Station Conversions: A Buyer's Guide

On June 2nd 1944, just four days before the Allies landed on Normandy's beaches, a train carrying Winston Churchill and members of his war cabinet pulled into a cutting close to Droxford station in the Meon Valley, Hampshire.

Here Churchill met with Eisenhower and De Gaulle to discuss the invasion of Europe, which was scheduled for June 5th. Storms were lashing the coastline and a decision was needed: Ike and company repaired to nearby Southwick House and decided to hold off for twenty-four hours. The invasion went ahead on June 6th instead.

Droxford station was chosen for the rendezvous because there was a tunnel near the cutting and it was hoped that if the Luftwaffe made an unwelcome appearance the allied leaders would be able to take cover there and escape the bombers.

The rest, as they say, is history, but so too, alas, is Droxford station and the 22 mile Meon Valley line from Fareham to Alton that was part of the London to Portsmouth route. Opened in 1903, this once busy route, baptized the Strawberry Line because whole trainloads of the fruit would be loaded at Wickham and Mislingford, closed to passengers in 1955 and to freight in 1968.

When Elizabeth and Colin Olford bought the station in 1984 it was being used as a training centre for truck drivers but the couple immediately saw its potential and outbid a crowded auction room to win the right to convert it into a unique home.

The job took almost two years but Old Droxford Station House, complete with the station platform and canopy and two acres of lovely wooded grounds is now a quirky and unusual family home.

"Three of the five stations on the line have been converted," says Elizabeth, "but ours is the only one that retains the platform and canopy, the original ticket hatch and the arched sliding doors that lead from the waiting room to the platform.

"The property was in good condition - train stations were built to Board of Trade standards so structurally it was very sound. We tried to keep as many of the original details as possible.

"We removed a false ceiling in the waiting room to expose the lovely vaulted timbered ceiling, and the original stone fireplace was also intact behind a projection screen.

"The train tracks were gone but we used the carriage way approaching the station to create a wild flower walk. It's lovely to sit out on the platform under the canopy - we live here in the summer time."

The garden, indeed, is one of the property's real assets and has historical associations that stretch back well beyond the clandestine meeting between Winnie and Ike.

In one corner, a Jute burial site dating back to circa 400 AD was unearthed by the navvies building the line and archaeologists later discovered ancient long swords that are now housed in the British museum.

The signal box in the gardens is now a fern garden and pond, and there's also a barn-style portal frame building built across the line that looks like an original engine shed but which is a more recent addition.

"It's a garage with a workshop and mezzanine level that we had built," Elizabeth explains. "Our architect copied the decorative timber work on the canopy above the platform - apparently the design is unique to every line so we decided it would be good to keep it."

This attention to detail runs throughout the house and makes Droxford Station House as fine a railway conversion as you'll find. If you're interested, contact John D Wood in Winchester, but you'll need to deposit £950,000 at the ticket hatch if you want this station to be your final destination.

The closure of the Meon Valley line was part of a large scale rationalisation of the railways instigated by Dr. Richard Beeching, the chairman of British Railways from 1961 - 1965.

Beeching recommended the closure of one third of Britain's 18,000 mile railway network, mainly rural branches and cross country lines, a policy known as the 'Beeching Axe'.

In 1955, according to the website Disused Stations, the British railway system had 18,000 miles of track and 6,000 stations. By 1975 this had been cut to 12,000 miles of track and 2,000 stations, "roughly the same size it is today."

This means there are a lot of railway stations out there that are now used as homes but finding a derelict one for conversion is no easy task. Ray King, editor of the magazine The Traction and Rolling Stock Advertiser and the website Rail Properties, explains:

"People dream of finding a derelict station in a prime location miles from anywhere that they can pick up for £40k - but these just don't exist anymore. Most properties are now in private hands and have been converted. The resale market is the mainstay."

But in the resale market there are still some beauties to be had. How about the lovely Ripple station, part of the Malvern to Tewkesbury line, which has featured in books, in Country Life and which was the location for the 1970's BBC programme "The Survivors"?

Or Dent Station in Cumbria, part of the Settle & Carlisle Line and officially the highest main line station in England. Perched 1150 ft above sea level, the views are breath-taking.

Ray will also sell you a whole railway carriage, should you want an unusual home office, playroom, or extra living space and he's also the man to call for all your railway-related needs: old carriages, signal boxes, bits of track and even whole viaducts.

Here are some top tips from the man himself on buying train stations and carriages:

Is the track still in use? About 50 per cent are - so weigh up the pros and cons: noisy trains running past your house versus a very handy form of transport (important in more remote branch lines and locomotive outposts). The more period details, original features and interesting historic associations, the more sought-after and expensive the property - and remember, competition will be strong. Be prepared to move: it's no easy thing to match a prospective buyer with a railway station in a specific area. Grand designers take note: stations lend themselves more readily to traditional conversions than to open-plan extravaganzas. If you want loft-style living, consider an old goods shed: their large single volumes are akin to barns (Ray cites one in Yorkshire with a huge open-plan interior and one whole wall made from glass). Check for covenants: if the line is still in use you may be restricted in what you can do and may have to grant access to maintenance workers etc. Stations were usually built to high standards and companies and lines have specific styles, motifs and materials: it's advisable to know about these before you start any building work or start making changes. If you fancy a carriage in your garden, remember that they are big and very heavy: the cost of transport and craning the thing in will often be more than the cost of the carriage. There are lots of websites selling railway related memorabilia so you can have a lot of fun tracking down interesting items to decorate the property.

Disused Stations Info on history of stations and a list of disused stations.

The Traction and Rolling Stock Advertiser

Rail Properties Railway stations for sale.

Unique Property
Railway stations for sale.

Looking at Buildings: Railway Stations
Info on history of British railway stations.

Prorail
Railway memorabilia

Michael O'Flynn

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