Droxford railway station
Droxford railway station was a small station on the Meon Valley Railway. It served the villages of Droxford, Soberton and Hambledon in Hampshire, England. In 1944, amid World War II, it was used by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill as his base during preparations for the Normandy landings. After the war, with Britain’s railway network in decline, services were cut drastically. In early 1955 the station closed to passengers, and in 1962 it closed to goods traffic. It then briefly served as a driving school for HGV drivers, before becoming a private residence and being restored to its original appearance.
About Droxford railway station in brief
Droxford railway station was a small station on the Meon Valley Railway. It served the villages of Droxford, Soberton and Hambledon in Hampshire, England. It was built to main line specifications in anticipation of it becoming a major route to Gosport. In 1944, amid World War II, it was used by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill as his base during preparations for the Normandy landings. After the war, with Britain’s railway network in decline, services were cut drastically. In early 1955 the station closed to passengers, and in 1962 it closed to goods traffic. It then briefly served as a driving school for HGV drivers, before becoming a private residence and being restored to its original appearance. The village has existed since at least the early 9th century; the vill of Drokeireford was granted by Ecgberht, King of Wessex to Herefrith, bishop of Winchester in 826. The River Meon rises in East Meon, and flows 21 miles through rural Hampshire before entering the Solent at Hill Head. Since 1851 there had been proposals to build a railway line through the meon Valley, but all proposals were abandoned owing to high construction costs or objections from local landowners. In 1896 a group of wealthy locals proposed a railway running north–south from Basingstoke to Portsmouth. Although it would serve a lightly populated area and consequently be of little economic benefit, the proposal’s supporters argued that it would be of strategic importance, connecting military facilities in Aldershot and Portsmouth with military training grounds in north Hampshire.
The line was to have been operated by the Great South Eastern Railway and the London and South Western Railway, who lobbied against the proposal. The LSWR made a formal proposal to Parliament in 1897 for a railway built to 20 specifications over the Long Depression. The proposal was rejected by the House of Lords in 1897, and the railway was never built. The Long Depression had already been underway for 20 years by this time, and a proposal for a light railway between Fareham and Portsmouth between Alton and Fareham was underway for this time as well. The railway was to be operated by London and the South Coast Railway, which was controlled by the GWR, and lobbied against a route to the major ports at London Brighton and South Coast. By the end of the 19th century the area still had no easy access to a rail line, unlike most other communities in the country. In the 1901 census, taken shortly before the opening of the railway, the village had a combined population of 1687. At that time the village already contained three mills, and had its own brewery, manor house and flour mill. It housed the local post office and telegraph office, police station, workhouse and courthouse, and was the most important of the villages in the immediate area; by the late 19th Century it housed the post office and telegraph office. It also had a police station, a workhouse and a county house.
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This page is based on the article Droxford railway station published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 23, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
