if you drew a straight line between southampton and london because you wanted to connect those
two cities you wouldn't head north up to winchester in fact there's plenty of other
towns and cities you'd go to first before you go north to winchester and basingstoke
to find out why that straight line was actually more of a
semi-circle join us on this week's secret railways adventure time to head to winchester
by the 11th of may 1840 the london southwestern railway line was completely open trains ran
between london and southampton an average speed of 42.9 miles per hour for a short period though this
wasn't the case and winchester acted as a terminus along this line the four tunnels here along the
stretch between winchester and basingstoke delayed the lines opening for about a year and even after
its opening they still caused issue switching to ground radar view for the south end of wallar's
ash tunnel shows a dip in the ground just here now interestingly this is the exact spot an
additional shaft needed to be dug out in order to repair and refill part of a roof collapse
it didn't go to plan and unfortunately four men were killed on further repairs in 1842
first of all though it'd be rude not to mention one of winchester's earliest forms of transport
other than the horse and cart
this was a 10.4 mile disused canal navigation system that joined winchester 2 southampton
it used a lot of the itching river to navigate its way through the landscape
but like this stretch here there were a lot of separate sections cut with various structures and
locks to control the water the navigation took an age to build between 16 65 and 1710 that's nearly
half a century of building and navigation and it did serve its purpose to a degree it could carry a
vast amount of weight compared to the usual horse and car but of course 1840 coming of the railways
really took over and by 1869 it ceased to operate and was there after abandoned
we did a video on this recently which you can click just up here and watch
speaking of canals and of course also railways and back to that question of winchester not being on
the straight line between southampton and london so come the end of the napoleonic wars anglo and
french relations weren't tip top and of course it would deemed a canal was required to avoid
the english channel so southampton to london would be that perfect route john rennie of
kenneth and even fame amongst other things decided that he could plan this route and
came up with a costing of seven million pounds so clearly that wasn't going to happen
but the route to join those two cities was very much still on the cards and the southampton
london and branch railway and dock company was born in 1831
so back to the original question why wasn't a straight line chosen
kingston alton and guildford could have all been utilized but they weren't instead winchester and
Basingstoke stoke were so why while the answer lies within the name of the company and more
specifically the word branch the proposal was to link basingstoke with newbury and
devises and of course onto bristol now with brunal and gwr already having plans underway
this was arguably why the company chose to disguise their name
now if you aren't into your railway history you may not have been aware
that winchester was served by two stations back in its heyday
the other would have been just underneath this multi-story car park winchester chisel
on the east side of winchester's main high street now you wouldn't have been alone
there because even many of the residents of the time weren't aware of this station's existence
it was built by the didcot newbury and southampton railway who wanted
to connect their namesakes and of course they wanted to build a viable route north to south
there's still a couple of remnants to see so let's head back downstairs
winchester chisel station provided much controversy as it was very small
when the company ran out of money they relied on the rivals of london southwestern railway and gwr
to run their trains for them but the winchester chisel was the meeting place and subsequently
this is where they had to swap engines so here we are a few levels lower and on the northern end
where the station would have been and more importantly where the tunnel was chisel tunnel
now rumor has it was 439 yards long in order for the navies to get paid a bonus
it had to be 440 yards long coincidence well they never thought so they went on strike
and the tunnel was re-measured at 441 yards long they got their bonus
right i'm heading south now from the station you can see the old bridge there which went over the
top of the south end from the multi-story car park a few more things to show you in this direction
bar field road and now we enter into a short tunnel uh which is now used by barfield road
but it was used for the didcot Newbury southampton railway as it headed south
so i've walked now about six or seven hundred yards south of the old chisel station and at last
i've come across this which is the old good ship for the didcot newbury and southampton
railway here at winchester now that really shows you how tightly packed things were back up there
that they had to have this beautiful old good shed so far south away from the station
it's currently used by a waste and recycling company although it doesn't look like much is
going on just to the back there would have been the alignment for the actual railway
and you can see a whole bunch of sleepers used as their wall
the Didcot newbury at southampton railway was always destined to fail gwr in london southwestern
railway the railway giants in this area at the time were never going to give up their stalemate
at winchester chisel station and why would they it was all about geography in those days
now that Didcot, Newbury and southampton railway ran out of money they could go no
further south than winchester but ultimately it was london southwestern railway that decided to
take on the southern bit of the route avoid the itching and going down into southampton and just
connect with their own main line just south of winchester but what that did give us was this
so we're just to the east of winchester now a couple of miles east and just up there in
the trees was quite possibly winchester's third railway station little known fact world war one
there was a four mile branch built by american servicemen and they had two
hundred and seventy thousand of them situated on camps all around in this area now that branch
weaved its way through the contours of the landscape and it peeled away
from that Didcot newbury and southampton railway we talked about earlier just to the north side of
the tunnel now there's one more thing i'd like to show you so come join me this way
so we're heading back the way we came now all beer on foot rather than on the rails
because there's one more thing i want to show you which involves
the coming together of three railways to the north of winchester
above us now is the main line but just across this field is something else quite spectacular
so what we're about to see really epitomizes for me why i love the the history of our landscape
and the human interaction with it but first of all before i show you that in the distance
just there is a kingsworthy junction worthy down junction and it has the main line going
through the center of it now you can probably hear a train just about to go across the bridge
to the east it had the alton branch line of the watercress lines and to the west
it had this which is the didcot newbury and southampton railway
now it didn't used to connect to the main line it used to go straight underneath and down into
chisel but coming in 1920s and grouping they did want to connect it to the main line so they built
a further embankment and what that meant was they had to build this beautiful double bridge
i hope you've enjoyed this little secrets of winchester's railways i'm willing to bet you
that wherever you live town village city there are many secrets to uncover we're going to be there
soon and probably make a video from there so from rebecca and i who has been behind the camera the
amazing rebecca and i amazing we'll bid you farewell and we'll see you at this time next week
you