one of the earliest forms of transport that connected southampton to its inland neighbours
outside of course of the horse and car is situated right here beneath my feet and to see evidence
you can look just down here the endowment and red bridge canal was completed in 1794
all sorts of goods were carried north from southampton to andover with the ultimate goal
that it would connect to a network of canals planned all over the country
that of course never happened and when the railways came they pretty much built the
andover to red bridge line on the exact canal alignment so much so the little remains of the
canal today there's only a couple of sections you can see one of which is here and of course
the other is closer to the southampton adjacent to romsey here now we're supposed to be talking
about railways so let's head on into southampton and have a look at some quirky railway facts
this is a very grand london and southampton railway station built in 1839 later they were
named london southwestern railway as we know which gave you an indication of their grounded
designs now you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was the first station in southampton and
of course the area but it wasn't to see that we need to head a little bit further north
so this little embankment here takes us up to the point where the railway line crosses northern road
just across from the current football ground saint mary's back when the railway was first
built here there was a sticking point between the railway company and the northern bridge company
the northern bridge company held one of only two routes across the itchin to woolston so when it
was deemed in 1839 that railway was going to go straight across their route leading up to
the bridge they were not best pleased for a short period of time this meant that the railway company
couldn't use their grand station to the south and instead had to set up a temporary station here
just to the north of this site a level crossing was planned here but the northern bridge company
didn't agree eventually they got their own way and the railway company had to install a road bridge
in the 1870s tramways as a means of public transport were becoming fashionable and
southampton with its increasing population set up the southampton tramways company
in late 1800s things were about to get electric southampton corporation company took over the
running of the trams and made provisions for electric trams all over southampton
one of the first was here in shirley and there was a depot servicing these trams
just behind the camera now and settled close next to carlisle road one of the tram's biggest issues
was travelling between the high street and above bar owing to this not only were the
trams designed with a rounded top to get through this but they were also lowered and the wheels
made the tad smaller this wasn't enough though and the southampton corporation started to buy
up buildings either side and knock them down by 1932 trams pass to the east of the bar gate
the wall here itself and its historical importance seemingly lost on them speaking of old walks
around this part of town there's quite a lot of the old walls to see now we think just the other
side of this wall here there's an old set of steps which lead down to canal level from the old bond
store so we did say this video wasn't about canals let's head off for one more sneaky canal treat
so that is southampton central station the train has just left the tunnel behind us
which goes under the top of town including the civic center now that was open in 1847 but it was
after some considerable delay because the tunnel kept on collapsing on the inside falling into
a canal tunnel was built around 50 years previous to that that was part
of the southampton and salisbury canal which we covered in another video you can watch just up
here so southampton central however didn't arrive until 50 years after the tunnel itself was bored
instead there was a station right here to the east as opposed to the line on the east of the city
connecting southampton up to london just seven years earlier this one on the west end connected
southampton with dorchester to the west i digress so the station opened here in 1847 actually opened
as bletchington and acted as a terminus for the line down to dorchester because of the collapses
in the tunnel and its progress so any locos that were used on this line had to be transported over
the top of town by road sadly though it became too small for its traffic and the site that now
stands at southampton central open to southampton west was purchased and built opening in 1895.
if you open up google maps you'll note that there is what looks like an innocent
looking hedge or tree line immediately to the north of southampton central station
a rule of thumb here is to always ask yourself if that could have been something more significant
and in this instance it certainly is so here is the embankment itself and you can walk right along
here in the rolls brook greenway it belonged to a company called the didcot newbury in southampton
railway the original intention was for the lion to head down from shirley and head over a bridge
immediately over southampton central out into the west key and bear east into bargay area where
there would have been another station for this line the plans included reclamation of 35 hectares
to incorporate this new line down to bargain there would be a huge cutting here for the
line at shirley now mud from that cutting was to be used as landfill down at west key
many people assumed that this natural cussing of st james's park was actually part of the planned
railway but it wasn't quite as exciting as that it's just a boring gravel extraction
however in 1901 it did form part of another planned route
so over on this side of the park there was another station planned that station
was for the southampton and winchester great junction railway have you ever heard of that
so much so that there was a road just up there called station road now called stratton road
and there's a couple of other roads just here called didcot road newbury road all because
that planned line had planned to take the same route as the dickhot newborn southampton railway
so this is almost as far as that line got before it ran out of money so there's an
embankment just there and then they were going to build this huge viaduct all the way down here
over the top of what is now southampton central station just down there out obviously into the
west key but they've run out of money and they only got as far as winchester now just back
up there is of course the spot where the dell football ground is now occupied by some flats
now the reason the dell gave rise to its birth there was because the area was cleared for a
good yard for this railway subsequently when this railway ran out of money they obviously
used it for the site of the football ground then the dell and of course here is the dell
i've sat there a number of times as a football fan watching obviously southampton football
club