Chesil Street Station - TrustNews Jun 19
On Friday 1 May 1885 there was a grand opening of Winchester Chesil station which was then the southern terminus of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. From photographs of the occasion it must have been a cold day as there is a covering of snow over the surroundings. Photographs also show that the station master’s house (visible in the photograph, on the hill behind the station buildings) was complete and was painted in the G.W.R. livery, which much later was changed to the green of the Southern Railway.
The bricks for the tunnel, signal box and station master's house were almost certainly supplied by the Pinewood Brick and Tile Company, based on the Pinewood estate north of Newbury, for a railway line was extended to the works presumably to supply materials for the construction of railway buildings.
The station master's house, now called Prospect House and under the threat of demolition, is no architectural gem, but it is not only part of Winchester’s history but of railway history as well, for it was built in the style developed for this railway line from Winchester to Upton, Upton being the last station before the northern terminus at Didcot.
It is interesting that on the original line survey, population numbers were noted, Winchester’s being 16,000. The DN&SR never reached Southampton as intended, but in 1891 the line was extended over the Hockley viaduct to connect with the London and South Western Railway near Shawford.
Chesil Street Station