The History of the Stokes Bay Railway Part 6
| Author: Peter Keat | Published: 15th June 2008 20:38 |
The History of the Stokes Bay Railway Part 6
The End of the line
However by the turn of the century the line had declined into a secondary route and as from 2nd October 1902 the service was suspended during the winter months opening up again in May for the summer season. During these summer months the route was still popular and through coaches from the midlands were often attached at Basingstoke and Eastleigh to the South Western's trains. By 1913 six services a day were run to Stokes Bay but the inevitable happened the journey time increased to three hours fifteen minutes, the same journey time as their rivals in Portsmouth.
Custom declined and soon the steamer service was reduced and ended completely at the end of the 1913 summer season, but strangely enough the train services carried on into 1914 and through to the winter timetable of that year. It would be interesting to know where the company thought they were going to get their passengers from as there had been no steamer services to the Isle of Wight for well over six months. No wonder receipts were low. The use of the pier was very limited but things were kept alive from 1913 onwards by the Royal Thames Yacht Club. Hiring the pavilion at the end of the pier and holding their annual regattas off the end of the pier
On October 30th 1915 the stations at Stokes Bay Pier and Gosport Road were closed to the public and during the wartime period the Admiralty used the pier and the end pavilion as a torpedo testing and research station. After the war in 1922 the admiralty purchased the pier and all the track bed back as far as Gosport Road Station from the South Western. There is evidence that for a time the section of line between the pier and Fort Road had a siding laid in and for a time gravel was extracted from the area but details of this are sketchy and by the time the line was sold this extraction had ceased many years before. In 1923 the London and South Western Railway was amalgamated into the Southern Railway and it is in that guise that in 1929 the up track was removed, retaining just the triangle at the junction with the Gosport line which for many years was used to turn locomotives. The down line section through Gosport Road Station was retained and used for a time to store carriages and wagons. The admiralty, in 1933, removed all the track from its section of the line. In 1934 the track through the station was lifted and in 1937 the area was sold to the local council for housing development. However, the Southern still retained the triangle at the north end of the line.
Carriages stored at Gosport Road station.
August 1960 saw the demolition of the arch at Clayhall Road :this undertaken by the Royal Engineers as an operational exercise. With regard to the pier and the pier station itself , the buildings were removed in the mid sixties and the decking also removed to stop vandalism and accidents. During the early 1970's most of superstructure of the pier was removed and again the Royal Engineers were offered opportunity for a contract for the demolition of the remaining support piers as another operational exercise. Several attempts were made using a variety of methods and explosive techniques and most of the remains were removed in 1974 although, even after several further attempts, at a very low tide traces of the supports can still be seen.
In its heyday the pier station must have been a busy place as we read that it had a permanent staff of ticket collector, craneman, night watchman, carpenter and an odd job man a during the summer these were supplemented from Gosport station by a clerk and a porter.
But what of the royal connection. The question still remains. Did Queen Victoria ever use Stokes Bay pier ?
Local hearsay says yes but the Queen's well-known desire for privacy leads one to disbelieve the local tales. Her own private station was opened in the Royal Clarence Yard in 1845 well away from the public gaze, and it seems logical that this was the station that she used. Research so far has not revealed any occasion when her majesty ever used the pier at the bay, whereas there is a wealth of evidence as regards the Royal Clarence Yard. However it is well documented that the Queen's luggage travelled via pier, in fact the forgan in which it travelled was usually removed from the royal train at Basingstoke and then run directly to Stokes Bay and onto the pier.
One cannot help thinking that she would have been far from 'amused' with the strength of the wind and the height of the seas at some times if she had travelled this route. GP Neale, who attended her on most of her journeys from Osborne to Balmoral states that shewent only to her private pier in Gosport, ie Royal Clarence Yard, in his 'reminiscences' but he does refer to the luggage going by the other route, Stokes Bay.
An indication of the popularity of the line in the 1880's can be gauged from an incident that occurred on 15th January 1884. The 10.50 up train from Stokes Bay, traveling at 45 mph ran off the rails just north of Brockhurst station. The train was being hauled by a Beattie 2 - 4 - 0 well tank locomotive no. 248 running bunker first followed by a six wheeled composite coach ( the body of which was hung from the springs by chains of varying lengths (12" - 18"). This was described as their newest and best stock,; behind the composite was a four wheeled brake van 23' 6" long on a 10' 6" wheelbase. The investigating officer, Col. F.H.Rich, had things to say about the stability of these vehicles, each were liable to run unsteadily at high speed he commented. However no one was seriously hurt there were only 9 or 10 passengers on board at the time.
Even without royal patronage the Stokes Bay line conveyed many thousands of trippers over to the Island, at least until the opening of the station at ortsmouth Harbour and the ferry service from that station to Ryde.
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