways
we're almost to homsley um and that's all for lunch yeah foreign
number two Ray, Ray don't advertise your YouTube channel by sticking stickers on
places around the New Forest dude I'm sure your channel is great your content's great
made a talk for yourself on YouTube you don't need to litter everywhere my man
so holmsley was tasty oh my goodness wasn't it not just like a nice disused station it's
now obviously a tea room but it is really well organized I mean I'm five stars right for me
oh definitely well recommended organized Quick Service lovely food so you know I don't want
to feel like we're coming across like an advert for the tea rooms there but oh my goodness yes
go there so we're now almost towards the the the brockenhurst junction where at one point in time
there were three Junctions one down to Lindhurst uh no Limington the main line that is there now
which would have been the ultimate demise of this Railway so come the Victorian era everybody did
indeed start wanting to go to the beach and a line I think Bournemouth East station was open and that
connected uh brockenhurst ahead of us down the South Coast now there's a lot more complications
in history to this line and you can read up on it forever but it's not really for a YouTube video
what is for a YouTube video however is this gorgeous thing behind us big skew Arch Bridge
which carries a road over at the moment lovely brickwork underneath it's even got
this wonderful little um other arches which I don't know what they're for I can't really tell
other than maybe it's just for astruction maybe it's for the Integrity of the the the
bridge over the large cutting or perhaps even for cattle and that sort of thing which makes
sense we'll come to cattle shortly because that's potentially part reason why this line
is so bendy and got the coin the nickname The Corkscrew or the castle and corkscrew
another up there Rebecca look on the other side oh and bright sunshine
if you have a look at the current road alignment for the M27 it goes from Southampton broadly down
to Bournemouth and winborne and that sort of area it kind of goes in a straight line more or less
now as the original intended route for the railway however on the the final plan stuff I thought was
being built I believe the Commissioners for the forest and the woods stepped in and said
well this can't go anywhere near Lyndhurst I guess Lyndhurst's very historic town lots of
history and they didn't want the railway one of these new Fandango Railways anywhere near it so
the route had to head very south and cause some huge bends now I think it had already
been dubbed the corkscrewed well before then but nevertheless this really cemented in that
nickname which stuck forever uh 180 years later we're still talking about the Castleman corkscrew
so Castleman did get his wish of joining Southampton down to Dorchester via his
Castleman route so we've been Paul and Rebecca we've been exploring
cartoon Corkscrew as another train leaves this station towards the west
and Bournemouth and we hope you enjoyed this little Adventure back next week with
another one very similar if you like this we'd love you to hit the like button and consider
subscribing if you would make us very happy yeah and we'll see you this time next week
perfect walk past I say perfect it might be rubbish
just there okay
oh don't go out thanks everybody no outtakes foreign