Ringwood railway station

For the railway station in Victoria, Australia, see Ringwood railway station, Melbourne.

Ringwood
Site of the railway station, now an industrial area
General information
Location	Ringwood, New Forest, Hampshire England
Grid reference	SU153047
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway
Pre-grouping	Southampton and Dorchester Railway London and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway Southern Region of British Railways
Key dates
1 June 1847	Opened
4 May 1964	Closed to passengers
7 August 1967	Closed to freight

Ringwood is a closed railway station in the county of Hampshire, England which served the town of Ringwood. It lay on the former Southampton and Dorchester Railway, the original main line from a connection with the London and South Western Railway at Southampton, through Brockenhurst to Dorchester.

History

The later development of Bournemouth as a major town led to the building of a branch from Ringwood through to Christchurch, later extended to Bournemouth. This was the Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway.

In 1885, the present main line from Brockenhurst to Christchurch and on to Poole, via what is now Bournemouth station, was opened. The Ringwood to Christchurch line relegated to branch status; it closed to all traffic in 1935.

The Southampton and Dorchester line continued to carry all the trains to Dorchester and beyond to Weymouth until the Holes Bay Curve linking Poole with Hamworthy Junction opened in 1893. From then, passenger trains were mostly restricted to local services between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth West, although at various times there were through services on a daily or weekly basis to places such as Weymouth, Southampton Central and Eastleigh.

With the build-up of holiday traffic in the 20th century, the route also proved a useful alternative to the congested Bournemouth line for summer Saturday trains to Weymouth and Swanage; through goods trains also continued regularly to use the line. The central section of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway from Lymington Junction (exclusive) to Broadstone Junction (exclusive) was closed to passengers on 4 May 1964, one of the first closures following the Beeching Report of March 1963. The line east of Ringwood was closed completely and the track was lifted in 1965; however, public goods services continued from the Poole direction until August 1967 and the track was shortly thereafter lifted back to the RAOC fuel depot at West Moors.

Line today

The station was demolished after closure and most of the site has been redeveloped with industrial units. The trackbed approaching the town from each direction is now part of the Castleman Trailway.

Cast iron canopy columns from the station were used to build a new shelter at Ropley Station on The Watercress Line

A report from the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) published in June 2009 recommended the rebuilding of part of the Brockenhurst to Poole line from Brockenhurst to Ringwood. The report (Connecting Communities: Expanding Access to the Rail Network) looked into the feasibility of reopening disused lines and stations, it concluded that there was a business case for investing £70m in the new link with an hourly service.

In 2023, The Ringwood Society, a local amenity group, were awarded £43,880 by National Lottery Heritage Fund for a project to restore an area of land formerly part of the railway station and for a 'Memories of Ringwood Railway' exhibition and memory capture project. A digital version of the exhibition was added to their website.

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Holmsley Line and station closed		British Rail Southern Region Southampton and Dorchester Railway		Ashley Heath Line and station closed
Terminus		Southern Railway Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway		Avon Lodge Line and station closed

Railways in the Bournemouth area
South West Main Line to London via Southampton Brockenhurst Holmsley Lymington Branch Line to Lymington Pier Ringwood Sway Avon Lodge New Milton Hurn Hinton Admiral Ringwood, Christchurch & Bournemouth Railway Christchurch (RC&BR) Christchurch Pokesdown Ashley Heath Halt Boscombe Bournemouth East Salisbury & Dorset Jn Rly to Salisbury via Verwood Bournemouth Central Bournemouth West Meyrick Park Halt Bournemouth Depot West Moors Branksome Parkstone Wimborne Salterns Quay Poole Poole Quay Line Creekmoor Halt Broadstone Holes Bay Causeway Corfe Mullen Halt Lower Hamworthy Goods Hamworthy (1847–1896) Hamworthy Junction Lake Halt Bailey Gate Somerset & Dorset Jt Rly to Bath or Burnham South West Main Line to Weymouth via Dorchester

See also

• List of closed railway stations in Britain

Further reading

• R.V.J. Butt (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1.
• B.L. Jackson, Castleman's Corkscrew: Including the Railways of Bournemouth and Associated Lines (2 vols), Oakwood Press, 2007, 2008
• J.H. Lucking. Railways of Dorset. Railway Correspondence and Travel Society 1968.

External links

• Ringwood Station at Subterranea Britannica
• Rural Rides
• Memories of Ringwood Railway Project