Getting involved

Your contributions

The website exists not only to present research findings, but also to encourage readers with knowledge of the local railway network and its history to make their own inputs. By the nature of ongoing research, there are always gaps in the knowledge. These may arise where primary or secondary sources still remain to be investigated, or because knowledge, while advanced, is lacking is some aspects. Outside contributors may also have personal knowledge, illustrations, etc. that have not been published, archived or otherwise had a chance to see the light of day.

Throughout the website you will see instances highlighted where we are seeking potential answers. If you can help, we would ask that you indicate your sources in detail, if known, to enable further investigation and corroboration. Such sources may only be by word of mouth or your own vague recollections, but could be important in pointing us in a fruitful direction that may be verified by deeper enquiry. You may have railway-related memories, family records and photos. You may have worked on the railway, travelled on it, worked in related trades, done your own research, or be an enthusiast-historian. All these can help round the picture.

Correspondence

If you have any insights you can offer, please get in touch initially by email. Someone from the study will get back to you and arrange further personal contact to explore your information. We may publish a selection of offerings on this website.

Oral History Recordings

People who remember the local railways in operation are generally over 50, while most are much older and sadly passing on in increasing numbers in recent years. The study has tracked down and recorded railway workers, travellers, traders and enthusiasts in the last decade or so, and some previous recordings exist in public archives. If you have a story to tell and would like to relate it to study staff, do please get in touch. We can make archive-quality recordings in your home or perhaps a local museum, and with your consent preserve them for posterity in public archives. Such recordings often provide priceless personal insights into local railway history that official sources rarely reveal. What may seem a minor point of detail can sometimes unlock a vital thread in the bigger story.

Mysteries and enquiries

One of the joys of this work is uncovering plots and sub-plots in the local railway story, some of which have proved stubborn in revealing themselves. The display panels in the 2014 exhibition (insert internal link) sometimes posed such cases.

An example was the story of Wimborne Station’s three successive good sheds from the early days to the late 19th century and beyond, and their exact locations. The third was the only shed familiar to older people alive today; it replaced the second when it burnt down. The form of the first shed and its precise location were far from clear. The exhibition followed the limited evidence revealed in the few sources, but still stopped short of definitive answers.

Other mysteries range from the relatively large-scale – e.g. how was inter-regional, rail-borne cattle traffic handled at Uddens Abattoir Siding, to the miniscule, mainly of interest to modellers – e.g. whether the four-sided roof of Wimborne signal box came up to a peak point or a short ridge, a conundrum hidden from sight in most photos and unclear on architectural drawings!

There are many more mysteries where we perhaps know limited information or barely any at all. We hope readers may be able to help us solve the mysteries we pose. There are tantalising tales of family photos of railway locations rarely if ever seen, images lost or passed on, with the trail going cold. We shall post enquiries on this website in the hope of tracing such vital resources, even where the last thing heard about them was maybe decades ago.

Exhibitions

Between April and July 2014, the Priest’s House Museum (The Museum of East Dorset since 2020) and the East Dorset Heritage Trust, both in Wimborne, staged a major exhibition on the district’s railway history. It marked the 50th anniversary of closure of the local lines to passengers, which had occurred on 4th May 1964. Colin Divall and Peter Russell co-curated it alongside museum staff. Display panels are still wheeled out for railway shows and other events, notably the bi-annual Wimborne Rail Show. The exhibition attracted great interest and more people with memories, artefacts and ephemera. We may stage future exhibitions as material emerges and matures. We are also working with the Museum on the design of new displays covering the district’s transport history in general.

Wimborne Station staff outside the booking hall, circa 1900. This shows how busy the station was in the early 1900s. Yet this is not the full complement of staff, which is reputed to have peaked at about 120, albeit probably including carters working for the L&SWR between the station, town and outlying districts. There were also restaurant and newspaper kiosk staff. Note the balcony leading directly from the Down platform at track level, sometimes used for loading goods directly into carts on the station forecourt. Photo: © Possibly by Job Pottle; courtesy the Priest House Museum

Ted Henbest, Wimborne’s last station master. Any surviving staff from the 1960s and 1970s will remember Ted well. If readers of this website know any surviving staff or near family, please get in touch with the study (see contact details below). The study has compiled a database of all known railway staff in the district between the early days of the 1840s and the final years. This will be explained in more detail on the History pages. The Museum (now The Museum of East Dorset) holds a recording taken with Ted Henbest. Photo: © and courtesy the Priest House Museum

Wimborne’s railway history exhibited: Part of a series of panels for the 2014 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the closing of the lines through Wimborne to passenger trains in May 1964. The displays were in Allendale House, former home of the Castleman family, Charles Castleman being the main promoter of the Southampton & Dorchester Railway in the 1840s. These panels are often taken along to other local exhibitions. The (then) Priest House Museum simultaneously displayed a wide range of other exhibits. Photo: © Peter Russell