The London and Southampton Railway was first proposed in 1831 and the bill approved by Parliament in 1834 at a cost of £900,000. The section between Basingstoke and Winchester opened on 11 May 1840 – and was the final part of the London and Southampton Railway to be completed. Prior to its construction, all of the traffic between London and Southampton was carried by eight stage coaches, four wagons per week, and one barge weekly on the Basingstoke Canal!
The London and Southampton Railway was first proposed in 1831 and the bill approved by Parliament in 1834 at a cost of £900,000. The section between Basingstoke and Winchester opened on 11 May 1840 – and was the final part of the London and Southampton Railway to be completed. Prior to its construction, all of the traffic between London and Southampton was carried by eight stage coaches, four wagons per week, and one barge weekly on the Basingstoke Canal!
The London and Southampton Railway was first proposed in 1831 and the bill approved by Parliament in 1834 at a cost of £900,000. The section between Basingstoke and Winchester opened on 11 May 1840 – and was the final part of the London and Southampton Railway to be completed. Prior to its construction, all of the traffic between London and Southampton was carried by eight stage coaches, four wagons per week, and one barge weekly on the Basingstoke Canal!
Norsebury & Weston Colley cont'd
The River Dever
Weston Colley is a hamlet of houses clustered around a farm through which the River Dever flows. There has been a watermill here from the earliest of times – the Domesday Survey reports that the mill was rented at 30d (15p) per annum. In 1390 a miller called Henry Gill held it in feudal tenure along with a croft of arable land at Norsebury. The mill operated for many centuries and was probably at its busiest in the winter when the flow of water in the river was at its greatest. It was an important community asset for without it farmers could not extract grain from their crops. In 1771 the miller was one William Gandy who was ordered by the manorial court to repair the river bank. It ceased to operate in the latter half of the 19th century.
Continuing in an easterly direction the lane known as Token Way, or Toking Way or Tribute Way, from Weston Colley climbs to the railway arch at a spot called The Gullet where navvies building the railway unearthed a Saxon cemetery.
The history summaries are taken, with kind permission from Peter Clarke's family,
excerpts from Dever & Down: A History of the Villages in and Around the Dever Valley in Hampshire
by Peter Clarke.
1963
Weston Mill 1960
Mill House 2000
1963