The Gosport and Cosham lines were a collection of railway lines in southern Hampshire. Most of the lines are now closed but some elements are still in use, forming part of the West Coastway line. The lines originally linked to the main London to Southampton line via the Eastleigh–Fareham line and subsequently with a line from Southampton via Bursledon, both of which are still in use.
The London and Southampton Railway constructed a first class main line from London to Southampton, opened in 1839. After a name change to the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) it opened a branch from Bishopstoke (later known as Eastleigh to Gosport through Fareham, serving Portsmouth by a ferry crossing, in 1840. The LSWR later extended its line to Portsmouth itself by a branch line from Fareham, and joined forces with a competitor, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, meeting it at Cosham; this connection opened in 1848. There was a jointly operated Portsmouth station.
Leisure travel to the Isle of Wight developed, but the Portsmouth station was not at all close to the steamer terminal; the Gosport station was also awkwardly located. A new pier at Stokes Bay was opened, with a branch line off the Fareham to Gosport line; this offered a direct transfer from train to steamer, but the railway transit from London was rather circuitous, and the opening of the Portsmouth Direct line in 1859 and the extension of the railway at Portsmouth to Portsmouth Harbour station and the steamer berth there, negated the advantage. Also branching from the Gosport line was a branch to Lee-on-the-Solent, in support of a new seaside resort with its own pleasure pier. The development was not commercially successful.
More prosaic branch openings followed: the Netley branch from Southampton was extended to Fareham in 1889; the Bishops Waltham branch from Botley opened in 1863, but was extremely unsuccessful in commercial terms. The Meon Valley Railway from Alton, intended as a secondary main line, opened in 1904, in association with repairs to the troublesome Knowle Tunnel, a short distance north of Fareham.
The Eastleigh and Southampton lines to Fareham and Cosham continue in operation, and were electrified in 1990, transforming the passenger train service pattern.
Gosport branch
One of the earliest of long-distance railways, the London and Southampton Railway opened its line between those places on 11 May 1840.R A Williams, The London and South Western Railway: volume 1: The Formative Years, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968, , page 40 During the construction period, the Portsmouth Junction Railway was promoted: it would build a branch line from Bishopstoke (later known as Eastleigh) on the London and Southampton Railway, via Botley, Fareham and Cosham to Portsmouth. Influential residents of Portsmouth opposed the idea; there was considerable hostility between Portsmouth and Southampton, and it seemed to them unthinkable for Portsmouth to be on a branch line of a main line to Southampton.Williams, volume 1, pages 121 to 123
In November 1838 a meeting in Portsmouth discussed a railway to London; an independent line all the way was considered, but the cost – £1.5 million – made it daunting, and in a remarkable change of mind a deputation from Portsmouth was sent to ask the L&SR to reinstate the branch project. With some vindictiveness this was turned down. The L&SR was now planning an branch line from Bishopstoke to Gosport, relying on a "floating bridge" – that is, a ferry – that was being planned to cross the body of water known as Portsmouth Harbour.
The decision to go to Gosport had considerable significance, condemning Portsmouth passengers and goods to a ferry crossing to start their journey. A railway from Bishopstoke to Portsmouth, round the head of Portsmouth Harbour, would only have been three miles longer. Williams briefly explains the reasoning:
By taking their own line just over fifteen miles to Gosport. The L&S directors hoped to save £120,000, land and earthworks being cheaper than on the eighteen-mile route round the harbour to Portsmouth.
The L&SR got the authorising act of Parliament for its Gosport branch, the London and South Western Railway (Portsmouth Branch Railway) Act 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. c. xxviii), on 4 June 1839, capital £300,000; the branch would run from Bishopstoke through Botley and Fareham to Gosport. As a concession to Portsmouth sensitivities, the act also authorised changing the name of the L&SR to the London and South Western Railway.
Work was proceeding well and a planned opening on 26 July 1841 was announced, but on 11 July 1841 Knowle TunnelWilliams refers to the tunnel as Fareham Tunnel. partly collapsed. About 40 yards of tunnel lining needed to be remade. It transpired that the ground through which the tunnel was being constructed was of a particularly unstable clay. The trouble extended and cutting slopes outside the tunnel were affected too. The line reopened on 29 November 1841 but fresh slips closed it again on 3 December 1841; it finally opened on 7 February 1842.
Gosport station was "a remarkably fine building, described as one of the finest pieces of external railway architecture... from the beginning of the railway age."E Course, Gosport's Most Private Station, Gosport Records No 5, pages 11 to 17, 1972, The Gosport Society The architect William Tite designed a massive station with arrival and departure platforms fronted on one side by an equally impressive stone colonnade. The station cost over £10,980, equal to about £1.25 million compared with the £1,509 spent on Bishopstoke and £1,391 at Fareham.Colin G Maggs, The Branch Lines of Hampshire, Amberley Books, Stroud, 2010, , page 138Kevin Robertson and Leslie Oppitz, Hampshire Railways Remembered, Countryside Books, Newbury, 1988, , pages 37 and 38 However it suffered from the major disadvantage of not being on the waterside, due to being excluded from the fortified area surrounding the Royal Navy establishments at Portsmouth Harbour. In consequence the station was over half a mile from the landing stage for the ferry to Portsmouth.
The construction of the branch from Bishopstoke had cost £404,271, or 25% more than the estimated cost.Peter J Keat, Rails to the Yards, Gosport Railway Society, 1992 fourth impression 2012, ASIN B00BE2TS2O, Kindle book not paginated A train service of two fast, four mixed and two goods trains daily was operated; two mixed trains ran on Sundays. Through carriages avoided a change of trains at Bishopstoke on some services. Intending Isle of Wight passengers from London transferred from Gosport to the Quebec Tavern, Portsmouth, before embarking on the Portsmouth and Ryde Steam Company's vessel, the Union, which made five daily return trips to Ryde. The 1841 daily summer service had been eight trips by two vessels, but when the Gosport branch opened they used a new pier there for six daily and four Sunday sailings, connecting with trains and crossing within half an hour.Williams, volume 1, page 124
Royal Clarence Yard
A large area within the Portsmouth fortifications was used for the supply of stores to naval vessels, and in 1831 this was formalised and the area was named the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard.
In October 1844 the King of France, Louis Philippe I, made a state visit to Windsor. He arrived from France at Portsmouth in the French steamer Gomer, and disembarked at the Victualling Yard, on 8 October. Prince Albert met him there and they travelled together by special train to Farnborough, and then by road to Windsor Castle where Queen Victoria received him.The Visit of the King of the French, in The Times newspaper, London, 9 October 1844 On 14 October 1844 King Louis Philippe made the return journey from Farnborough to Gosport, accompanied by the Queen and Prince Albert. On arrival at Gosport station, they drove to the victualing yard to embark for France.The Departure of the King of the French, in The Times newspaper, London, 15 October 1844
The public part of the arrival and departure of the French King involved considerable and lengthy formalities, including a long speech of address from Portsmouth Corporation. By contrast, once berthed at the Clarence Yard, the public were excluded and the disembarkation could proceed without delay. Prince Albert considered that the use of the Victualling Yard for transfer from train to steamer was convenient because of its privacy within the Portsmouth fortifications, and asked if the Gosport station railway line could be extended into it. It was found to be practicable to do so. An extension line was made and on 13 September 1845 Major Pasley of the Board of Trade visited, reporting that the line was an
The extension line had cost £8,000.Dave Marden, The Hidden Railways of Portsmouth and Gosport, Kestrel Railway Books, Southampton, 2011, , page 43 In fact the line was heavily used for bringing consumable supplies to the Clarence Yard, including cattle, which were slaughtered within the Royal Navy dockyard. The Royal Navy used large quantities of bunkering coal, mostly brought in on the line.
In 1845 Queen Victoria acquired Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and spent much time there, extending and improving it. The journeys of the royal family habitually involved the use of the Clarence Yard station; it was never available to the public. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, there was less travel to Osborne as King Edward VII was uninterested in staying there. In 1971 the station was demolished.
The station was known as Clarence Yard Gosport or alternatively Gosport Royal Victoria Station; it was open from 21 September 1845 until 1 February 1901.Godfrey Croughton, R W Kidner, Alan Young, Private and Untimetabled Railway Stations, Oakwood Press, Tisbury, 1982, , page 59
Lines to Portsmouth
Portsmouth had a railway, of sorts, but the ferry crossing to Gosport, the road transfer between Gosport station and the ferry berth, and the roundabout railway route via Bishopstoke, continued to be a source of dissatisfaction. Independent promoters put forward a more direct line from London, while the Brighton and Chichester Railway, connected with the London and Brighton Railway, talked of extending from Chichester to Portsmouth, forming a route from London via Brighton.
This came to a head in 1845, at the height of the Railway Mania, when a huge number of proposed railways were being put to Parliament, not all of them realistic. Parliament commissioned an advisory board headed by Lord Dalhousie, that came to be known as the Five Kings, or more formally Lord Dalhousie's Board.Henry Grote Lewin, The Railway Mania and its Aftermath, 1845 to 1852, 1936 new edition 1968, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, , pages 11 and 12 The purpose of the board was to sift the applications for railway schemes and recommend which should proceed. Dalhousie's board looked at the several schemes for a railway to Portsmouth and approved a line from Guildford via Chichester to Portsmouth and Fareham, but rejected several others. When the bills in question came to Parliament, things were different and Parliament approved a Direct Portsmouth scheme from Epsom to Portsmouth, possibly using the atmospheric system. Another proposed line from Guildford to Portsmouth was cut back to include only a section from Fareham to Portsmouth and the Brighton and Chichester Railway's extension to Portsmouth was approved. Accordingly three lines into Portsmouth were set to proceed, and two were authorised between Cosham and Fareham.J T Howard Turner, The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, volume 1: Origins and Formation, B T Batsford Ltd, London, 1977, , page 235 However the approvals were deferred, and only the Brighton and Chichester Railway extension to Portsmouth was actually authorised.Williams, volume 1, pages 132 and 133