Stop 9: Railway Station-Information
Rowlands Castle Station has regular services running from Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo and it is a much-valued component of life in the Village.
The railway was constructed in the 1850s; preliminary purchases of the land from Stansted Estate amounted to £30,000. At Rowlands Castle an additional width was required for the station, the embankment, and the railway bridge. This necessitated buying the old inn, the Castle Inn, at the bottom of Bowes Hill and burying it under the embankment, along with half the Motte of the Motte and Bailey Castle and a good part of the Village Green that went up Woodberry Lane. Try getting planning permission for that nowadays!
The main station building dates from 1859 and was designed by William Tite. It is Grade II listed.
It is not known why it was decided to locate a Station here, in what was then the relatively unimportant village of Rowlands Castle, as opposed to Finchdean, where there was a flourishing Foundry. It was certainly a convenient location for two of the Grand Houses, namely Stansted House and the new Idsworth House. Sir Jervoise Clarke-Jervoise, who then owned the Idsworth Estate, was an influential Member of Parliament for South Hampshire. The railway development required the demolition of the rather dilapidated stately home at Old Idsworth, with a new house built nearby, namely the new Idsworth House, happily at no expense to him.
The Station proved extremely useful for the developing Brickworks behind Deerleap. That, along with day trippers coming from Portsmouth for the fresh air and entertainment around our Green and the ability to be able to commute to Portsmouth and London, were very important factors in the development of Rowlands Castle after the railway opened here in 1859. My speculation is that if the track hadn’t required the re-location of Old Idsworth, then Finchdean may well have been chosen as the location for the Station.
Formerly there were goods and coal sidings trailing off the Up Line at the Petersfield end of the station. There was also a siding trailing off the Havant side of the station, serving the brickworks. Cottages were built for the Railway Workers located at Numbers 1&2 Woodberry Lane.
The location of the station on the London to Portsmouth line, and with forest cover and railway sidings was a prime reason for the village being chosen as a de-training site in the D-day preparations of 1944.