The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DN&SR) was a cross-country railway running north–south between Didcot, Newbury and Winchester. Its promoters intended an independent route to Southampton and envisaged heavy traffic from the Midlands and North of England to the port, but they ran out of funds to complete the line to Southampton. The intended heavy through traffic never materialised, and the line was dependent on larger railways—the Great Western Railway and the London and South Western Railway—for support, which was not freely given. The line opened in two stages, in 1882 and 1885.
The company was absorbed by the Great Western Railway in 1923 following the Railways Act 1921. It became strategically important during World War II when huge volumes of munitions and troops were transported to South Coast ports, particularly in the preparations for the Normandy landings, and the Didcot to Newbury section was doubled, while the southern section was upgraded with extended passing loops.
The line never carried heavy passenger volumes and declining traffic led to its closure in stages from 1960 to 1964.
History
The was authorised in 1873 and became part of a series of 'railway wars' in the south of England between the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London and South Western Railway (LSWR).
First proposals The idea for a railway running north to south through Hampshire stemmed from a proposal for the Manchester and Southampton Railway during the Railway Mania of the 1840s. It failed to gain approval by Parliament, largely because of opposition from the Great Western Railway.
The idea of a direct line linking the manufacturing districts and the South Coast soon inspired another scheme, the Oxford, Southampton, Gosport and Portsmouth Railway, which was generally known as "Bethell's Line" after John Bethell, a solicitor, who was the principal spokesman for the promoters. It failed to gain approval in Parliament in May 1846. It was intended as a connecting line, but the promoters offered no explanation of how the break of gauge would be dealt with.
The earlier plans never progressed, but the idea of a railway linking the industrial areas of the Midlands was revived in the 1870s, when the growth of the railway network meant that main lines from the north reached Southampton via Oxford, Reading and Basingstoke. This was an indirect and complex route, and in 1873 a bill was submitted to Parliament for the construction of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Junction Railway. The company was incorporated by the (36 & 37 Vict. c. ccxxix) of 5 August 1873, to build a line from on the Great Western Main Line to a point north of on the South West Main Line, whence access to Southampton was to be over the line. There was to be a branch from Compton to East Ilsley and a loop at Whitchurch to join the Basingstoke and Salisbury line of the .Ernest F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959 This line was to cross the Berks and Hants Extension line at Newbury without making a junction there, as that line was still broad gauge at that time.David Fereday Glenn, Rail Routes in Hampshire and East Dorset, Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1983,
By 1878 the company was on the verge of abandonment—a bill was submitted to Parliament for the purpose—and "with no vestige of any financial support", but due to the exertions of Lord Carnarvon, a revised route was planned, connecting with the at Newbury and running through the station there; and forming the Micheldever junction nearer to that station together with a second spur at Whitchurch. These changes were authorised by the (43 & 44 Vict. c. xlvii) of 9 July 1880, but Carnarvon's energy had already led to the first sod being cut on the Didcot to Newbury section on 26 August 1879.
Partial opening, and further authorisations
The Didcot to Newbury section proceeded rapidly, and was opened to traffic on 12 April 1882.Mitchell and Robertson say 13 April 1882.Speller, John. Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway It had junctions with the at both places and used the stations, and the worked the line. Now with energetic plans, the company sought authority for its own line to Southampton, in length, to a location near to the Royal Pier there from Burghclere.
There was to be a station at Bargate, Southampton, and a line from Burghclere to on the , but the Micheldever line and the Whitchurch loops were to be abandoned. All this was authorised by the (45 & 46 Vict. c. cxcvii) of 10 August 1882. The planned railway would run across largely empty country between Newbury and Winchester before running down the eastern side of the Itchen Valley, closely paralleling the 's main line on the western side, before crossing the rails on an overbridge just north of the boundary of the future site of the Eastleigh Works at Allbrook, then winding around the high ground north of Southampton to approach the city from the west to run into new terminus at Bargate (the planned station site is now occupied by the Westquay shopping centre) and there was authorisation for a line to run south of this station to the Royal Pier, where steamers for the Isle of Wight and Cherbourg departed. The DN&S was proposed as a shortcut to the coast, saving compared to the existing route through Reading.
Deposited plans held by Hampshire record office show that the route south from Winchester was planned to run to the East of Twyford, Allbrook (where it was shown to cross the main line at Allbrook Lock by an overbridge), Chandler's Ford (crossing the Salisbury line to the west of Oakmount Road), pass under the current Leigh Road–Bournemouth Road junction, climb to a tunnel near the current Chilworth Arms Public House, descend through Lordswood and the current Sports Centre area to traverse the east side of Dale Valley, swing south east under the current Winchester Road, pass through the site now occupied by Shirley Junior School, run to the south west of the current Wilton Road before crossing to the east side of Hill Lane and heading south towards the intended bridge over the . This final stretch is the area in which work commenced and the location of the surviving embankment, part of the land upon which preparatory clearance and culvert work was undertaken later became The Dell football ground between Archers Road and Milton Road north of the unused embankment. The main passenger station was to be at Bargate Street, reached by a bridge over the Southampton to Dorchester railway, and this area was to be widened throughout its length with considerable reclamation work and a sea wall built alongside station (at this time the Southampton West station was somewhat east of the present Central station position).Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Journal, No. 26 (2018), pp12-23Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, 1:2,500, 1879 series
Intermediate stations were to have been provided on the route and a story grew up that the St James' Park, Southampton site in Shirley was excavated for this purpose, often repeated in local books. Deposited plans, however, show the park site already existed within the surrounding road layout and was not part of the planned route, which ran to the north east of St James' Church; its current sunken appearance was caused by later gravel extraction.Deposited Plans Hampshire Record Office Collection DP/384/1 Didcot Newbury and Southampton Junction Railway: deposited plan 1881 Archival research by the Shirley Local History Group, notably among the records of a local landowner revealed that a later revival of this scheme, the Southampton and Winchester Great Western Junction Railway, intended to use the park as the original route at this location had by then been developed. Plans and sections dated 1901 show the intended route of the railway as passing through the park from East to West.Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Journal, No. 28 (2020), pp31-32 Records indicated that property sales were discussed for this scheme, which would have followed a slightly different route to the previous scheme in some areas without a tunnel at Chilworth. South of St James's Park at this time Didcot, Newbury and Station (now Stratton) Roads were named. Station Road also contained a police station.https://fosjp.org.uk/category/shirley-heritage-project/ The only physical remnant of the project in Southampton is the tree covered embankment hidden behind current properties east of Hill Lane between Milton Road and Commercial Road. The deposited plans for the route through Southampton and current land levels suggest this was also the location of the viaduct work described by Sands. A photograph described as illustrating the part built viaduct from the London and South Western Railway appears in both the book An Illustrated History of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway and in a detailed article about the Didcot Newbury and Southampton Railway in Southampton in the Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society Journal, No. 26 (2018).
The Aldermaston branch and the independent line to Southampton were never built, and an act of Parliament authorising yet further modifications, the (46 & 47 Vict. c. cxxix) also changed the name of the company; the word "junction" was dropped and it was now the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DN&SR). In an echo of the early plans to join the 's West of England line at Whitchurch a west-to-north junction was made here, requiring a steeply-graded embankment descending from the higher-level line, but this was only to permit construction materials, equipment and spoil to be more easily moved in and out of the works – once the was completed the link was removed and the two companies maintained entirely separate Whitchurch stations, with the D&SNR passing under the just west of the latter's station, with the former's station being to the south and nearer the village it served. The was wary of the 's scheme, and especially this southward extension which threatened to break its monopoly on rail traffic in central Hampshire and at the port of Southampton. Shortly after the northern section of the opened the obtained an act of Parliament to build a north–south railway between its Sprat and Winkle Line and the West of England line. This short section of high-quality double-track railway, which became known simply as the Fullerton to Hurstbourne Line was intended as a compromise between the and the , with the former hoping to tempt the latter into building its line, then under construction from Newbury, to Hurstbourne and then proceeding to Southampton on existing metals. The did not take up this offer and continued building its independent route towards Winchester, where the firm's funds were exhausted and construction was brought to what was hoped to be a temporary stop. The opened the (now mostly redundant) Fullerton–Hurstbourne Line eight weeks after the opened its section between Newbury and Winchester, with its own station at .
This opened on 4 May 1885, after a ceremonial inauguration three days previously.E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, volume II, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1931 The Winchester station was reached by a bored tunnel under The Soke; it was on a cramped site adjacent to St Giles' Hill. It appears that the line was built as far as Bar End, where the goods facilities for Winchester were provided.Sands states on page 20 that "The Shawford Junction line required the building of miles of new railway, half of which followed the course of the Southampton extension from the point already reached at Bar End, Winchester", but this may refer to the formation only, not necessarily to an operational railway line.
Worked by the Great Western Railway