page_title: Droxford railway station
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Droxford railway station / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Pub and road junction at Brockbridge nr Droxford. Seen looking E from embankment of Meon Valley Trail (disused railway line). This pub, The Hurdles, appears to be brand new and was up for sale as "pub restaurant development opportunity" at time of photo.
context_page_description: Droxford railway station was a small station on the Meon Valley Railway, built to a design by T. P. Figgis and opened in 1903. It served the villages of Droxford, Soberton and Hambledon in Hampshire, England. The railway served a relatively lightly populated area, but was built to main line specifications in anticipation of it becoming a major route to Gosport. Consequently, although the station was built in an area with only five houses, it was designed with the capacity to handle 10-carriage trains. It initially proved successful both for the transport of goods and passengers, but services were reduced during the First World War and the subsequent recession, and the route suffered owing to competition from road transport.
  In 1944, amid World War II, Droxford station was used by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill as his base during preparations for the Normandy landings. Based in an armoured train parked in the sidings at Droxford, Churchill met with numerous ministers, military commanders and leaders of allied nations.
context_section_description: Construction of the line began in 1900, beginning at Alton and working south. The station site at Droxford was near high ground, and teams dug a deep cutting through the chalk to allow level access to the station. In mid-1900, the work team digging this cutting found human remains on the site. Construction work ceased while police investigated; it was eventually determined that the remains were Anglo-Saxon. Further bodies, along with metal jewellery and weapons, were discovered, and many of the human bodies had been covered with large pieces of flint. It became obvious that the site was an Anglo-Saxon burial ground. (Later excavations in 1974 identified the site as a pagan cemetery from the 5th and early 6th centuries. A total of 41 graves were identified.) Although the digging of the cutting was further delayed owing to labour shortages, work was largely completed by January 1902. By this time a hotel had opened near the site of the future station, named the Railway Hotel.
  The exact date of construction is unrecorded, but it is likely that Droxford station was built in 1902. As with other stations on the line, the station building was designed by T. P. Figgis, an Irish architect who had designed many of the stations of the City and South London Railway (later to become part of London Underground's Northern line). All the new stations for the line were of a very similar Tudor Revival design, built largely of red brick with Portland stone stonework, stained glass windows and lavatories in the shape of pagodas.
  In anticipation of the route potentially becoming a major main line the station had two very long 600-foot (180 m) platforms, capable of handling 10-carriage trains, connected by a wooden footbridge. In addition, the station had a corrugated iron goods shed with its own siding, and a signal box on the west (northbound) platform. The two lines converged to a single track immediately north of the station, but continued southwards as a double track. With plans for eventually doubling the track of the entire route, all cuttings, tunnels and bridges on the single-track section were built wide enough to accommodate a second track in future. The station building also incorporated a house for the stationmaster and his family, situated immediately to the left of the main entrance to the platforms. In addition to the stationmaster's accommodation in the main building, four cottages for railway staff were built to the immediate west of the station, and a coal yard was built near the station.
  Although the station building was complete, work was proceeding more slowly than anticipated on the construction of the railway line, and the proposed opening date of 25 March 1903 was missed. While the route between Alton and Droxford was built on stable chalk, south of Droxford it entered the Reading Formation of stony clay, a surface on which it was difficult to build; in addition, there were very few water sources for the steam-powered construction machinery and for mixing concrete, necessitating the drilling of multiple deep wells. As well as this, construction work was regularly interrupted by bad weather. The Meon Valley Railway was eventually completed and inspected for fitness by the Board of Trade on 6 April 1903, and the line opened to passengers on 1 June 1903. At the time of opening, the station was staffed by a stationmaster and three signalmen, as well as assorted porters and clerical staff.
caption: The former Railway Hotel, as of 2018[update] renamed The Hurdles
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