Yesterday I wrote about the desire to have a thread running through my writing. As i suggested, History is a huge component of Gosport, my words were “absolutely stuffed” and that is the case.
The picture at the head of todays post is that of Gosport’s Victorian rail station. One thing that you won’t see here are pictures from that era. There are lots of those about, and the story of the station is well told.
That’s because I want my history of Gosport to be that of today. It’s almost a kind of “Where are they now?” Gosport as it is today.
Gosport’s railway station today is a collection of flats, offices and conference rooms that can be rented for single meetings. I haven’t gone any further in as I feel I am treading on private property.
Some effort has been put in to restoring what had been a derelict facility. It was that or demolish it. That would have been very easy. The building today is a very presentable structures reminding people of a past time.
There are no rail tracks here. To the west of the station, runs the route that was the line up to Fareham, and down to Stokes Bay. That has been converted to a regularly used cycle track and footpath for the first part of the track with a bus route added up to Fareham, taking traffic away from the road.
To the East, once you have crossed over Mumby Road, you encounter the Gosport Ramparts, now fenced off and heavily overgrown, and with large parts removed. The fortifications are another part of history that will be addressed in a future article. Once over Mumby Road railway tracks can be seen for a short distance, not much probably about 100 yards. The tracks, at the behest of Queen Victoria punched a hole through the walls to take the Queen and her entourage across to Clarence Yard. It is possible too walk up to the eastern end of the tunnel which is probably about 10 metres long, this alone gives a perspective on the size of the defences. And then, for a few metres, you can follow the tracks to the edge of Weevil Lane and no further beyond that.
It is sad that the railway has gone from Gosport. But in it’s place is a safe walking and cycling route – a good price to pay for the loss.
Bills Posts 