Part 7: Trackbed & Remains: The Stokes Bay Branch

The Stokes Bay branch originally ran from Gosport station to Stokes Bay Pier, with an intermediate station at Gosport Road (situated in a cutting just west of where The White Hart Inn is now, in Stoke Road). It involved the eastern section of the triangle (covered in Part 6), through a cutting from Daisy Lane (where a foot crossing and a footbridge were to be found) to Stoke Road. after passing through a cutting (mostly now Bury Close), where Gosport Road station was situated, then across Workhouse Viaduct to Alver Creek, crossing it via Anglesey Viaduct, replaced in 1898 by a single span iron bridge (which became known locally as Jackie Spencer's Bridge for ever - Jackie Spencer was the gatekeeper of the level crossing which marked the meeting point of Park Road and Little Anglesey Road; he & his family lived in No.1 Railway Cottage aka 7 Little Anglesey Road, situated on the east side of the line just north of the crossing), under a twin-arched road bridge at Clayhall Road (Clayhall Arch, demolished in 1960, the resulting rubble being used as infill in Stokes Bay Moat), through Angleseyville (with a level crossing in Crescent Road) to Fort Road (with another level crossing), from where an embankment was necessary to reach Stokes Bay Pier, with the golf course on the east side, Stokes Bay moat and (later) an Army camp to the west, crossing the connecting road over a bridge towards the pier itself. The western side of the triangle was a later addition, being opened on 1st June 1865, when a new junction at Lees Lane joined the Stokes Bay branch just north of Daisy Lane; this enabled trains from Bishopstoke (Eastleigh) to travel directly to Stokes Bay without having to reverse at Gosport station, a result of which was the opening (on the same date as the Gosport avoiding line came into use) of a new station adjacent to Stoke Road to cater for passengers to/from Gosport itself; this station was originally named Stoke Road, which was soon changed to Gosport & Alverstoke, itself being changed to Gosport Road on 8th November 1866. Nothing at all remains from Crescent Road; the pier was demolished in the 70s, the embankment by the golf course was levelled, and the two bridges were demolished. The cutting at Gosport Road station was filled in, and the Stoke Road overbridge (Bury Arch) was demolished in the 1930s. These photos cover the surviving trackbed (again, mostly still in existence as a cycleway & footpath) from Clayhall to Stoke Road, and the photos in this section were either taken on the 12th October 2009, or during 2015.

This is the building which I had previously thought to have been Gosport Road station house, but as can be seen, it was in fact The Railway Tavern; the entrance to the ramp down to the 'down' platform can be seen on the left. The pub probably closed down around the same time as the station (October 1915), as drnkers' requirements could be catered for in the nearby White Hart. For many years, this building was a stationery business, Kemp Bros & Wooton, but has been a private residence for a long time now (see previous photo), and has an extensiion built on the left-hand side. Obviously, this isn't one of my photographs, so credit must go to the unknown original photographer.
A distant viw of Jackie Spencer's Bridge (Anglesey Viaduct), with the trees of Haslar Naval Cemetery in the background. 18th August 2015.
View southeast along Crescent Road. The cycleway (the southern extent of surviving trackbed) is on the left, level with the driveway on the right. The brick building on the extreme right is part of Admiralty Cottage, a private residence for c.100 years, but until the Stokes Bay line closed at the end of October 1915, this was the gatekeeper's residence. 22nd March 2015.
The trackbed/cycleway looking north from Crescent Road; the level crossing would have been immediately to the right. 22nd March 2015.

Admiralty Cottage, in Crescent Road, a private residence for c.100 years, but until the Stokes Bay line closed at the end of October 1915, the house was the gatekeeper's residence. 22nd March 2015.
Admiralty Cottage, in Crescent Road, a private residence for c.100 years, but until the Stokes Bay line closed at the end of October 1915, the house was the gatekeeper's residence. 22nd March 2015.
This is Admiralty Cottage, in Crescent Road, a private residence for c.100 years, but until the Stokes Bay line closed at the end of October 1915, the house was the gatekeeper's residence. 22nd March 2015.
View west along Crescent Road; Elachie Road is on the right, and the railway crossed the road from where the red bin is, at the end of the cycleway. There was a level crossing here. 22nd March 2015.

The trackbed/cycleway seen from its southern end in Crescent Road, looking north towards Clayhall Road from the site of the level crossing. 22nd March 2015.
The southern end of the remaining trackbed (in the form of a cycleway) ends here, where the railway encountered a level crossing in Crescent Road. This view is looking southeast towards Haslar, and the crossing would have been here, in the foreground; the end of the cycleway can be seen on the left. The remainder of the trackbed between here and Fort Road has now been replaced by housing. 1st March 2015.
View southeast to Jackie Spencer's Bridge (Anglesey Viaduct) from the west end of Alver Creek. 18th August 2015.
View west of Alver Creek & St Mary's Church, Alverstoke, from the site of the level crossing in Little Anglesey Road; Jackie Spencer's Bridge is to the left of the picture. 1st February 2015.

View north of the trackbed/cycleway from Little Anglesey Road. 1st February 2015.
View from Jackie Spencer's Bridge, looking south towards Clayhall Road, where the double tracks would have passed beneath the twin-arched Clayhall Arch, which was demolished in 1960, the resulting rubble been used as infill material in Stokes Bay moat. The iron railings on the left follow the public footpath which skirts the inlet off Haslar Creek as far as Clayhall Road; when the railway was still used, the only public means of crossing the creek was via a wooden walkway attached to the bridge on the eastern (left) side, which is why the railings are set so far back from the trackbed. The railway was fenced off from the footpath. 1st February 2015.
View along the cycleway looking south across Little Anglesey Road to Jackie Spencer's Bridge. 1st February 2015.
Jackie Spencer's Bridge, view north towards Little Anglesey Road (the site of the level crossing of which Jackie Spencer was the gatekeeper) and beyond. He and his family lived in No.1 Railway Cottage (aka 7 Little Anglesey Road), to the right of the north of the crossing, and after his retirement, they moved in with his daughter's family just along the road at 32 (now 66) Park Road, where he died on 7th May 1907. After his death, for reasons unknown, his daughter's family did NOT continue to house his widow, and she spent her last years just across the road in the Alverstoke House of Industry (to whit:- The Workhouse), where she died in April 1913. Very peculiar.... 1st February 2015.

The west end of Workhouse Lake, from Alver Road Bridge, with Workhouse Viaduct in the centre of the photo. the lake itself used to extend quite some distance the other side of the viaduct, which used to look a bit more like a bridge than it does nowadays. 1st February 2015.
The United Reform Church, looking north across Stoke Road; the railway line was situated immediately to the left of the building. Stoke Road was elevated over the line at this point by an overbridge, and Gosport Road station was situated to the left of the camera's position. Beyond the church, the railway passed through a cutting to the triangle the other side of Daisy Lane; that cutting is now Bury Close, the houses either side of what was the trackbed having sloping front gardens for that reason. 12th October 2009.
The Gosport telephone exchange, which was partly built on the trackbed north of White Hart Road; the trackbed would have occupied more or less the right-hand two-thirds of this photo, taken across the South Relief Road, looking north. 12th October 2009.
This building in White Hart Road, now private dwellings, and much changed in recent years, used to be a stationery supplies shop, but long before that, it was the station building of Gosport Road station - or so I thought; it turns out to have been The Railway Tavern (see following photo), and the ticket office etc were on the up side of the station, in Foster Road. 12th October 2009.

The end of the cycleway is here, where it meets the South Relief Road; this is a new road (1970's), occupying some of what was (and some still IS) White Hart Road, and the site of Gosport Road railway station (closed October 30th 1915). This is the view north from a point alongside Cleveland Road (to the right). 12th October 2009.
The view along the trackbed from the same point as the preceding photograph, looking across Workhouse Creek bridge towards Alecto Road. 12th October 2009.
The cycleway using the trackbed ends at this point, where it meets the South Relief Road; this is a new road (1970's), occupying some of what was (and some still IS) White Hart Road, and the site of Gosport Road railway station (closed October 30th 1915). This is the view north from a point alongside Cleveland Road (to the right). 12th October 2009.
The view south along the trackbed from the same position as the previous photograph, looking past Workhouse Creek bridge towards Alecto Road. 12th October 2009.