RAIL CHRONOLOGY :
WIMBORNE - BAILEY GATE (CORFE MULLEN JUNCTION) : withdrawal of passenger services

Page last updated 23 September 2015

All the usual sources (including M D Greville & J G Spence, Closed Passenger Lines of Great Britain 1927-1947, RCHS, 1974 and R Atthill, The Somerset & Dorset Railway, David & Charles, 3rd edition pages 143 and 182) give the passenger closure date for Wimborne to Corfe Mullen Jn (Somerset & Dorset Joint Committee) as Monday 12 July 1920, but this widely quoted date proves not to be correct.

Passenger services over this line, in the run-up to that date, are as follows. Times are quoted here in 24 hour clock although contemporaneously they were in 12 hour clock, of course. Source items in The National Archive at Kew are quoted with their reference (prefix RAIL). Unfortunately, no S&D timetables (working 1 or public) for the relevant period have been found in the Kew collection, while the minutes of the quarterly officers’ meetings between the two owning companies (which are available at Kew) throw no light at all on the matter. Some years ago, Oxford Publishing Co produced a reprint of the October 1920 S&D working timetable. A small number of S&D working timetables is in the National Railway Museum's Search Engine facility at York (under their reference ALS4/138/F7) - one having significant bearing on this question. Another is in Brunel University's Library Transport History Collection.

19 November 1916 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/58]
0943 Mon to Sat Wimborne - Bailey Gate
1430 Mon to Sat Wimborne - Bath Midland (formed by 1350 Mon to Sat Bournemouth West - Wimborne)
0720 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
10xx Mon to Sat Bailey Gate - Wimborne (start time approx. 1035)
1203 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1805 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
2050 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1550 Sundays Blandford - Bournemouth West via Wimborne

1 May 1918 [public supplement to above - RAIL 947/58] and February 1919 [reprint from Bradshaw of L&SW pages marked “Service use” - RAIL 947/58]
1430 Mon to Sat Wimborne - Bath Midland (formed by 1350 Mon to Sat Bournemouth West - Wimborne)
0720 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1203 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1550 Sundays Blandford - Bournemouth West via Wimborne

July 1919 [reprint from Bradshaw of L&SW pages marked “Service use” - RAIL 947/58]
1430 Mon to Sat Wimborne - Bath Midland (formed by 1350 Mon to Sat Bournemouth West - Wimborne)
0720 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1205 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1600 Sundays Blandford - Bournemouth West via Wimborne

16 November 1919 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/58 and L&SW working timetable - RAIL 948/74]
0705 Mon to Sat Christchurch - Blandford via Bournemouth and Wimborne (L&SW passenger train in working timetable but not in S&D page in public timetable)
1340 Mon to Sat Bournemouth West - Bath Midland via Wimborne
0725 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Wimborne (thence to Brockenhurst in L&SW working timetable - presumably as L&SW train)
1150 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1600 Sundays Blandford - Bournemouth West via Wimborne

9 February 1920 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/59]
1340 Mon to Sat Bournemouth West - Bath Midland via Wimborne
0725 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Brockenhurst via Wimborne
1150 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne
1600 Sundays Blandford - Bournemouth West via Wimborne

3 May 1920 [S&D Joint working timetable - Brunel University]
0725 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Wimborne [probably forward to Brockenhurst]
1600 Sundays Blandford - Wimborne [milk and passenger; probably forward to Bournemouth West]

11 July 1920 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/59 and L&SW Central District working timetable - RAIL 948/76]
0725 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Brockenhurst via Wimborne [shown erroneously as 0720 in L&SW working timetable; probably forward to Bournemouth via Hurn]
1600 Sundays Blandford - Wimborne [milk and passenger; forward to Bournemouth West]

4 October 1920 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/59 and /60 and L&SW Central District working timetable - RAIL 948/77 and Somerset & Dorset working timetable - OPC reprint]
0725 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Brockenhurst via Wimborne [shown erroneously as 0720 in L&SW working timetable and only to Wimborne in S&D working timetable; probably forward to Bournemouth via Hurn]
1550 Sundays Blandford - Wimborne [milk and passenger; forward to Bournemouth West]

6 April 1921 [supplement to L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/60]
No changes identified

18 April 1921, 22 April 1921, 6 June 1921, 26 June 1921 [supplements to L&SW public timetable in consequence of UK coal strikes - RAIL 947/60]
Mon to Sat train withdrawn at or by 18 April; no mention of Sunday train

10 July 1921 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/60 and L&SW Central District working timetable - RAIL 948/78 and /79]
No passenger services over the line:

  • Mon to Sat train retimed to 0725 and running direct to Broadstone - replaced by L&SW 0828 Bournemouth West - Brockenhurst
  • Sunday milk traffic now worked by 1300 Wimborne - Templecombe (no return working and not mixed] - this continued to be the case hereafter

    2 October 1921 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/60]
    No passenger services over the line

    1 May 1922 [S&D Joint working timetable - NRM York ALS4/138/F7]
    0725 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Wimborne [probably forward to Bournemouth via Hurn]

    18 June 1922 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/61 and L&SW Central District working timetable - RAIL 948/80]
    0725 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Bournemouth West via Wimborne - public timetable
    0720 Mon to Sat Templecombe - Brockenhurst via Wimborne [probably forward to Bournemouth via Hurn] - working timetable

    1 October 1922 [L&SW public timetable - RAIL 947/61]
    No passenger services over the line (Mon to Sat train running direct to Broadstone)

    9 July 1923 [SR South Western Section Central District working timetable - RAIL 948/81 and 980/2]
    No passenger services over the line: Mon to Sat train retimed to 0725 and running direct to Broadstone - replaced by SR 0740 Swanage - Brockenhurst

    1 October 1923 [SR South Western Section Central District working timetable - RAIL 980/3]
    No passenger services over the line: Mon to Sat train running direct to Broadstone

    14 July 1924 [SR South Western Section Central District working timetable - RAIL 980/8]
    No passenger services over the line: Mon to Sat train running direct to Broadstone

    22 September 1924 [SR South Western Section Central District working timetable - RAIL 980/9]
    No passenger services over the line: Mon to Sat train running direct to Broadstone

    Therefore, it can be seen that, while services had been eroding in the late 1910’s, 12 July 1920 did not mark the passenger closure. However, during the period mid-April 1921 to 17 June 1922 passenger service was suspended - prompted initially by the need for a reduction and reorganisation of services in consequence of the UK coal strike. After running again during summer 1922, the passenger service over this line appears finally to have been deleted with the timetable that came into effect on Sunday 1 October 1922. In other words, the last train would have run on Saturday 30 September 1922, thus the passenger service was withdrawn with effect from Monday 2 October 1922.

    1: some S&D working timetables at Kew are not indexed as such but may to be found in the bound volumes of Midland Railway and LMS Midland Division working timetables.

    Richard Maund

    An abridged version of this article also appeared in Railway & Canal Historical Society Railway Chronology Group Co-ordinating Newsletter no. 48, October 2006 and no. 49, January 2007.

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