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West Moors
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| > For a few years after the end of the Second World War, the railways, along with other forms of public transport, had a late 'golden age' as people weary of years of war craved escape - to the country if you were in a recently bombed-out town or city, or to the seaside. War-time rationing continued right through the latter half of the 1940s; indeed, some aspects of rationing became even harsher - and the harsh winter of 1946/47 did nothing to help matters. The country's finances were in a mess - a nation that had 'won' the war and which was at the centre of a large empire was thought by the international community to be able to look after itself. The aid went to the defeated countries of Europe and elsewhere: Britain had to fend for itself. The railway infrastructure was in great need of refurbishment. Maintenance during the war years was minimal - both to save money and to avoid having important lines out of commission at critical points. The network of the old Southern Railway in particular was sorely put-upon in this respect, covering as it did all the principal embarkation (and subsequent supply) points for the European invasion forces, yet also bearing the brunt of attacks by the German air forces. Manpower, particularly skilled manpower was also at a premium. Although railway jobs could be 'protected' from call-up, this did not prevent those that felt they should take a more active part in the war from leaving the system. Once the war ended, there was simply not enough money to plough into the railways to bring them up to the mark, and both for ideological & practical reasons, the post-war Labour government decided that the best thing to be done would be to nationalise the railways (along with large sections of other parts of the transport system). This effectively consolidated what had already been brought about during the war - centralised management of the railways. With nationalisation, came some rationalisation, as a new range of locomotives and rolling stock were designed and brought into use across the network. This is the period of the 'Standard' engines, working alongside survivors from the last 50 years or more. The motive power though was still steam - a concious decision as oil (and oil-based products such as diesel) had to be imported, using precious foreign reserves: Britain had huge quantities of coal - to the managers at the time, there was no debate. Electification using third rail was expanded on the Southern suburban network, and some third & fourth rail systems were developed elsewhere, but use of overhead electrical power collection (as was the way forward on mainland Europe) was not considered. This was probably a mistake - not to be rectified until 1970s. But the nation was hard up and didn't have the cash for such 'luxuries'. So, how did this affect 'Wessex' and its railways? Well, hardly at all. The railways of the old Southern were now part of the Southern region of British Railways and ran services much as they had pre-war. The main line through south Dorset was, as it had been since the 1880s (and as it still is), the line from Sway through Christchurch, Bournemouth, Poole and Wareham. The old main line (The 'Old Road') through West Moors was used as a relief for this main line, and north/south services used the Salisbury & West Moors link on their way to Bournemouth or back to the Midlands or South Wales. In the years after the Second World War, there was a rapid transfer of passengers from rail to road; this decline affected all parts of the British Railways network, but traffic on country lines in particular declined alarmingly: on the Brockenhurst - Ringwood - West Moors - Wimborne - Broadstone - Poole railway, which once, remember, was *the* main line to Dorchester, the numbers of passengers fell to such an extent that most trains needed only a couple of coaches pulled by a humble tank engine. These type of workings had been in use well before 1939 of course, but by the 1950s, the ex-LSWR M7 class came to the fore with this work, being fitted with equipment such that they could operate in 'push-pull' mode. This meant that the rearward coach of a set was equipped such that the driver could operate the train 'backwards', leaving the fireman in solitary splendour to maintain the engine. The advantage of this mode of working was that the engine did not need to be turned, or run around the carriage-set at the end of each working, saving time & a small amount of money. At busy times, a third coach might be added, or the train might couple a utility/goods waggon for handling parcels and other light freight - again maximising the revenue earning potential of these useful little engines. It is worth remembering that the M7s were by the early 1960s, around 65 years old & still giving useful service - there are not many cars, buses, lorries etc., with which they were competing that could match that record! [ IMAGE OF PUSH-PULL SET ] West Moors itself in those first 10 years after the end of the War settled back into a rhythm of life that in some ways were not too different to that of the 1930s. However, cars became more evident, lorries now brought & took away most of the goods that the railways would have handled. You no longer needed the railway to do business: this is best illustrated by the fact that in the 1950s, Stewart's Nurseries, who had occupied the large area to the south of the Uddens water and north of the Ringwood/Wimborne turnpike since 1859, decided to move to new premises at Broomhill, northeast of Wimborne. The railway was no longer needed to export the plants etc., and in any case, with higher car ownership, people were coming to the new 'garden centres' to do business. The loss of this particular goods traffic from West Moors Junction sealed its fate. More benefits of the modern world gradually reached West Moors during the 1950s. In recognition (long-overdue perhaps) of the status of the village, West Moors became a civil parish in its own right in 1956, severing the links with West Parley that dated back several centuries. Gas, mains water and electricity had been provided to the village since well before the Second World War (gas since around 1910), and the telephone service, though firmly a boon to the well-off in the village, had been with us since 1933. However, foul-water drainage was not available. Some of the smaller cottages would have had a 'soakaway' for foul water - at the end of a very long garden! At the station in the early days, the waste from the station-master's house & station facilities was initially dug into the SM's garden; then, when this proved impractical (smelly!), a large tank / soakaway was dug into the grounds into which the deposits were emptied. But for many properties, there would have been 'cess pits', regularly emptied for a fee and this method of waste management is still in use in outlying areas to this day. But in the early 1960s, as befitted a community about to experience a dramatic expansion in residential development, mains sewerage reached the village. This had an obvious benefit of removing the need for tanker emptying of cess-pits, but there was another consequence that paved the way for development. The large houses, mainly built in the period 1890s to 1940s, needed a large garden to accommodate the cess pit. Once this edifice was filled in, the garden could be put to other uses - like building! It is from this period that larger gardens are divided and plots sold off for building development. Up until the mid-1960s, gypsies remained encamped around the Elmhurst & Oakhurst Roads - a mixture of temporary buildings, vans & tents. Then the local Council purchased the land from them and houses were built, thus re-housing them. Until the latter part of the 1970s, the 'King of the Gipsies' lived in a large house at the end of Oakhurst Road with a meeting house at the rear. The Meeting House (in Glenwood Road) has been replaced by a bungalow, but the house still stands. |
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[ >>> copy of Railway Magazine
map 1953 ]
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| ... < POST-WAR ROAD > 1948 - 1955 post-war secondary peak in passenger railway traffic, and people wanted to travel again, but the car & luxury coach eventually demolished the requirement for 'local' rail, and goods traffic was quickly removed from the railways to the roads. 1955 - 1964 the cold facts of life. Beeching (though consideration to partial or full closure of the local network had already been considered). |
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| 1945-1960s post-war consolidation - 'in-fill' of housing on moorland off Pinewood Road. With the motor car now taking over from rail as the main way to get around, proximity to the station is irrelevant, and not only do houses/bungalows/villas get built on the edge of West Moors, but Ferndown (was Fern Down) grows exponentially and takes over from WM as the main business centre (along with West Parley). |
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| [ >>> copy of timetable and/or departure listing ] |
| [... image of M7 fitted with push/pull operation] |
| Although passenger traffic was light after the Second World War, and local goods traffic was also tailing off, the old 'main line' was often used as a relief for the route via Bournemouth & Poole. In order to avoid congestion through the latter points, particularly in high summer, the 'old road' carried several freight trains each day; it was also practice to route some passenger trains to/from London on this line too, up to the time of closure, again to avoid working through Bournemouth. In particular, Channel Island boat trains, that did not need to call at Bournemouth, would take the line that was originally built for such traffic over 100 years earlier. The Salisbury & Dorset Junction line (via Fordingbridge & Verwood) also carried long-distance traffic, often those trains coming from South Wales bound for Bournemouth. |
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