A ticket to Ryde… all the way down the bucolic Meon Valley line | Nostalgia
Many people, if not most of you, will not remember the branch line from Fareham to Alton called the Meon Valley line.
It cut through the Hampshire countryside passing through numerous villages.
There were also several long, curved tunnels to pass through. Perhaps ‘passing through’ is a bit of an exaggeration as most of the stations were some distance from the villages they were named after.
Since the line closed in 1956 there has been much house-building and I am sure if it were reopened it would be a great success. There is not a chance of that happening, of course.
Back in 1930 on a summer Sunday, residents of Aldershot, Farnham, Bentley and Alton could take themselves out for the day to Portsmouth. For an extra 1/6 they could take the return ferry to Ryde. Children travelled at half-price, naturally.
It is a pity South Western Railway, which runs services in this region today, could not organise days out like this from, say, Haslemere.
Mind you, so many Sunday services are curtailed by engineering work and replacement buses it would be a pointless exercise.
• At one time Kendalls Wharf was used by local boatmen as can be seen here, but today it is used for the unloading of aggregate.
It is also part of the Portsea Island coastal defence scheme so I assume scenes like the one seen in the photograph here are a thing of the past.
Here we see the hulk Vebrina with other vessels alongside her.
If anyone can tell me more about Kendalls Wharf in years past I would very much like to know as I have little knowledge of this part of the eastern seaboard of Portsea Island.
• With the 75th anniversary of VE Day on May 8 this year I expect to see many photographs of the great day.
Four years before that day in 1945 there was still a long way until peace would come again, and Winston Churchill visited the city to see the damage done by the Luftwaffe.
Churchill visited the blitzed city on January 31, 1941, and later made a speech to encourage the people, part of which I repeat here.
‘This city of Portsmouth, the central home of the British navy, is naturally viewed with special attention by those who wish to overthrow this citadel of freedom.
‘I have thought a lot of you here in Portsmouth, which I know fairly well from interesting visits over the last 30 years. I know how heavily you have been attacked and I have come here to wish you all “Good Luck”.’
Does anyone recognise where in Southsea they are?