I've been doing a bit cycling lately and I think I'm getting the hang of it, you
know the etiquette you deploy when you pass another cyclist back arched, look
serious but don't smile, do not under any circumstances
look out of breath, hold your head up high you are fit, you are not struggling
with the hill, you are the hill, you are a powerhouse... oh oh I
mean that's that's an electric bike right?
it was so an electric bike, it wasn't though was it, if it wasn't he looked
incredibly relaxed anyway anyway what are we doing today right so last
lockdown video and when we said lockdown we mean video that we have to make them
from their home, so how many abandoned stations can you cycle in one cycle trip
but you know you're not fit, no which is great which is why as a challenge so
here is our little town in Northwest Hampshire and it's got a nice mix of
abandoned railways which really got me thinking about how many stations you
could do in one day by bike let's say within a 10-kilometer circle you've got
ludgershalll Tidworth Weyhill Andover town clatford Fulletrton Bridge, Fullerton
junction, Wherwell, Longparish Hurstbourne Whitchurch Barton Stacey and
Sutton Scotney and stockbridge. That's 14 stations yeah it's not even just a round
circuit that's kind of all kind of higgledy-piggledy and left and right and
Rebecca is clearly right I've calculated that to complete a journey seeing all
those stations you're looking at a distance of around 102 kilometers
how about you go for ten, okay challenge accepted 10 out of 14 abandon stations
so the journey began and soon decided it would be wise to chip off the
two most westerly stations ludgershall and Tidworth but in order to get to my 10
I've decided I did need to go over to weyhill
Weyhilll station with the first station on the Midlands of South Western
Junction Railway. Although despite being late to the Railmania party had big
ambitions to join the north to the south the southern part of the line including Weyhhill opened in 1882 but it took a further decade to reach Cheltenham
that's extremely short view of a whole long draw out history of this railway
but you get the idea
so with Weyhill ticked off ahead itself to clap furred and a cluster of other
stations thereafter.
Clatford station sits on the Sprat and Winkle line or the less commonly known
name of the Andover and Redbridge railway and perhaps the more popular
known line of the town opened in 1865 clatford was your typical village stop
a signal box and a crossing for a Ford that no one used it's a beautiful area
here and if you look closely you'll find a few remnants of the old station
so now to try and cheat at Fullerton
you see in my opinion there were actually two stations here in 1865
Fullerton Bridge station was opened with the opening of the line but owing to
some potential competition from gwr London South Western Railway decided to
build a junction line here in the mid 1880s and connect the sprat and Winkle
line to the main line up at Hurstbourne to that end they both moved and renamed
Fullerton bridge to Fullerton junction in my book that counts is two stations
so with the branch from Fullerton up to Hurstbourne in mind it was now time to
tick off two more stations on that very line
because of the rivalry and circumstance London South Western Railway were trying
to persuade the Didcot Newbury and Southampton railway to use their Spratt
and Winkle line to reach Southampton both Wherwell and Longparish was built as
not insignificant stations with huge goods yards at some significant cost
in the end it wasn't enough you can't really see much of longParish these days
but there is a lovely view over the top of the Wherwell Station from the bridge
here
oh and I also found this embankment halfway between the two
so with longparishdone the legs were starting to burn a lot apparently it's
called bonking who knew that
so three different lines done and the legs were very much burning I didn't
want to try and get one more line and another station under my belt Barton Stacey
Halt was perfectly set sitting on the DNSR
built at a similar time to the Midlands and Southwestern junction railway it had
exactly its own vision of joining the north to the south ultimately as with
its rival it was never going to come to more than a village serving line closed
very close to the Beeching cuts
Barton Stacey Halt with a short-lived World War two Halt situated approximately
under the a303 on this farm track according to records
it was open for troops for less than a year and subsequently no one is a
hundred percent sure of its exact location
my guess is though it's almost exactly on the north side of the fair free so
I'm stood here just before this gate and I'm calling it a tick Times getting on
and Ihad two more this side of town that I could have done including Sutton Scottney
and Stockbridge but I can just about feel my own legs so it was time to head
for one last station back to Andover town
seeing around half a mile south of Andover junction, Andover town was the first
stop on this Spratt and Winkle line built in 1865 the line broke off at
Andover junction with a sweeping curve towards a town the station here like
many stations marked a dramatic change in the lives of its inhabitants a two day
long barge trip to Southampton turned overnight into a two-hour train trip.
so out of the possible 14 how many did you do? I did *cough.
okay I only managed eight so just over half no it's better than nothing it's better
nothing it was a bit ambitious to do 14 to do tend to be fair yeah anyway it was
a good cycle out and well I got to to see a local old infrastructure and
some new bits are not seen before exactly right
good news we are now able to get on our car sensibly so yeah we are back on the
road and we have already filmed a few outside videos where we've gone to
explore places so fingers crossed this is the last
lockdown video where we can explore locally so join us next week for a new
adventure now on about put in every disused station right yes it could even
be one that we kind of lost and then briefing yeah long story
join us next week anyway thanks for watching as ever we'll see you next time.
it's you I'm sorry you know I think it's fine
do you ever take a pipe like that was just guide me like me oh I know yeah he