Even as close as half a mile away from the edge of town, road signs direct travellers to Alresford.
It is not until you enter from the north that you come into OLD ALRESFORD, which is listed in the Domesday Book, and from the other directions you come into NEW ALRESFORD, which is only about 800 years old.
Alresford Station served both New and Old Alresfords plus the surrounding villages such as Cheriton. It is from Alresford Station that the town’s famous product, watercress, was taken to markets in London and the midlands. But the watercress itself was not just grown in the two Alresfords. Farmers in Bishops Sutton and Cheriton also brought their produce to the goods yard for onward movement.
Many of the heritage railways have only been able to preserve part of their railway and consequently have at least one terminus station with the unusual layout of having the sidings* beyond the platforms. However, they did exist in the past and one such station was only about 10 miles away at Bishops Waltham. But that may be because many years ago there were plans to connect from there to our line at Ropley, so it was possibly conceived as a through station.
When built in the mid-1800s Alresford Station was a through station and would not have had catering facilities or a W.H.Smith’s kiosk. But it is probably not so inappropriate to have them now that it is at times quite a busy station with trains arriving and departing from both platforms.
* A siding is a length of track on which vehicles can be parked clear of the main running line.
