The rise of the characterful Isle of Wight railway network

There were lines between Cowes and Ryde, Ryde and Ventnor, Newport and Freshwater, Newport and Sandown and even a line from Brading to Bembridge.

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All that is left today is Island Line between Ryde and Shanklin, and Smallbrook to Wootton operated by the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.

The railway was fast, cheap and it changed people’s lives forever but they left a lot to be desired in the early days.

A pleasantly full train makes its way down Ryde Pier, sometime in the 60s. (See gallery for full caption). Photo: Colin Fairweather/County Press.

A Victorian cartoon showed a poster at Ryde Pier declaring ‘The Isle of Wight Railway — 12 miles in 12 hours for 12 shillings’ while a local joke claimed, ‘The dog which fell out of the train window at Newport was waiting for the train on its arrival at Havenstreet’.

But before we begin, let’s get one thing clear. Doctor Beeching didn’t close a single railway line.

In 1963 he was asked by the Conservative government for a list of uneconomic lines. By the time he produced it, the Tories were gone, defeated by Labour in the 1964 election.

Barbara Castle, the new transport minister, was expected to ignore Beeching’s recommendations but she said: “No, close down them all down!”

So it was the nasty Labour party that closed the lines, not the nasty Tory party — and certainly not Doctor Beeching.

The first line to open was the Cowes to Newport Railway in 1862, and the last line, opened in 1897, joined Newport to Godshill and Ventnor.

Seen in August 1962 in Ventnor station is its namesake, No. 16, ‘Ventnor’. (See gallery for full caption). Photo: Colin Fairweather/County Press.

The Cowes to Ryde line returned a profit until the 1950s, as did the Ryde to Shanklin line but the rest barely earned a penny.

In 1879 a line opened between Newport and Sandown passing through Shide, Blackwater, Merstone, Horringford, Newchurch and Alverstone.

The Isle of Wight Observer in 1878, commented, “That the people of Horringford might wish to visit the people of Blackwater was reasonable to suppose, but the company could not really expect them to do it often enough to make the line pay.” And so it was. The line went into bankruptcy even before it opened.

In 1894, a Newport councillor told a council meeting, “If passengers took a waterproof and umbrella with them they could travel with fair comfort. The line was a dustbin on wheels (laughter).”

However, the line did leave us a nature reserve, Pan Chalk Pit, which once supplied the Medina Cement Mills with chalk, and its other legacy is the cycleway from Shide to Sandown, with Merstone station in the middle, remaining as busy as it ever was but now as a car park for the cyclists.

In 1888 a line was opened between Newport and Freshwater. It never made a penny and was closed in 1953.

In 1983, Colin Fairweather and myself recorded interviews with Islanders, then in their eighties, about their lives.

George Bolt, a telephone engineer, rode the line many times. We asked him if it was a nice ride out to Freshwater. He told us, “Yes, but by the time you got to Freshwater you was lucky if you was in the same seat as what you started in at Newport! You used to bump about all over the place — the line was rickety as anything.”

In 2013 a collection of over 400 love letters between Mabel Attrill and her fiancee, Bob Brimson in the trenches on the Somme came to light - and was subsequently published as a book.

One of the letters to Bob, written in December 1916 and now in the possession of Richard Brimson, backs George up, “There wasn’t half a nice concert at the Drill Hall. They took off the Freshwater Railway a treat. The man says, “I was on the 11.59 to Freshwater. Suddenly there was an awful crash (the man at the piano touches the top note so as you could just hear). The train stopped, with carriages piled on top of each other. The guard investigated and found — a fly on the line!”

Members of the Locomotive Group of Great Britain visited in October 1965 and members took photos. (See gallery for full caption). Photo: Colin Fairweather/County Press.

In December 1890 the County Press piled in: “The scene, a railway platform not 100 miles from Brading. Gentleman to station master, bustling about platform: ‘You seem to have plenty to do here, Station master.’ Station Master: ‘ I do, sir, what with trains coming in this way and that way, besides attending to passengers’ luggage and goods traffic.’ Gentleman: ‘Yes, I know something of what it is, being station master at Clapham Junction.’ Exit Station Master.”

The station master at Brading was Mr. Corbett and he knew nothing about this conversation until he saw it in the CP. He wasn’t happy and dashed off a letter to the Editor : “Sir, – Doubtless the festivities of Christmas assisted the vivid imagination of the person who invented a conversation said to have taken place with me. I flatly deny uttering the words attributed to me. If the person will reply, perhaps he will be candid enough to add his name and address, Geo. Corbett, Station Master.” There was no reply.

Line closures in the 1950s left just the Cowes to Ryde and Ryde to Ventnor lines until they too were closed in 1966, apart from the Ryde to Shanklin section. There was surprisingly little protest from the general public — the motor car and buses had won the day.

Three of the photographs accompanying this article were taken by myself. The remainder come from a huge collection of high quality negatives collected by Colin Fairweather, railway enthusiast and photographer, who has kindly allowed their use here.

His superb collection of Isle of Wight railway negatives may well be the largest in private hands.

Like reading stories about life on the Isle of Wight in bygone days? Click here to visit our Looking Back section for more fascinating tales.