Castleman's Corkscrew & the Salisbury Line

Index page Summer 1963 timetable

Wimborne

Wimborne station on the 'Corkscrew' route seen in 1980. Even the platform here had a curve in it! The brick building, centre right, was the goods shed, built around 1880. Some demolition of buildings had already taken place, as evidenced by the bricks on the trackbed. One building that had gone, near the centre of the picture, contained a waiting room, permanent way inspector's office and what was once a refreshment room. According to a former station employee, there was at one time, a W.H. Smith kiosk on the 'up' (left hand) platform that employed a boy to deliver morning and evening papers. Also demolished in the above view was the signalbox. Built very tall and known as the 'lighthouse' - access was via a total of 27 steps - this was closed in 1967. In 1963, 30 trains per day called at Wimborne and the average train loading on the western half of the line heading into and out of Poole was given as 62 passengers.

There must have been a railway here once...... point rodding props up the edge of a path at Wimborne in 2000. See also a recent bird's eye view of the site of the Stour bridge and the station. Much of the line west of West Moors has been obliterated.

Ashley Heath

Ashley Heath Halt, pictured in September 2000, was opened in 1927 & in the later years was served by all trains on the line. Today, one platform has disappeared, presumably to make way for the fuel pipeline running along the trackbed from West Moors to the A31 at Ringwood. The Halt is notable for the presense of an original concrete name board, which has been repainted in traditional green & white.

Ringwood

The Millstream Viaduct, Ringwood, seen on a wet day in September 2000. The line across both the viaduct and the river bridges a short distance to the west was reduced to single line working plus an engineers' siding from September to December 1961. This was presumably when the concrete decking and steelwork seen here was installed. Until this time, certain locomotives, notably Maunsell Class U1, were barred from passing over these structures. However, the passenger service on this line was withdrawn in May 1964. The wording on the ageing notice is actually correct, with the structure at the time under the care of British Railways Board (Residuary) Ltd., and even listed on their website at that time. A bridge number can be seen painted on the concrete - BTW is the Engineers' Line Reference & the numerals (104 05) are the number of miles & chains from London Waterloo. The mileage figures are now giving way to a simple structure numbering system. Today, the viaduct is part of the Castleman Trailway foot & cycle path (see Links page for more details).

The viaduct's original listing on BRB's website.

Holmsley

Originally named Christchurch Road, Holmsley was a lightly patronised station which had been reduced to single person manning at some point prior to 1935. Today the station serves as a popular tea house and the trackbed towards Ringwood is a well used path. Probably owing to it's proximity to the Holmsley South Airfield in World War 2, the up (London-bound) line between Holmsley & Ringwood was used for the storage of wagons for several weeks from 1400 hrs on 27 May 1940. All trains used the down line during this time. The average weekday train loading on the eastern half of the line was stated to be 30 passengers, though this excluded 158 pupils of Brockenhurst Grammar School (now Brockenhurst College) who travelled from Ringwood. Despite having had a road passing under it since the late 1960s, the A35 overbridge in the background remained in rail ownership and today still has the bridge number showing that it is 99 miles & 15 chains from Waterloo. In 2003, negotiations were under way with Hampshire County Council regarding passing on the ownership of the bridge, at which point it was revealed that the bridge was designed for a maximum loading of only 17 tons! The success or otherwise of those negotiations may be judged by the appearance in 2007 of the new-format BRB bridge number, BTW 49.

The trackbed, looking west, about ½ mile west of Holmsley Station in November 2007.

West Moors

The view east from West Moors along the trackbed in 2000. Freight trains ran to a fuel depot at West Moors via Wimborne until 1974 from when supplies arrived through a new pipeline laid along the trackbed to Ringwood.

Daggons Road

Daggons Road station on the West Moors - Salisbury line pictured in 1979, having been turned into a very attractive dwelling. Note a station nameboard behind the wheelbarrow, this looks to be from the former signalbox. In summer 1963, there were six weekday trains in one direction and five in the other (excluding an overnight newspaper train), plus an additional Salisbury - Weymouth and return service during August. All of the regular services ran through to and from Bournemouth West or Central, except for one which started from Broadstone with a Bournemouth connection. There were also up to three through services running along the line but not stopping at any of the stations. These ran to and from Cardiff, Swansea and Nottingham. BR gave the average weekday train loading as a mere 13 passengers. Closure had been considered in 1958, so when the line was listed by Dr. Beeching in his March 1963 Reshaping report, the closure proposal followed fairly swiftly in June of that year. The line closed completely in May 1964. The station was demolished a few years ago & several small houses now occupy the site. Sources for this page include: Marsh G., Webb M., Vent A.P.(Ed.); The Rise and Fall of Wimborne Station; Buggleskelly Books 2004. Mitchell V. & Smith K.; Branch Lines around Wimborne; Middleton Press 1997. Lymington Times, 4 October 2003.

For a complete change of subject, elsewhere on this site are many years of images from my Bird Box. Click on the picture.