Chris Smith has kindly provided the following memories of Bailey Gate
I used to live in Station Road, Bailey Gate, I used to catch the
train from Bailey Gate to Poole and Bournemouth West where the S&D terminated. I have memories of giving farmers a hand to load sugar
beet onto coal trucks in the sidings. A local coal merchant also
used to have coal dropped off behind the station. I also remember
the Pines Express running through the station at 6:00pm with a second
train in the summer, following at 6:10pm, the first being full.
Entrance to both platforms from the Bailey Gate end of the village
was down a slopping path that ran from the side of the road off the
bridge to the right. This took you to a footway across the double
tracks to the station, At the far end of the up platform was the
signal box, there was also a small covered waiting shelter.You
crossed the line on a wooden crossing where the first building was
the wooden lamp shed painted yellow. The next building was the
station, with a waiting room and ticket office and station masters
office. The other access to the station was down the vehicle roadway
and around the side of the station, The area around the station was
made secure by concrete posts with seven strands of plain
wire. Shortly before the line was closed both the up and down sides
of the line north of the station had the posts and wire replaced with
new posts and wire from the station to close to
Spetisbury
During the war Goebells made claims that the cheese factory had been
bombed twice, both were pure propaganda. As I grew up in the
village, and both my father and my step father worked at the "factory
or UD" as it was known by everyone in village, I heard many tales
about the factory's production, mostly that it was the largest
cheddar cheese producing factory in Europe.
There were also watercress beds just off the A350 near Bailey House
and they used the S&D at Bailey Gate to ship watercress to the north
of England. I can remember the boxes waiting on carts to be loaded
onto trains.
Thanks for an interesting site, by the way I paid a visit to the
Gartell Light Railway a few months ago, and it really brought back
memories of living next to the S&D
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