The History

Alton was provided with a footbridge at Alton station, Hampshire (UK), in 1892. It was an open timber structure, held together by bolts and brackets. This was not good enough for the 'Ladies of Alton', so they lobbied the railway company and got it covered in 1894, and windows provided in 1896. Research has revealed that these ladies were in fact part of the women's suffrage movement. Having out-lived all the other timber footbridges of its era, a replacement was provided with lifts in 2013 (further up the platform). It was felt by Altonians that the old footbridge was of historical significance and was an integral part of the station ambience for those visiting the Watercress Line on platform 3.

The Campaign

We are raising funds to allow us to restore the historic timber footbridge formerly at Alton railway station and install it in time for its 130th birthday. Although it was built in 1892, it wasn't until 1896 that it had received its roof and windows, and that is how we all remember it.

The Project

Friends of Alton Station was set up as a pressure group in 2014. We tried getting the bridge listed on two occasions, but both applications were rejected. It was clear that we had to negotiate with Network Rail if the bridge was going to be saved for posterity. At first, it was thought that Network Rail could repair the bridge within their budgets, but when work started on site, it was soon clear that a lot more work was required to bring it up to standard. There were a number of dates set for the removal of the footbridge, but in the end it was removed on Saturday 7th March 2020. The bridge has now been completely dismantled ready for restoration, so the campaign continues. We are in the process of registering a dedicated charity for the bridge restoration to take the project forward.

We are now raising funds to cover the costs of restoration and reinstallation of the footbridge. Up until August 2019, our primary goal was to put the footbridge back in its current position, but we worked out that the costs of doing this would be prohibitive. The deciding factor was the offer of a £50k grant from the Railway Heritage Trust to cover the extra costs entailed in carefully removing of the bridge. They would only award the grant to us if we relocate the bridge away from the working railway. The hope is that we can move it a very short distance so that it crosses the nearby Mid-Hants Railway tracks, but this is a matter for future negotiation.

The central section of the footbridge was finally removed on Saturday 7th March 2020 and we arranged for its transport off site. The proprietor of Brant Storage (on the Basingstoke Road) kindly offered us free storage space, so during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was mothballed awaiting further work. We selected Green Oak Carpentry to dismantle the footbridge and this was done at the end of January 2022. The components have now been put into storage whilst we seek more funds to restore the bridge.

The cost of restoration is going to be comparatively high, partly due to timber decay, but also because we will have to recreate the side sections of stairs from scratch. We now have the task of seeking funds to cover this work and ultimately, the cost of reconstruction.

We need your financial support more than ever, so if you are able to make a donation to us through this page, that will be gratefully received.

Many thanks to our Donors

We are fortunate to have a good number of people who have donated money to our cause. Many thanks to all those people - without you our project would be a non-starter. If you have yet to make a donation, we would like to point out that you can donate in monthly instalments through Just Giving, if that's any help. If you wonder what we've spent money on so far... In 2017 we used a District Council grant to pay for an engineering survey of the bridge condition. In 2019 we used your donations to pay for engineering company to provide calculations for the removal of the bridge. In 2020 we spent £11k on transporting the bridge to its storage site, as well as a further £2.4k on timber packing materials to support the bridge. In 2022 we have spent £7.7k on having the bridge carefully dismantled and moved into storage.

For up to date news and comment, see our Facebook page: fb.com/friendsofaltonstation

For more detail about Friends of Alton Station, the footbridge project, local railway history, see our website: www.friendsofaltonstation.org.uk