Medstead and Four Marks Station

 
Photo (10th February 2008): Henry O'Dwyer

The station today

The station has been restored to represent a typical small Southern Railway country station as it would have appeared between the mid-1930s and the mid-1960s, with a predominantly green and yellow colour scheme. Enamel signs on doors and lampposts are of pre-1948 SR pattern.

As built, the main station building on the Alton-bound platform consisted of an open-fronted waiting shelter with fixed bench seating around three sides, flanked on one side by the booking office, porters' room and coal store and on the other by an enclosed ladies' waiting room and ladies' and gents' lavatories.

The roof of the present Waiting Room is supported on the platform side by a massive wooden lintel - a relic of its original open-fronted state - and the wooden cladding and brickwork on this side are later additions. Note the "Terrapin" coal-burning stove, once a familiar feature of village schoolrooms and forces barracks, which keeps the building warm and snug in winter.

The adjacent Ladies' Room harks back to a time when "the gentler sex" was afforded segregated (and more comfortable) accommodation. The open fireplace (complete with repair) is the original and the table was originally at Walton on Thames station. The Ladies' and Gents' Lavatories have been updated with modern fittings but WC cubicles retain traditional cast iron cisterns complete with appropriate sound effects! The Booking Office has been returned to use and is open for ticket sales on Sundays, bank holidays and special event days (and on other days when qualified staff are available). Traditional Edmondson card tickets are issued. The only original fittings are the fixed table by the door (formerly the station master's desk) and the safe (to which we don't have a key!). The present counter and booking hatch came from other LSWR stations. The large desk is ex- London County Council and the clock came from Binsted village school, near Alton. Visits to the office may be possible at quiet times - please ask.

See also: History of Medstead and Four Marks station   and  this section  of our  Guide to the Mid Hants Railway

Four interior photos:  Chris Cornell

The letter box by the Porters' Room door is unusual as it is a standard Victorian model modified to refer to Edward VII following the Queen's death in 1901 (though it retains a queen's crown!). The slot was later widened using a separate casting which partially obscures the figure VII. Round the corner is a rack on which hang fire buckets - a necessity in the days of coal-fired steam locomotives running over wooden sleepers.

The Goods Shed is built from old sleepers and has doorways front and back for rail and road access. Today it is used as a station store and paint shop. An unusual feature is that the gutter downpipes go right down into the ground. There is an underground cistern between the goods shed and the main building and water for the lavatories was formerly obtained by hand-pumping from this cistern into a slate tank over the gents' WC.

The original Signal Box was demolished by BR in 1968 but the present box (ex-Wilton South) is almost identical to it. It is an example of the LSWR's earliest "standard" signalbox, erected throughout the system in the 1870s to comply with advances in railway safety legislation. It contains a 21-lever frame from Lymington Junction, manufactured by Stevens & Son, the LSWR's main signalling contractor. Signals are of upper-quadrant type, built from Southern Railway fittings using posts made from old rails. Photo:  Tony Wood

Ivatt 2-6-2 tank engine at Medstead & Four Marks station on a misty day    Photo (1st March 2001): Keith Brown

Safe working of the single line to Ropley is assured by Tyer's electric key token instruments, and this system will shortly be extended to Alton. You may hear the coded bell signals with which the signalman communicates with his counterpart at Ropley, and see the signalman exchanging tokens with the locomotive crew as the train enters the station. 

For safety reasons the signal box is not normally open to the public but visits may be possible (at the signalman's discretion) at quiet times - please ask the platform staff. Next to the signal box is the Lamp Room. Signals in the station area are lit by removable paraffin lamps and this is where they are maintained and refuelled. You may see the lampman going about his duties.

   

On the down platform the Waiting Shelter is a new building occupying the site of the original, demolished in 1968. Unlike the original this one has doors and is sometimes used for exhibitions. Photo:  Tony Wood See also M4M photographed in the snow on 29th December 2001: pic1  pic2  pic3  are by Keith Brown

The "barley twist" lamp posts on both platforms are by Dutton & Co. of Worcester who made a range of cast iron items for the LSWR (and also manufactured signalling equipment). The station had no electricity supply until 1967 and the posts were formerly used to hang "Tilley" paraffin lamps.

 

The main span of the Footbridge came from Cowes, Isle of Wight, where it carried a footpath (formerly Cross Street) over the station. The brick pillars and stairways were built new at Medstead & Four Marks in 1995-6. The bridge offers excellent views of trains approaching up the 1 in 60 gradient from Ropley. Mixed goods train from M&4M footbridge Photo:  Sue McNaughton