Horsebridge railway station

Infobox UK disused station
name = Horsebridge
gridref = SU344304


caption =
manager = LSWR
owner = Southern Railway
Southern Region of British Railways
locale = Houghton
borough = Test Valley, Hampshire
platforms = ?
years = 6 March 1865
events = Opened
years2 = 7 September 1964
events2 = Closed to passenger traffic
years3 = 18 September 1967
events3 = Closed to freight traffic

Horsebridge was a railway station on the closed Sprat and Winkle Line which served the Hampshire village of Houghton. It closed in 1964, a casualty of the closure programme proposed by the Beeching Axe which sounded the death knell for many rural railway stations.

Working years

The station, located six miles north of Romsey alongside the River Test in the Test Valley, was opened in 1865 by the London and South Western Railway as part of their "Sprat and Winkle Line" that connected Redbridge with Andover. The railway line was constructed over the abandoned Andover Canal.

The station assumed special significance during the First World War when it was used as a staging post for the transport of men, munitions, horses and equipment from Salisbury Plain which were sent to France via Southampton. [ [http://www.users.waitrose.com/~horsebridge/history.htm Horsebridge Station, "The history of the station"] ] Declining passenger numbers after the Second World War led to the line's eventual closure to passengers in 1964, then to freight in 1967.

The station comprised three front rooms - the office, booking hall and waiting room, with the remainder of the property set aside for the stationmaster who had two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen at his disposal, but no bathroom. [http://archive.thisishampshire.net/2002/3/2/66899.html This is Hampshire, "The loco life we lead", 2 March 2002] ]

Restoration

Following closure, the station remained empty and soon became derelict. Bricks and tiles were stolen by vandals and the former signalbox was dismantled and taken away by unknown persons. The station was even used by the local fire brigade who practised falling down through the floor.

Salvation came in the shape of Hampshire County Council's plan to turn the trackbed of the railway line into a footpath, the Test Way. In 1985 the derelict station was sold for £50,000 to Anthony and Valerie Charrington, a commercial property surveyor and cabaret singer, who obtained planning permission to convert the property into a two-bedroom dwelling subject to the condition that no swimming pool could be constructed in the gap between the platforms. The Charringtons undertook substantial works in an attempt to restore the station to how it would have looked during the Victorian era. In 1988 they purchased a 1922 third-class Southern Railway passenger carriage for £1,500 and spent £30,000 refurbishing and installing it on a set of reinstated tracks at the station. The carriage was subsequently used as a dining room. A replacement signalbox and signals were also purchased. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2001/05/30/pparcel30.xml The Daily Telegraph, "Move into the Parcel Office", 30 May 2001] ]

In 1991 once restoration had been completed, the station's former parcel office as well as the carriage were let out as holiday accommodation and as a venue for parties. The station was subsequently Grade II listed and grants were offered for its upkeep by Hampshire County Council. [ [http://www.hants.gov.uk/scrmxn/c19707.html Hampshire County Council, Roads and Development Sub-Committee, 10 June 1996] ]

The Charringtons put their property on the market in 2001 with an asking price of £850,000, later reducing this price to £695,000. The property is now offered for hire as a wedding venue and this venture has been so successful that the Charringtons applied for planning permission to erect a marquee. [ [http://archive.dailyecho.co.uk/2007/5/17/114756.html Southern Daily Echo, "Officers bid to derail station marquee", 17 May 2007] ] This was, however, rejected by Test Valley Borough Council as an "undesirable and unsustainable development in the countryside". [ [http://archive.thisishampshire.net/2007/6/22/116190.html This is Hampshire, "Rough reception for wedding marquee", 22 June 2007] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.horsebridgestation.co.uk/history.htm Pictures of station]
* [http://www.the-firebird.net/horsebridge.html Pictures of the station]