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West Moors
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| [ WE NEED A PICTURE OF MODERN WEST MOORS
HERE] As the last scheduled passenger train pulled out of West Moors on the evening of the 4th May, 1964, few living in the village at that time, or in the surrounding area could have foreseen the dramatic growth that would follow for West Moors. The population at that time was around 2000 souls and the loss of the railway, though no doubt regretted, was seen as an inevitable part of the 'march of progress'. Railways were 'old' and of a previous time - the services on the lines were worked by steam right up to closure of passenger services, so they were costly to maintain. The working practices were also firmly rooted in the 19th century, with block signalling involving not only a signalbox at each station, but numerous manned crossing-gates. Indeed, I wouldn't mind betting that the overwhelming opinion amongst motorists of the time, particularly those living to the north of the railway, was one of joy that the crossing gates now seemed to be firmly open to the car and the lorry. The maintenance of the track was labour-intensive and hardly changed from the days when the first plate-laying gangs were based at West Moors Junction from the 1860s. Few people would have used the railway as the 'swinging sixties' arrived: the roads, and vehicles using them, were a far more convenient way to get about, and broadly cheaper; the environmental impact was small in those days as car ownership was limited - often being the preserve of the 'man of the house', and goods lorries were not the giant multi-wheel efforts we have now, though things were about to change in this respect with the various Transport Acts of the coming years. As far as West Moors was concerned, nothing much happened straightaway - the residual goods traffic, already pretty light, ceased in January 1965, less than a year after the closure of the line to passenger traffic: however, oil traffic to the Army fuel depot continued into the 1970s. The single-line track north to Verwood, Fordingbridge & Salisbury was lifted and the track bed, station sites etc. progressively sold off to local landowners & developers. The old 'main' line was singled-out west of West Moors, with the line effectively running into the Fuel Depot, where via a network of lines, fuel-oil was distributed to the storage tanks. That traffic continued until 1974. The line east to Ringwood & beyond had long been abandoned (the rails lifted) before this time - I understand that an oil supply pipe is laid underneath the old trackbed at least in part, and also a water main from Blashford Lakes to Poole. As in so many parts of the country, the station was abandoned along with its outbuildings etc., with any 'usable' equipment stripped out and either used elsewhere on the now shrinking British Railways network, or sold off as scrap. The weeds, gorse, heather and scrubby birch gradually took back the land - the station house & platforms started to decay. Some 'specials' were run for rail enthusiasts to West Moors from the Wimborne & Poole direction, though these ceased with the final closure of that line in 1974. Photographs of the 'last train' show the station building to be in a sorry state! So what of West Moors the village? Well, after a slow start, it thrived of course. Progressively during the last third of the 20th century, through a process of 'infill' & 'green field' development, the population increased steadily and by the end of the 20th century, the stated numbers were around 8000, a four-fold increase in thirty years. |
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| < image: station being demolished: see web site etc. > | ||
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| From the 1970s onward development of land took the centre-of-gravity away from the old station area: Pennington, Woolslope Road & Uplands saw the building of bungalows and small houses at a much greater density than formerly and once the station site itself was cleared (circa 1975), then that area was sold off by the residuary company handling ex-BR land for the building of private & community housing: the main block of housing association flats where the old station building was, opened in May 1982. Around the turn of the century, the land making up the western leg of the line towards Uddens & Wimborne was given over to the construction of housing for the elderly and the former crossing keeper's cottage was dwarfed by these buildings. |
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| These maps attempt to show how West Moors has grown over the last century and a half:- | ||
| 1847 (railway opens) - 1866 (junction line opens): | ||
| 1867 (station opens) - 1880s: | ||
| 1890s - 1902: | ||
| 1902 (Brewer & Brewer) - First World War: | ||
| 1920s & 1930s, the 'inter-war' years: | ||
| Second World War to early 1950s: | ||
| Mid/late 1950s and 1960s: | ||
| 1970s - 1990s: | ||
| 2000s and on: | ||
| One major impetus to the growth of the village was the opening of the Ferndown bypass in 1985. As well as relieving (if only partially) traffic congestion through Ferndown, this road effectively brought rapid access to West Moors and this encouraged a good mix in the village: it was not just a place for retirees, but also for those working in Bournemouth, Poole and beyond. When the M3 & M27(west) were completed, then commuting to & from Southampton, Winchester, Basingstoke & even London became a viable proposition: whether it was a 'good thing' I leave to others to judge. At the same time, improvement of the Ringwood - Wimborne road (dual carriageway to Ringwood, new single sections avoiding Wimborne to the east) encouraged further development - expansion - building/re-building of existing houses etc. The older shops in the village & at the A31 end of Pinehurst Road decayed for a time, but in the early 2000s, a renewal of the Station Road shops has brought new life. There has been a demolition of older large, single-family properties along Station Road, replaced by multi-occupancy flats and / or 'mews'-style property. What is interesting is that the old cluster of shops to the immediate north of the former railway is now relegated to the 'second division'. The old Post Office is now subsumed into the Co-op in a part of the village that didn't exist at the start of the 20th century! |
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Now, if you've ploughed on to this point, you might well ask, why this fascination with 'old railways': the lines are long gone! The engines pass in steam no more & the railwaymen of old are either dead, or have moved onto other fields of endeavour. However, it is important to record that here, as well as across Britain, the coming of the railway was the major single event in changing the social & physical shape of this nation, and it also had its effect on our community. And with a renaissance in railway usage plus concerns for the sustainability of transport, the question has to be asked - should the railway still form a part of the West Moors story? It's not fanciful. With a population now nearing 9000 and the roads often impossibly clogged with cars & lorries, a light-rail solution to link the main communities of East Dorset could be of great benefit. It is a shame that the alignment of the former railway has been lost to various developments, but this shouldn't prevent consideration of such a scheme. I understand that there are tentative plans to bring the railway back to Ringwood from the Brockenhurst end - time will tell whether this will work or indeed whether finance will be found for it in these hard-pressed times. |
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