The Remains of the Andover & Redbridge (+Hurstbourne to Fullerton) Railway

The Andover and Redbridge railway (A&R) bits and pieces, sprat and winkle line initially consisted of two linked sections. These sections being the Redbridge Jn (Southampton) to Romsey Jn and Kimbridge Jn to Andover Jn which were connected together by the LSWR’s Bishopstoke (Eastleigh) to Milford (Salisbury) line section through Romsey. A later third section of the A&R was the LSWR Hurstbourne Jn to Fullerton Jn (HtF) Nile Valley line. (Queen Victoria preferred to travel from Winsor to the IOW by this route).
The A&R began in 1858 when an act of parliament was passed for the construction of a railway by the conversion of the 1792 Andover to Redbridge canal, this following the Test and Anton River Valleys between the two places. By 1861 the A&R was bankrupt so the LSWR later gained control to complete the line in1865.
When in 1883 the Midland and South Western Junction Railway (MSWJR) completed most of its railway from Cheltenham (1891), through Cirencester, Swindon, Marlborough, across the Salisbury Plain to Andover Jn this completed a through connection to Southampton using the A&R.
By 1885 the A&R had been straighten, doubled and Fullerton (Bridge) Station moved south to become Fullerton Jn with a connection to Whitchurch via the HtF.
In 1882 an act of parliament was passed for the LSWR to build a double track mainline standard HtF railway link, hoping to attract the GWR to use this route from Whitchurch to Southampton and give up on its hopes of using the stalling DNSR Whitchurch to Southampton line.
The LSWR pressed ahead and completed the HtF link in 1885, it consisting of 25 bridges with cutting or embankment earthworks for almost the complete seven miles of the line. It was to no avail as the GWR wanted its own control over its link to Southampton, via the DNSR, which by now had reached Winchester albeit a single track railway and strapped for cash to continue south.
The LSWR persisted with the HtF line but in a rural area it only attracted light traffic and so was reduced to a single line for economies by 1913, closed to passengers by 1931, reduced to a goods branch line from Fullerton Jn to Longparish by 1934 and closed altogether by1956. (It did see a brief reprieve in its freight traffic decline during WW2 when Harewood Forest became an ammunition dump).
When the MSWJR was closed in 1961 the A&R Kimbridge Jn to Andover Jn got the Beeching axe in 1964. Meanwhile the A&R Redbridge Jn to Romsey Jn prospered and today survives as part of the much used cross country Southampton to Bristol railway link.

The photographic survey carried out in 2014 works its way from Redbridge Jn, through Nursling, Romsey, Kimbridge Jn, Mottisfont, Horsebridge, Stockbridge, Fullerton Jn, Clatford, Andover Town to Andover Jn Station. The HtF survey works its way from Fullerton Jn through Wherwell, Longparish to Hurstbourne/Whitchurch Station.
From Redbridge Jn (west of Southampton) the A&R leaves the CC to pass Nursling Station (platforms gone, building private residence) to arrive at Romsey Jn having passed under several minor road bridges now most, surprisingly, tastefully modernised. The signal box from Romsey Jn (redundant) has now been moved to a site further south away from the present railway line and now has regular open days.
The original LSWR Romsey Station looks rather neglected and perhaps explains why the old water tank tower still survives today that would have supplied the platform water columns for the old steam trains.
At Kimbridge Jn (crossing) the A&R diverged away from the LSWR, the signal box site now occupied by an overgrown gangers hut. Opposite the signal box was a tin hut which surprisingly still stands to this day. After the A&R passed over the River Test Valley, via several low bridges, to approach Mottisfont. These bridges now form an access track across the very private fishing streams of Kimbridge Estate, protected by infra red alarms which is how I met the keeper.
Mottisfont Station building is now much extended and the platforms still exist in a fashion. David, the owner, tells me the station clock which stopped at 2:16 (time of last train) has gone.
The A&R then wends it way north picking up the Test Way trailway on route to pass by the delightful Horsebridge Station. This little gem is complete with station building, canopy, platforms, signalbox and even a railway carriage. (Available to hire for functions such as weddings etc).
Continuing north we pass through Stockbridge where all signs of its station have disappeared. The primary school in the town that sits on the old station yard has a novel mock station building in its playground.
On route to Fullerton the A&R still shows signs of its past by way of bridges, gangers huts, telegraph poles and even the shallow cause of the old canal bed in places where it looped just too far out of line.
Fullerton seems a sleepy little place to have been a railway junction. The Junction Station platforms that accommodated the four through running lines still exist in the undergrowth. Indeed the Test Way trailway passes over its island platform that you would miss if not looking for it. Further on after passing the railway cottages on the right you pass the original Fullerton Bridge Station building (*). On the A&R approach to Fullerton, by the Mayfly pub, the original twin bridge under the A3057 stands idle alongside the later twin bridge built by1885 to straighten a rather bad bend in the line here.
Leaving Fullerton the Test Way trailway parts company and the A&R continues on under another A3057 twin bridge to cross then follow the River Anton, passing a private elongated (ex canal) fishing lake on the opposite side, to then disappear in an overgrown cutting. It later emerges as a farm track to be lost in a tree line running alongside Westover Farm access road, this road running on into Longstock Road to take you to Goodworth Clatford.
The A&R on passing through Goodworth Clatford has disappeared under houses and garden extensions. Two little oasis of nature have appeared on the old A&R; the first being the Riverside Project behind the Royal Oak and the second the Riverside Rest where Clatford Station used to be.
After the A&R has been lost to grassland and trees and then passed under the thirteen arch Upper Clatford bridge. Alongside this bridge the remains of Clatford down distant signal still remain. In Watery Lane the A&R goods siding is under houses but is also the start of an A&R trailway to the centre of Andover. Just north of the A303 the A&R trailway also picks up alongside a remaining part of the old A&R canal.
In Andover the Town Station has disappeared but its Hotel still survives as a pub. The cause of the old railway after has disappeared under the Western Avenue, Heather Drive and garden extensions of houses in Charlton Road. The A&R bridge span that was alongside Charlton Road railway arch has gone yet at the LSWR Andover Jn Station the A&R bay platform still exists albeit overgrown.

The HtF railway track or permanent way (pw) still mostly exists today but sadly as overgrown inaccessible cuttings and embankments, or if clear are private.
The pw from Fullerton Jn to Cottonworth passed the back of the railway cottages and is now ploughed under yet remains open under Fullerton Road bridge. After the skew bridge the cuttings that lead up to Wherwell Station has been filled in and houses built on them, yet the embankments along the way survive.
At Wherwell the station building still exists and is a private residence. The large station area has disappeared under houses up to the skew bridge that carries the B3420. From The Old Hill Wherwell to Longparish Station the HtFpw is mostly overgrown embankment, two bridges on route having lost their spans. The Longparish Station building still survives and is a private residence.
Leaving Longparish Station the HtFpw has been sliced by the A303 Andover bypass. Surprisingly a new B3048 link road loops over the A303 at almost the spot where an HtFpw bridge stood. After the A303 the HtFpw up to Hurstbourne Viaduct went through some deep cuttings and high embankments. Most still sit idle in the countryside. Sadly the HtFpw under the B3400 bridge has been filled in and the bridge over the Harroway removed.
The HtF then joined the LSWR West of England mainline to run over Hurstbourne Viaduct through Hurstbourne Station to Whitchurch (North) Station.
Rick Poulton

(*) Although I never travelled by rail through Fullerton Station I admit to a profound feeling of loss and regret from the memory of my childhood at the sight of this little closed county branch line. I am inclined to attribute it to the impression associated with the innocents of youth when railways were assumed to be a permanent feature in the landscape. Their construction after all took time, effort, money, and indeed lives and the very though of closure and subsequent destruction of something created at such cost was unthinkable. This was the first closure of a country branch line that I became aware of. It was of course just a little railway line in the bigger picture of the notorious Beeching axe which was to inflict further desolation then destruction across my adolescence green and pleasant country. Of course later in life when we had been better educated and taught to value our Victorian heritage we used their vacant railway cuttings to throw our rubbish in.