A proposed railway linking Ventnor with Freshwater was debated before a House of Lords committee on 19th March 1886 – 140 years ago today.
Plans placed before the committee concerned an extension of a proposed railway system on the Island’s south-west coast, which its promoters hoped to carry westwards across the Island to Freshwater.
The idea was ambitious, but the geography was challenging. The route would run for more than 10 miles along the windswept south-west coast beside the Military Road, an area that was sparsely populated even in Victorian times and exposed to some of the Island’s worst winter weather.
Today the same stretch of coastline still has no regular bus service, a reminder of just how little everyday traffic the area generates.
The promoters had already secured powers the previous year to construct a railway to Chale. In 1886, they returned to Parliament seeking authority for the further extension towards Freshwater, effectively creating a railway route along the back of the Wight.
They told the committee that the extension would require capital of £100,000 – equivalent to £13million in today’s money. The Secretary of State for War had agreed to the railway running alongside the Military Road, and landlords along the proposed route were said to support the scheme.
However, the proposal faced opposition from the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway Company, which had already secured Parliamentary approval for its own line across West Wight in 1880.
Representing the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway Company, Mr Balfour Browne argued that the 2 railways would inevitably compete with one another. Both, he suggested, would aim to carry visitors arriving from England towards Freshwater, which was becoming increasingly fashionable thanks to nearby Alum Bay, the Needles and the home of poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Those promoting the extension disagreed, insisting that the traffic carried by the two lines would be quite different and that the only place where direct competition might occur would be at Freshwater station itself.
In the end the ambitious coastal scheme came to nothing. The rival Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway eventually opened its line in 1889, providing West Wight with its railway connection.
The grand plan for a railway along the back of the Wight quietly disappeared, leaving behind one of those intriguing Victorian schemes that looked impressive on paper but might have struggled to fill more than a handful of seats once the winter winds began to blow.
Great story.
Time to bring back the island railways, better for the
environment and safer too.
Should never have got rid of them.
This Island would benefit so much if that was still running.
That is what makes the Isle of Man extra special