Hythe Pier, Railway and Ferry

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Hythe Pier, Railway and Ferry

Hampshire

Hythe


Hythe pier
Gauge: 2 feet
Grid reference: SU42770852
Location: 50°52’29"N, 1°23’37"W
No. of stations: 2
Information
Operated by: Blue Funnel Ferries Ltd

Hythe Pier, the Hythe Pier Railway and the Hythe Ferry, all in the south of Hampshire, provide a link between the port city of Southampton and the village of Hythe on the west side of Southampton Water. It is used both by commuters and tourists, and forms a link in the Solent Way coastal path.

The pier is 700 yards long: the railway runs along the pier from the ferry terminal at its end to its single station, on Hythe seafront at the beginning of the pier. The pier is a Grade II listed building.[1]

The railway is the oldest continuously operating public pier train in the world.

The pier, railway and ferry service are currently operated by Blue Funnel Ferries of Southampton, since an acquiistion prompted by threats of closure.

Hythe Pier

Hythe Pier from the Hythe shore

Hythe Pier stretches 700 yards from the centre of Hythe to the deep water channel of Southampton Water, making it the 7th longest pier in the [[British Isles].[2] It is approximately 16 feet wide, and carries a pedestrian walkway and cycleway on its northern side and the Hythe Pier Railway on its southern side. During normal high tides the pier is 4 feet above the surface of the water.[3]

A company was formed to construct a pier in 1870 and in 1871 it obtained an Act of Parliament in order to do so.[4] This effort then stalled and a pier was not constructed.[4]

A second company called the Hythe Pier & Hythe & Southampton Ferry company was formed in late 1874.[4] A new Act passed through Parliament in 1875 but legal disagreements with the Southampton Harbour and Pier Board delayed royal assent until 1878.[4] Construction started in 1879 and the pier opened on 1 January 1881 having cost £7,000 to construct.[5] Originally there was a toll house at the landward end of the pier, and this was replaced by the present ticket office in the first decade of the 20th century.[6] The original toll house still exists and is occupied by a local travel operator. Large scale maintenance was carried out on the pier in 1896 at a cost of £1,500.[6]

On 6 February 2019, 140 years after the original pier construction, Blue Funnel announced they intended to hand over the pier to the Hythe Pier Heritage Association.[7][8]

Hythe Pier Railway

The landward station, with depot and spare locomotive
The pier with the pier train
The pier head station

The 1878 Act of Parliament made provision for the construction of a tramway along the pier, although one was not originally laid. The trucks that carried luggage along the pier were found to be damaging the pier decking, and in 1909 a narrow gauge railway was constructed on the northern side of the pier to replace them. The vehicles were hand-propelled, and the track was laid flush with the pier decking.[5][6][9]

In 1922 the current electrified railway was constructed on the southern side of the pier. The track is laid to 2-foot narrow gauge]] and is electrified at 250 V DC by a third rail on the seaward side of the track. The line consists of a single track with no passing loops, with two non-electrified sidings at the landward end. One of the sidings enters the line's covered workshop. Stations, equipped with low wooden platforms, exist at both ends of the line. The pier head station has an overall roof, whilst the landward station has a ticket office and waiting shelter.[5][10]

The line is operated by two four-wheeled electric locomotives built in 1917 by Brush with works numbers 16302 & 16307 (simply renumbered as No. 2 & No. 1 - the '7' looking like a '1'.[10][11]). They were originally battery powered, being used at the First World War mustard gas factory at Avonmouth. They were transferred to Hythe after the war, where they were converted to collect power from a third rail and had their batteries removed. There was initially a third locomotive, but it was used for spares and finally scrapped in 1935. All that remains of the 3rd tractor is the electric motor bearing the serial number "16304".[12]

The line owns four bogie passenger coaches, two of which have a driving cab at their seaward ends. In normal operation the single train is made up of one of the locomotives propelling three passenger coaches, with a four-wheel flat car for baggage. The locomotive is always at the landward end, and the seaward passenger coach must have a driving cab. The line also has a four-wheel oil-tanker, used to carry fuel to the Hythe ferries.[10]

Hythe Ferry

The Hotspur IV at the pier head
Hythe Scene approaching Town Quay

Every train connects at the pier head with an arrival and departure of the Hythe Ferry. The ferry carries passengers and bicycles, and takes about 10 minutes for the crossing. En route, the ferry passes the terminal used by the passenger liners RMS Queen Mary 2 and MS Queen Victoria and by other cruise ships, giving good views of the vessels when they are in port.[13][14]

The Southampton terminal is at the Town Quay, also the terminal of the Red Funnel ferries to the Isle of Wight. Town Quay is a short walk from the city centre, and is linked to both the city centre and Southampton Central railway station by bus.[15]

A ferry has operated from Hythe to Southampton since the Middle Ages, and it is marked on a map by Christopher Saxton of 1575. Steam vessels were introduced in 1830. From 1889 the Percy family were involved in the running of the ferry, and from 1900 to 1980 the service was run by the General Estates Company, owned by the Percy family. As a consequence of this, many of the ferries used carried the name Hotspur, named after Henry Percy or Hotspur, who was immortalised by William Shakespeare.[16]

References

  1. ↑ National Heritage List 1476460: Hythe Pier (Grade II listing)
  2. ↑ "Top 10: Britain's longest seaside piers" (in en-GB). The Telegraph. 2019-11-01. SSN 0307-1235. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/galleries/Top-10-Britains-longest-seaside-piers/4-hythe-pier-alamy/. 
  3. ↑ Titheridge, Alan (1981). Hythe Pier and Ferry a history. southern tourist board. p. 25. ISBN 0950762008. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Easdown, Martin; Sage, Linda (2011). Piers Of Hampshire & The Isle Of Wight. Amberley. p. 86. ISBN 9781445603551. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Hythe Pier & Tramway". Simplon Postcards. 2006. http://simplonpc.co.uk/HythePier.html#anchor1008325. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Titheridge, Alan (1981). Hythe Pier and Ferry a history. southern tourist board. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0950762008. 
  7. ↑ "Restoration on track following Hythe Pier donation". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-47144145. 
  8. ↑ Hythe Pier Heritage Association, HPHA & BFF announcement - 6th Feb 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFzb3EYlvgM&t=42s, retrieved 2019-02-10 Template:Cbignore
  9. ↑ Titheridge, Alan (1981). Hythe Pier and Ferry a history. southern tourist board. p. 45. ISBN 0950762008. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Frew, Iain (1983). Britain's Electric Railways Today. Electric Railway Society and Southern Electric Group. pp. 82–83. ISBN 0-85534-021-5 or ISBN 0-906988-12-8. 
  11. ↑ Template:Irs-el
  12. ↑ Timpson, John (1992). Little Trains of Britain. HarperCollins. pp. 176–177. ISBN 0002184257. 
  13. ↑ "Hythe Ferry". White Horse Ferries Ltd.. http://www.hytheferry.com/home.mhtml?count-num=502155. Template:Dead link
  14. ↑ "Fares". White Horse Ferries Ltd.. http://www.hytheferry.co.uk/extra.mhtml?page_no=2&count-num=502158. 
  15. ↑ "Ferry Route Map". White Horse Ferries Ltd.. http://www.hytheferry.com/extra.mhtml?page_no=0&count-num=502155. Template:Dead link
  16. ↑ Hythe, Old Hampshire Gazetteer

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