St Lawrence Railway Tunnel, Isle Of Wight
The Newport, Godshill and St Lawrence Railway was opened in 1897, when St Lawrence
station was first opened and was operated by the Isle of Wight Central until 1913,
when they purchased the Newport, Godshill and St Lawrence Railway outright. However,
this part of the railway was not very successful and by 1927 it had been downgraded
to unstaffed. By that time all the railways on the Isle of Wight were run by the
Southern Railway, which became the Southern Region of British Railways after nationalisation
in 1948.
However, the increase in buses and more people using cars after the war began a sharp decline in the number of train passengers on the Island. The St Lawrence branch was closed in 1952. The station was left to become overgrown; in the 1960’s it was still possible to see where the track had run and the platform was easily visible. The station building is still in place and intact, but the track has been infilled, so it is the same level as the platform. The pictures here are of the St Lawrence tunnel, which is west of the St Lawrence station and was part of the Merston – Ventnor line, along which the station of St. Lawrence stood.
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Fortifications In This Area
Fort Albert
Puckpool Battery
Fort Victoria
Culver Battery
Cliffe End Fort
