Bridge over the former Sprat and Winkle Line

This is former road over-bridge over the former London & South Western Railway branch between Andover and Romsey, known as the "Sprat and Winkle" "Line. The name has two possible origins. The first is that the southern part of the line ran close to the mud flats of the River Test where the winkle may be found but alas no sprats! The second possible may be after the seafood that was carried from Southampton to Andover.

The line, far from being a sleepy country branch line, was part of the Midland Railway's strategic tentacles - in the same way as was the more famous Somerset & Dorset Railway.

In the 1880s and 1890s the Midland & South Western Junction Railway managed to connect the MR at Cheltenham and the L&SWR at Southampton Docks, thus forging a north-south route that avoided the mighyt Great Western. The M&SWJR even had the temerity to pass through Swindon!

A very long essay could be written on the railway politics of the late 19th Century but suffice to say that after the M&SWJR achieved connection in the north at Cheltenham, the company achieved a success in the south when it received full running powers from Andover to Southampton Docks by Act of Parliament in 1882; "a valuable right enjoyed by no other company".

It is this running powers section that is shown here. Goods operation started on 1 November 1892 and passenger working with M&SWJR engines and crews on 1 June 1894. The Company now had finally achieved the connection to run its own trains between the Midland Railway at Cheltenham, and the port on the English Channel at Southampton.

In its early years, the MS&WJR managerial control was poor, receipts were weak and the interest on loans was crippling, The Company was in receivership. The directors approached the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) in 1891 for advice. The L&SWR were supportive and seconded Sam Fay, then 35 years old, to the Company, He became General manager and Secretary.

In just five years Fay increased receipts by 63% while working expenses increased by only 13%; Fay obtained discharge from bankruptcy for the Company in November 1897. Fay had single-handedly saved the Company. He returned to the L&SWR to become its General Manager in April 1899. After which he became General Manager of the Great Central, was knighted at the opening of the Immingham Dock in 1912 and in the Great War had a seat on the War Council as Director of Movements and Railways - a post of enormous importance with the rank of general. He had started at age 15 as a clerk at Itchen Abbas, from whence he moved to Stockbridge on the Sprat and Winkle line and thence to Kingston-pon-Thames. Proof positive of Victorian social mobility.

On the opening of the entire M&SWJR line, the passenger train service was not well organised, but under Fay, in 1892 two complete trains (locomotive and carriages) were borrowed from the LSWR and these worked fast trains between Southampton and Cheltenham until M&SWJR stock was available. The best trains in 1914, took 147 minutes northbound and 156 southbound between Southampton West and Cheltenham, a distance of 94¾ miles. Through coaches were taken on by the Midland Railway to destinations including Sheffield, Manchester, Bradford and Leeds.