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Castleman Trailway

Dorset geography stubsFootpaths in DorsetHampshire geography stubsRail trails in EnglandUse British English from March 2017
LDP Waymark Castleman Trailway
LDP Waymark Castleman Trailway

The Castleman Trailway is a footpath in Southern England. Portions of the trailway are also used as a cyclepath but the middle section from East Wimborne (close to The Old Thatch public house) to the River Allen bridge (just south of Wimborne) is not cyclable. One trailhead is on Barrack Lane in Ringwood and the other trailhead is the car park at Upton Country Park. (From here, a cycle path runs along the sea front, all the way to Poole railway station). The entire Castleman Trailway path is waymarked. The path passes through the villages of Ashley Heath, West Moors, Oakley, Broadstone and Upton, as well as Upton Heath and Upton Country Park.The trailway is part of the former Southampton and Dorchester Railway line which ran from Brockenhurst to Hamworthy Junction via Ringwood. It was known as "The Old Road". This circuitous route was promoted in the 19th century by the Wimborne solicitor Charles Castleman, and was chosen because of the need to run through populated areas at a time when Bournemouth was a small village. Many people called it "The Castleman Corkscrew" owing to the number of curves.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Castleman Trailway (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Castleman Trailway
A31, New Forest Ringwood

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
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Wikipedia: Castleman TrailwayContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.85 ° E -1.787 °
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Address

A31
BH24 1UF New Forest, Ringwood
England, United Kingdom
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LDP Waymark Castleman Trailway
LDP Waymark Castleman Trailway
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Nearby Places

Ringwood railway station
Ringwood railway station

Ringwood is a closed railway station in the county of Hampshire, England which served the town of Ringwood. It lay on the former Southampton and Dorchester Railway, the original main line from a connection with the London and South Western Railway at Southampton through Brockenhurst to Dorchester. The later development of Bournemouth as a major town led to the building of a branch from Ringwood through to Christchurch, later extended to Bournemouth - see Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway. In 1885 the present main line from Brockenhurst to Christchurch and on to Poole via what is now Bournemouth Central was opened and the Ringwood to Christchurch line relegated to branch status, closing to all traffic in 1935. The Southampton and Dorchester line continued to carry all the trains to Dorchester and beyond to Weymouth until the Holes Bay Curve linking Poole with Hamworthy Junction opened in 1893. From then passenger trains were mostly restricted to local services between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth West, although at various times there were through services on a daily or weekly basis to places such as Weymouth, Southampton and Eastleigh. With the build-up of holiday traffic in the 20th century, the route also proved a useful alternative to the congested Bournemouth line for summer Saturday trains to Weymouth and Swanage. Through goods trains also continued regularly to use the line. The central section of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway from Lymington Junction (exclusive) to Broadstone Junction (exclusive) was closed to passengers on 4 May 1964, one of the first closures following the Beeching Report of March 1963. The line east of Ringwood was closed completely and the track lifted in 1965. However public goods services continued from the Poole direction until August 1967 and the track was shortly thereafter lifted back to the RAOC fuel depot at West Moors.