Railway tales – a summary of some of my presentations: produced during Covid-19 lockdown!

… Not sure this is going to work out: but thinking about everyone stuck at home, and all these slides I’ve worked up over the years to give local presentations on West Moors history, I thought I’d try and start a sort of presentation here …. nothing fancy! I’ll simply upload one or two slides a day or so, then bash out some off-the-cuff notes about it …. here is the first slide I used for a presentation at the Library in 2016 (60 years of WM as a civil parish). Top left shows the footbridge erected in 1902 and bottom right shows the (I think unique) three-signal gantry controlling access to the junction; remember, the proper name of West Moors after 1866 (when the Salisbury line opened for traffic) was West Moors Junction. More on both of these artefacts in the days/weeks ahead.

… This slide (above) is intended to demonstrate just how the coming of the national railway network radically changed the lives of folk in the middle decades of the 19th century. Newspapers had been around for some time of course, but now news from the great cities could be read in the provinces the following day – and reporters went out looking for news away from the great towns and cities; the public postal service too had been around since the 17th century, but the growth of the railways went hand-in-glove with increased use of written communication – and with that comes reduced prices (fixed price letters/pre-paid) and rapid distribution – goodbye to the Mail Coach! And the telegraph, its wires originally fanned out alongside the railways during the 1840s and 1850s and revolutionised communication. All needed the railway to work efficiently – and a ‘symbiotic’ relationship grew up.

Now all this might seem ‘sort of’ interesting – but its the reason why old duffers like me have a fascination for the growth of railway transport: you and I are living through just such a revolution – the internet and everything that flows from it have initiated a dramatic change in all our lives. Some of it bad, a lot of it good – just as happened in the middle decades of the 19th century. I’ll deal with the impact the coming of the railway had on our local area in later posts.

… Station Road (image above), looking north a few years ago. Centenary Court has been completed (white building with ‘pointy’ roof), and this side of it is Castleman Court. The latter is built on the land that once contained the Station buildings. The small, white, rather insignificant building on this side of the road, just behind the Silver Birch, is the only ‘solid’ reminder that once upon a time, a main line railway crossed this road. The line(s) ran just this side of the Railway Crossing Lodge, which is what this building used to be. It was built for the opening of the line in 1847, and controlled passage of very little ‘traffic’ across the running lines. A lot of people think that this building was /the/ station, but it was built just over 20 years earlier – though oddly, the crossing keeper would have ‘managed’ the adjacent siding for a time. A ‘then and now’ picture will follow this … eventually!

… and here (above) is a composite slide comparing the image put up yesterday (2014 vintage … BTW, I’ve named incorrectly … Centenary Place [ not Court]) with a view from as close as possible on the same spot looking towards the railway crossing. You can now see how the railway would have ‘lived’ in the environment. Dating the older photograph is a challenge: it must be after 1902 (erection of concrete footbridge); after 1904 (signal box moved from opposite the junction) but not too long afterwards, as the smoke-staining on the bridge isn’t that prominent. Also, we have a photograph from roughly the same spot (dating to the 1920s), and the vegetation has grown up steadily both alongside the roadway and behind the signalbox. Also, if you look very carefully, you can’t (apparently) make out any buildings /behind/ the signal box (i.e. the original shops in this area – demolished to make way for Centenary Place), and these were built late 1900s or very early 1910s: so I place this image as ‘Edwardian’. The signalbox also doesn’t appear to have the later large mirror of the 1920s, erected to help the signalman view underneath the footbridge – he needed to view that direction to see trains coming from Ringwood, off the Salisbury line, and much later, working into the Fuel Depot. West Moors Junction was never a very busy station for passengers, even in this pre-Great War heyday, and except for the passage of trains, it must have been a peaceful place. The gate on the left, which looks from this perspective to be just in front of the Crossing Lodge, is in fact two running-lines away from it and controls access to the downside (i.e., away from London) loading dock – probably the oldest of the small network of sidings at the junction. We haven’t got any photographs of course of the early days of the railway – but try to imagine this older view with ONLY the crossing lodge, gate and ramp leading to that gate: that’s all that would have been hereabouts until 1867 – for those living in the Lodge, a very lonely existence.

… I worked this slide up (above) to demonstrate where the arrival of Dorset’s first main-line railway fitted-in with the story elsewhere in the early railway age in this country. Top/left: early -> Bottom/right: later. The reason I did this was to counter the idea that the Southampton & Dorchester Railway was somehow ‘late to the party’! Given that we had no extensive heavy industry, and just the one port (Poole) linked, it is remarkable that the line didn’t get built until a dozen years later. Queen Victoria & Prince Albert travelling to Slough (for Windsor) in the early 1840s was a real boost to /passenger/ railway development – the rapid upturn in passenger usage led to Wm. Gladstone propelling his ‘Railway Regulation Act’ (1844) through Parliament which capped fares for Third Class (open carriages, no seats!) at a penny per mile and requiring all railway companies to run on every line, every day in each direction stopping at each station: these were (and still are, where they run) known as ‘Parliamentary Trains’. West Moors could be said to have its first ‘focal point’ with the opening of the combined School/Chapel in 1842, and as the slide shows, the Castleman campaign to bring the railway to our part of Wessex began in 1844, with opening in 1847. Bournemouth was a twinkle in the eye of the developers – more to say about all this as the presentation progresses.

… and so we come to the Castleman clan! A little background on the family might be interesting – the diagram below summarises. William Castleman (Dad) had already made his reputation & fortune as a trustworthy land agent, attorney and manager to various ‘absentee landowners’ ( a common 18th & 19th century case) long before railways were a gleam in the eye of the local gentry. After the Napoleonic wars (when the continental blockade was lifted), local estates became impoverished and there was unrest amongst the tenantry. William was a ‘safe pair of hands’ and as the slide shows, accrued interests, or acted on behalf of, many of the major estates across north & east Dorset and beyond. He was ably assisted, once they had achieved their due education, by all three sons: Henry (his heir), again not unusually for the times, entered the church (of England) and only returns to our story as Rector of Christchurch when he was less than enthusiastic about a railway coming close by! The other brothers though, Edward and Charles, eventually took over the family business – Edward maintained the family presence in Wimborne, with Charles decamping to Ringwood. The slide summarises (probably poorly) their respective interests. Note the links to the Fryer & Gulliver families. More anon …..

… The younger of the brothers, Charles (image below), is of course of great interest to us. He was already well versed in negotiating contracts with ‘transport’ in mind, as he was heavily involved in the administration of the local Turnpike Trusts – they owned / maintained the toll roads that had improved road travel since the second-half of the 18th century. The shorthand statement usually runs along the lines of ….. Charles Castleman, a Wimborne Solicitor, promoted the building of a railway (etc.). Sort of! First, he was by this time (early 1840s) a *Ringwood* practitioner, and as the previous slide indicated, the pure legal side of things was only one spanner in his toolbox! Through his family & business connections, he was approached to spearhead the bringing of the railway to Dorset & SW Hampshire – once the big landowners and other significant interests saw how its arrival had revolutionised life around Southampton after opening fully in May 1840. Charles was the right man, in the right place, with the right background to drive the project through. He became (almost self-appointed) both Secretary and Solicitor to the Southampton and Dorchester Railway when it was incorporated in 1844, and through his contacts & undoubted organisational energy succeeded in having the Act of Parliament receive the Royal Assent the following year. There’s lots of history surrounding the formation of the company and its aims … which I won’t bore you with! Needs another set of slides I think. Note the figures for investment by both brothers: £300K to £400K in today’s money (very roughly of course). They obviously were confident of success – and essentially success was achieved. But not without the help of another man …. more later.

… and we now turn to the man who, in my view, should get much more recognition locally than he did: we all know ‘Castleman’ – you can’t go far round this end of the county without stumbling across his name. But Charles Castleman was no civil engineer or surveyor. What he knew about railways could be written on the back of a Penny Black! We need an expert …. Moorsom was such a man. Now you’ve probably not heard of him, but if Brunel and the Stephensons were at the head of British railways’ Premier League, then (army) Captain William Moorsom would be snapping at their heels in upper mid-table. The slide summarises his ‘form’ prior to being appointed consulting engineer to the S & D Railway – and by the 1840s, he had built a reputation for surveying and presenting plans for railways that used the geology of the country economically (i.e., they were cheap!) and served the needs of the community. Moorsom’s brief was … survey and build a railway from Southampton to Dorchester, making sure that the ‘Castleman towns’ of Ringwood & Wimborne were included, also Wareham – and with some sort of link to Poole port. Christchurch didn’t want a railway – a decision they regretted and they had to wait 15 years for one (Moorsom built that as well) and ” Bourne Mouth ” wasn’t really deserving at the time of rail connection. Moorsom set to with a will and presented his route – with an eye to a possible extension to Exeter! Of interest to us here in West Moors though is the route he took between Ringwood and Wimborne – we have Capt. Moorsom to thank, in my view, for West Moors as a community we know today …. I’ll try to explain that statement next …. but in the meantime, a slide that summarises Moorsom’s career – no photograph is known to exist of him (I’ve searched high and low!)

… Moorsom had many problems to overcome but I want to concentrate on the section between Ringwood and Wimborne – because his scheme gave birth to the community of West Moors. After all, why should West Moors exist? We have no ancient castle, no Tudor Manor House, no great meeting of rivers or significant river crossing. West Moors has no core of an ancient village or Roman settlement. Until the arrival of the railway, we were just a remote corner of Dorset, in a distant corner of West Parley parish. We had a railway station long before we had a church! Have a look at this extract of the first Ordnance Survey map of our part of the country. I’ve marked [ green circle ] where the modern-day Tesco Express is situated … I’ll leave you to peruse this map and make some comments in the next post … note the names – and note particularly where the cartographer has put the name ‘West Moors’.

… referring back to the image in the last post, that map gives a good impression of the sort of country that Moorsom and his surveying ‘train’ would have traversed when he needed to work out where the railway should go. Several years ago, I tried to work out where all the human habitation was at the time of the railway’s opening in 1847; this was done using what maps were available, census returns and other data. This image (below) is my attempt to place where the farms, individual cob cottages etc., were in May of that year when the first scheduled train thundered across the track we now know at Station Road … no station of course – just the Crossing Lodge (without a name … just known as “Crossing No. 19″ or ” No. 19 Gates”) and the siding alongside. The “School and Chapel” was built a few years before – the ‘Chapel’ was really just part of the school (which itself was no more than a small room attached to a cottage) and not intended for the wider community. I’ve used the name ” Newmans Farm ” (not the modern-day version), but in 1847 it would be known as West Moors Farm. What we knew (before it was subsumed by the Farm Road development) as West Moors Farm was originally “New Farm” in the early 19th century, then named after the occupiers of the farm (as shown). Note the clustering of cottages along the boundary between the heathland (Holt Heath) and the farmed land. It is more than likely that it is this area (known in some census returns as “West Common”) that is the true ‘heart’ of the West Moors of the time. Gould’s Farm is roughly where Sainsbury’s is now.

… OK, quite obviously a rubbish map! I needed to try and explain what ‘West Moors’ might have looked like when the railway first opened in 1847: there’s a map a couple of posts/images back which does a similar thing … but I wanted to concentrate on the area of the Crossing Lodge. The farms / farmland self-explanatory; two bridges crossing minor water-courses – at opening these were wooden – replaced later by current structures. The railway was single track – except at ‘Leonards Bridge’, a temporary cross-over (to allow opposing trains to pass) which probably also had facilities to load gravel: this closed only a few years after opening. The ‘stables’ are roughly in the area of the modern-day Arnold Road (near where Mary Lane ends) and emphasises that horses rather than engines were extensively used to transport supplies up and down the line. It is thought that these formed the basis of the later Railway Cottages – but the exact transformation isn’t known. By the way, if you’ve ever wondered why railway folk use the term /Permanent/ Way, it’s to distinguish from the ‘temporary’ way (rough ballast laid along the surveyors line) which was used to transport wagons with sleepers, rails, building materials and other supplies along the line. Once the main sub-structure of ballast, sleepers and rails are laid, then it becomes the permanent way! And steam engines can ply their trade. Note the siding opposite the Crossing Lodge – initially used to allow gravel to be transported up and down the line, but later, carriages could be detached to allow those who could afford it to travel ‘cross-country’ to the growing resort of Bournemouth – avoiding the bottleneck of Poole/Hamworthy. The ‘x’s show where we’re certain habitation was in place; the ‘?’ are suspected/possible cottages. Note the cluster of cottages at ‘West Common’, south of West Moors Farm (off the map to the north) already described. If there don’t seem many places of habitation at this time – that’s right! My analysis of the 1841 and 1851 census returns would suggest no more than 70 people living within the area shown on this sketch – adults and children.

… The first regular trains begin running in summer 1847. This map (below) shows how the Southampton & Dorchester Railway links in with the rest of the ‘South West’ network. The ‘Southampton’ shown is not the station we know today; it was (for those that remember back the 60s) Southampton Terminus – the original end of the line from London. Dorchester trains had to curl in from the north until 1858 when a ‘chord’ was built to allow services to run direct from the north to the west. Poole is also not where we know now: it is actually on the Hamworthy peninsula – and to get to Poole town you had to cross by a rather rickety wooden bridge with steep approach on either side – this may be why West Moors siding was used to offload the carriages of the wealthy so they could go ‘cross-country’ and avoid the rather roundabout method of reaching the now growing Bournemouth ( the star ). Take a moment to consider what it must have been like on the night of the 1st June 1847. For centuries, the only sound across rural Dorset was the sound of cattle, foxes, owls etc., and the family gently snoring away in the farm houses scattered about the countryside. On this night, after a hard day’s work in the fields, about 11 o’clock the clatter, rattle and whistle of the ‘Up’ Mail trains sweeps up from Wimborne on its way to Southampton; once that annoyance is out of the way, our family drifts off to sleep …. only to have a repeat performance at about 1.30 am when the ‘Down’ Mail thunders through on its way to Dorchester! Life would never be quite the same.

… A typical locomotive (above) that would have passed through West Moors in the early days of the railway. This one was based at Dorchester – primarily intended for freight traffic but early trains were often ‘mixed’ with passenger and goods stock mixed together – a practice what was to be frowned upon in later years. It’s clear to see the ancestry of the earliest engines such as ‘Rocket’. Engineer & Fireman completely exposed on the footplate – a hang-over from the days of the Stage / Mail coach – except these beasts were travelling at some 25 to 35 mph into the weather! No overhead protection and just a simple plate with ordinary glass that the driver could look through to see where they were going – known as a ‘spectacle’ plate for obvious reasons. The rather splendid figure standing just to the side of the tender (for coal and water) is a railway policeman. He would have some functions of a traditional police constable, but his primary job was to ‘police’ the traffic on the line: it was his responsibility to control the traffic by means of rudimentary signals according to the timetable. At this time (1840s, 1850s, 1860s) we’re some way off the classic signal-box controlling block sections that we’ve all grown up with. When that system did come into play, signalmen were often referred to as ‘Bobby’ in a reference back to these earlier days.

… and behind the locomotive, the train set! Very basic stuff in these early years of railway operation: this image (below) shows the range from First to Third class … First to a reasonable standard, with enclosed carriages, glass in the windows, cushions on the seats, finer upholstery etc: note the profile similar to the earlier horse-drawn carriage. Second class a ‘stripped-down’ version of 1st: not much ‘plushness’ on wooden seats, smaller windows (must have been claustrophobic – especially at night) but at least the carriage is enclosed. Third though different – really they were open wagons/trucks with wood planks to sit on – and just as in the days of the ‘outside’ passenger on a Stage/Mail coach, open to the elements, branches overhanging the tracks … and soot etc., from the engine! The buffers between carriages were simply horse-hair stuffed pads and the wheels were mounted directly onto the body of the wagon in all classes – this means a very hard ride -it would be quite late in the 19th century before wheel-sets were mounted on sprung bogies, which in turn were allowed to swivel to the curves of the track. In these early days, with poor construction techniques (the Southampton & Dorchester was not well built initially), the ride for ALL classes would be uncomfortable. No toilets of course – for the ‘poor folk’ they had to rely on lengthy stops at stations – 1st class could take a ‘convenience’ on board with them – but hardly pleasant; again, if you’re one of the posh folk you could hire a hot-water warmer from the railway – not so for the others. No communication with the Guard – the best anyone could do was lean out of the window and try to attract his attention. The things poking up from the 1st class carriage compartments are lamp holders: the railway staff would come along after dusk and let down a lit oil lamp to light up the compartment. OK if there were no sudden braking moves (or god-forbid an accident), but lethal if any sort of emergency occurred – fires were common. Finally, look at the small hook for coupling on the leading carriage. Although steel would eventually become normal – in the earliest days, a twist of rope of similar breadth to those use to tie up ships was used. Not bad if maintained properly – but over time, the rope frayed and it was not unknown for carriages to become detached – another job for the railway policeman – count the carriages and make sure that none were missing!

Thomas Larcombe was born near Crewkerne, Somerset. In his early twenties, he came to West Moors as a railway gatekeeper, becoming one of the ‘pointsmen’ at the newly-opened Junction in 1866. He married a girl from west Dorset who bore him 3 children; sadly his wife died at the early age of 27. Their children were taken in by other members of the family, leaving him alone. But not for long. In 1872, he married Mary Ann Woolford, a local farmer’s daughter. She was 35, which at the time would have been thought ‘advanced’ for childbearing, but she & Thomas produced three children – one of whom, Florence would later become one of the coal merchants in West Moors station yard and also the village’s first sub-postmistress! Mary Ann had an ambitious younger brother, John. He started work as a railway porter for the LSWR in Dorchester but had joined brother-in-law Thomas in the local signal-box by 1876. Thomas and John retired from faithful service early in the 20th century; they died within a year of each other; Thomas in May 1915 and John in November of the following year. As in their long working lives they ‘keep watch’ together, buried just a few yards apart in St. Mary’s churchyard. When it’s possible again, have a look at their headstones – along with other members of their families.

… Before moving on well into the 20th Century, I need to write something about an important part of the ‘railway’ story: the arrival & development of Stewart’s Nursery. In 1859 (railway arrived in 1847 remember), the milder climate of Dorset attracted the attention of the Stewart family: these were successful nurserymen who had, since the 18th century, developed a flourishing business in Dundee, eastern Scotland. Residential development and the presence of large landed estates across southern England provided a ready market for the products of such nurseries and the Stewarts were quick to fill the need. Two of the Stewart brothers, William and David bought a large plot of land (circa 74 acres) north of the Wimborne – Ringwood turnpike and east of what is now West Moors Road (see rough map attached), and quickly established themselves: William remained in Scotland managing that part of the enterprise, and it was the younger brother, David, who was to develop the site to its full potential. Not only was the site handy for links to local customers (especially the rapidly growing town of Bournemouth to the south), but with West Moors essentially an agricultural settlement, a source of semi-skilled and skilled labour was readily available. And by this time, youngsters of families attracted by the arrival of the railway were also available for employment in the Nursery. The land straddles two basic soil types: poorer, heathland soils and the rather richer, though boggier, land astride the Uddens. Stewarts were eventually to utilise the availability of the latter feature (labelled ‘Bog’ in the attached sketch-map) and became renowned growers and sellers of aquatic plants across England – water lilies being a speciality by the early decade of the 20th century. Given the already high reputation of Stewarts, it was natural that orders for plants would come from further afield than the immediate area of Dorset and SW Hampshire and the adjacent access to the rapidly growing railway network provided the means to fulfil these orders. I suspect, though can’t provide documentary evidence, that the goods traffic generated tipped the balance towards the provision of a fully-functioning station in 1867. By 1915, Stewarts were one of the largest plant suppliers in Britain (and a large employer locally); the goods revenue for the railway must have been very welcome. The firm provided the ‘northern’ focus for the growing town of ‘Fern Down’ (later Ferndown) and until the 1920s, the centre-of-gravity for this settlement was along the Wimborne Road and immediately north and south of it – explaining why there is a centre separate from the modern town in this area: the telephone exchange, post office, chapel etc., were all located here – some way north of the modern town centre, which latter has Victoria Road & the Poole-Ringwood road as its focus. Stewarts were using the railway until long into the twentieth century but the greater flexibility of road transport, and the improvement of the road network eventually removed the need for local access to the railway and for this and other commercial reasons, Stewarts relocated away from Ferndown in the latter part of the 1950s; the Stewart story continued of course – have a look at their web site … https://stewarts.co.uk/about-us/history/

… just a little addendum to the last railway / local history post before carrying on: I mentioned regarding Stewart’s Nursery that they could draw on local people to work in the Nursery. Whether directly connected to their activities or not I can’t tell, but by the end of the 19th century, the West Moors community was a little ‘hot bed’ of agricultural / horticultural enterprises. For example, based on the 1901 census return, 14 ‘farms’ are listed in that return and no fewer than 9 ‘Market Garden’ operations – all within the area that would be currently defined by the civil parish of WM. Not necessarily a large employment source though – just 45 connected with the land in 1901, but rising to 113 ten years later. But of course this must be set against quite a small population – around 250 in 1901 (includes children), rising to 650-ish by 1911. All these growers/farmers would use the railway both to export produce (apart from purely local sale) and also import equipment, fertilisers etc., the same way – there was no practical alternative – at least until the 1920s. This is reflected in the numbers attributed to the L&SWR payroll at West Moors … 19: a ‘typical’ country railway station staffing level around this time would be 10 or less.

… back to railway history: about time we had a locomotive! This image is turn of the 19th/20th centuries: it neatly demonstrates how far railway motive power had come in the 70 or so years since those early days – a typical view for a main-line working around this time on the lines running through West Moors Junction. The footplate crew have much more protection – not fully enclosed but better than as recently as the 1870s. The overall design of the engine is elegant with clean lines and a lot of the ‘motion’ that drives the loco hidden from view. The early Edwardian era for locomotive design was probably the peak of efficiency of use of coal and water – until the advent of designs seen in the 1930s. Further back, the carriages are much more comfortable to ride in: bogied wheel sets i.e., the wheels not bolted directly onto the carriage, but carried on the bogie sets which can turn on the curves. The suspension much better; some corridor sets being introduced, and on some services (but NOT universal) on-board lavatory units – though it has to be said that these discharged /directly/ onto the track – a hazard to the permanent way gangs & station staffs until very recently. Hence the ‘do not use in station’ notices! This time was the height of railway use in this country – both for passengers and freight; the railways were part of the community and background to daily life in the way that the internet is to us today.

… this view isn’t quite the earliest of this part of Station Road [ annotated on some photographs as ‘Ferndown Road’ ] but does give a decent idea of what the first ‘new’ buildings would have looked like in the first decade of the 20th Century. I judge the date to be in the range 1906-1910 (but the buildings originate from circa 1900/1901); out of site behind the further house would be the original Congregational Chapel (now subsumed within the URC of St.Martin’s). Just visible beyond the two trees is the turning for the new [Brewer] development of Moorland(s) Road. The track leading to ‘West Moors Farm’ (as it would be known at this time) is out of sight opposite this turning. The two houses are obviously built by the same builder – the /further/ one is still with us – it was Dr. McKinstry’s surgery, now part of West Moors Medical Practice. The nearer house / grocery shop is run at this time by the Stickland family. Walter Stickland married Mary Frampton in 1898: Mary was the youngest daughter of George Frampton & Ann Ware, who ran the /original/ grocery-cum-nursery further north on Station Road (north of the modern ‘cut-through’ to Fryer Field). The Stickland clan had establised a thriving grocery businesses in Three Cross – Walter would go on to be a pillar of local society, Parish Clerk (of West Parley), Churchwarden, and enthusiastic photographer! This latter building is no longer with us – the footings are now under Bramble Court. I’ve got other views of these buildings which may appear in the future – depending how long all this ‘lock-down’ goes on for!

The ‘Iron Duke’ was no lover of railways – if you want to see why, see my web site page dealing with “the railway goes to war”. Suffice to write that he was lauded as the “Victor at Waterloo” [ the Prussians helped ] and he had held high political office, including two spells as prime minister, by the 1840s; although he was towards the end of his long and eventful life, his opinions carried great weight.

… What could not have been foreseen in the 19th century was that an invasion in the ‘reverse’ direction to that feared then would be required. When Churchill met Roosevelt in Casablanca in early 1943, the final ‘war aims’ were agreed – one of which was that ‘maximum effort’ was to be deployed on launching a seaborne assault on the north coast of France. Events moved swiftly once the political decision was taken. Among other matters, fuel-oil (petrol, diesel) and lubricants would be required in enormous quantities. Work proceeded swiftly to convert the existing W.D. formation that had been installed at West Moors into a major fuel depot – one of several – complete with an extensive network of railway sidings, linked off the main line just east of the junction with the Salisbury line. The scene was set … more as we go on …. it’s a fascinating story ….