Disused Railway Lines from
Malcolm Low
Stokes Bay Line.
Lee-on-the-Solent Line.
Keith Brown ©2007
The research by the author into the disused railway lines
from Fareham Station is the result of his interest in
the
During the writing of his booklet on ‘The Little Church
of St. Francis, Funtley’, he discovered how the
Miners Arms Inn got its name. Apparently during the railway tunnel’s excavation
the navvies would have a drink in the public house of
George Feast, and it is alleged that one of the navvies
(including many Welsh miners) went outside the pub and wrote on the wall, in
chalk, ‘The Miners Arms’. Further stories are told of the first trains to pass
through the tunnel, and one of them is how the Funtley
(then called Fontley) inhabitants waited at the
tunnel entrance to collect top-hats which blew off of the heads of travellers as they shot into the darkness in their draughty
open carriages. In the Portsmouth Evening News of 3rd October 1947 a report
says: “the skeleton of a man who is believed to have been tall and thin was
found today in the tunnel heading on the Southern Railway line between
Although the researcher is not a railway enthusiast,
these stories sparked an interest in the local railway system. Conversations
followed with several local people about the train services to Gosport, Lee-on-the-Solent and
the Knowle Halt on the Eastleigh
and Meon Valley lines, not only could users to Knowle Hospital leave the train but also there was a siding to serve both
the Funtley Brick & Tile Works and later the
Abattoir located nearby. Fareham
station was opened by the
The Meon Valley Line, Gosport and Clarence Yard Line, Stokes Bay Line and
Lee-on-the-Solent Line from
Malcolm Low can be contacted on
email: m.low1@ntlworld.com