This section of the website will add material on specific historical themes and periods as the study develops, and will act specifically as a repository or archive for in-depth studies that are well advanced or as complete as possible.
This will grow to be by far the largest page on the website in terms of content. Each paper listed in this introductory section will in due course have a direct link to a downloadable PDF version once each is ready and uploaded. Readers may also access these and older, archived material by entering a particular subject and/or location, or key words, in the search field at top right.
Emerging papers
The Current Activity page will announce new papers we are uploading, with links to the actual papers on this page or PDF downloads. These papers are either largely complete or well advanced, and we anticipate adding new information as it surfaces from our researches.
Others are under development or planned, as indicated on the Current Activity page. We have already published some papers in other journals or websites and we’ll include these in their published forms or abbreviated forms or extended forms where new information has come to light subsequently.
As of July 2022, the list of completed or advanced papers is:
• A chronology of railway development in and around East Dorset – an overview with dates of promotion, authorisation, construction, opening, closure, etc. It will follow directly after this list of studies.
• Opening of Wimborne Station, June 1847 – an interpretation of the details shown in the well-known engraving published in the Illustrated London News. View PDF.
• L&SWR Bridge 77 over Canford Park West Drive, Wimborne – the story of the ornate second bridge required by the Guest family at Canford Park. [First published in Backtrack 33/4 (April 2019), pp.232-237 and in an abbreviated version in Dorset Life December 2019, pp.19-21.] View PDF.
• ‘River Stour Bridge’ (Br.76), Wimborne – a history of the construction of the original wooden trestle bridge and its replacement iron viaduct on brick piers. [First published in South Western Circular, 19/2 April 2022, pp.60-69] View PDF.
• Leigh Arch (Br.74), Wimborne – a history of the construction and development of this under-bridge crossing the Ringwood Wimborne turnpike, later A31 trunk road. View PDF.
• An Illegal Beeching Closure (Broadstone Junction to Hamworthy Junction) – This route somehow escaped the formal closure procedures, both when the rest of the Old Road lost its passenger services in May 1964 and when the Somerset & Dorset route followed suit in March 1966. Colin Divall has examined the reasons for this anomaly, using the original archive documents. View PDF.
• The Cultural Politics of Transport ‘Modernization’: Lessons from South East Dorset and South West Hampshire, 1955–75 – a previously-published paper by Colin Divall, looking at the lessons of regional transport and land use planning, with specific reference to the railways in and around our study area. It covers the period from British Railways’ 1955 Modernisation Plan to the final demise of the local lines, other than the main route through Bournemouth and Poole. View PDF.
• Leonard’s Bridge Station – Philip Brown has assessed evidence about the existence of facilities at this mysterious location between 1847 and 1867, prior to West Moors Station being opened on roughly the same site after much campaigning by local people and businesses. This paper is a slightly updated diversion of an appendix that appears in a new 2022 edition of Philip’s monograph: Many & Great Inconveniences – The Level Crossings and Gatekeepers’ Cottages of The Southampton & Dorchester Railway View PDF.
• Looking for Wimborne S&D – a three part series covering the development of the Dorset Central Railway (later Somerset & Dorset Railway) link that served Wimborne, from its promotion to its demise. [First published in The S&D Telegraph, issues 32-34, 2008] View PDF.
• Carter’s Conundrum: The Tale of Another S&D Dead-End Working – the story of the stub of the Dorset Central line from Corfe Mullen Junction towards Wimborne that served a clay pit from 1902 to 1959. [First published in The S&D Telegraph, issue 42, September 2013] View PDF.
• The Puffing Billy of the Hedgerows – Colin Divall examines the S&D Dorset halts closure, 1955-56, in a feature first published in The S&D Telegraph, Issue No.50, Autumn 2017. Of the four halts discussed, only Corfe Mullen Halt falls within our study area, but the feature examines the closure procedures common to all four and the specific circumstances surrounding each. View PDF.
• ‘Wimborne Cut-Off’ – The S&DJR opened this new short line between Bailey Gate and ‘(New) Poole Junction’ (later Broadstone) for goods in 1885 and passengers in 1886. Given various official and unofficial titles, it relegated the older line from Bailey Gate into Wimborne to secondary status and eventual closure. It enabled through trains from Bournemouth to Bath to avoid reversal at Wimborne and cut the distance by three miles. The cut-off formation was built for double-track that never materialised despite three attempts. The story of the planned doubling and other aspects of the cut-off was covered in three instalments in the Pines Express (journal of the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust) during 2022. Jonathan Edwards authored the first instalment – on the doubling proposals, while Peter Russell followed up with further research on the cut-off and its impacts on Wimborne and Broadstone, including the latter station’s numerous name changes. All three instalments are reproduced here with kind permission of S&DRT and Elspeth Edwards, Jonathan’s widow.
View PDF – ‘Proposals for doubling the Corfe Mullen Line’
View PDF – ‘More on Doubling the Corfe Mullen cut-off’
View PDF – ‘More on Doubling the Corfe Mullen cut-off Part 2’
• Moorsom’s Station Designs on the Southampton & Dorchester Railway – Philip A. Brown first published this paper in the Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society (R&CHS) in Vol.36, Part 1, March 2008. This is a slightly updated and amended version, with additional illustrations and captions. It covers some stations outside our immediate study area, but of directly related interest because of the common heritage. Captain William Scarth Moorsom was the engineer of the Southampton & Dorchester Railway during its promotion and construction phases. In some sources the station designs have been incorrectly attributed to William Tite or Sancton Wood. Philip corrects and clarifies where necessary and describes and illustrates Moorsom’s stations. View PDF
(arguably a viaduct) taken from the river’s north bank, looking south-eastwards. The arch doubled for flood relief and to provide access to land on either side; it was matched by a similar arch on the south end. The history of the bridge is the subject of an in-depth paper – see at left. Unknown photographer; courtesy and © Museum of East Dorset.
