The railways of the Eastern Isle of Wight, 1845 to 1901 : the financial, social and economic aspects examined

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the railways that were proposed, financed and built on the Isle of Wight in the Victorian period and to describe and evaluate their impact on local communities with respect to population growth, urbanisation, tourism, agriculture and trade.

The histories of railways on the Isle of Wight have multiplied during the last ten years and the value of what has been researched great.  Yet no one of these studies is devoted to discerning what the railway did in, and for, the country it crossed or served.  This thesis sets out the evidence, with all the limitations indicated, to see how the Isle of Wight, a small island some 28 miles by 18 miles, situated off the south coast of England, became transformed by the building of the railways and their associated developments.

The synoptic approach has been developed with chapters on agriculture, trade, urban growth and tourism and the relationship between the railway and the village.  In the later chapter the impact of the railway on the village of Bembridge during the Victorian period has been assessed and deals with such diverse topics from the purchase and the running of a steamer fleet to the provision of a water supply for the village.

The railway needs to be seen not only as a means of transport but also as an instrument of social and economic change, both in its growth in the nineteenth century and in its contraction in the middle years of the twentieth century.

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