Trade Routes

Sadly, there is little left of the canal which once connected the north Hampshire town of Andover with the open sea at Southampton.
In the 1800s it was intended to providea trade lifeline through the county with wharves in Andover, Stockbridge and Romsey intended to land coal and building materials and taking out agricultural produce, but according to historical records it never achieved the trade that had been anticipated, and by the mid 1800s was in decline.
Then came the railway, part of which was built on the course of the canal. Today the railway line from Romsey, to Andover, once familiarly known as the “Sprat and Winkle” line is no more and forms part of the Test Way nature walkway from Southampton to Andover.
But you can still capture something of these forms of transport by the still existing railway line from Southampton to Salisbury. Alongside the track is the Romsey preservation Signalbox with this part of the canal, now much overgrown, still existing. Once the canal passed through 24 locks in its 22 mile length as it flowed towards the sea, but with its decline all those years ago, it became part of the River Test
The canal as such closed 157 years ago this month and the first part of the railway construction began the very next day.