Exciting news!!!! Biulding Works day 1

Outside view

Romsey Signal box is delighted to announce the arrival of a new building , A £15,000 hand-out from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Test Valley Borough Council is currently being used to build a new visitor reception and display area at Romsey Signal Box which will house our model signal box Cowley bridge and various other railway artefacts. The arrival of this building has been long awaited and plans have been in place for month for the development of the area of land where the old meat wagon used to stand. Volunteers have spent many hours clearing the land, digging trenches, moving sheds and lifting slabs to make space for the building.

 

Dick Hewett says “It’s absolutely fantastic that we have been awarded these grants.  They will enable us to take the whole project to another level, with far more professional presentation to visitors, and make it much easier to cope with the larger number of visitors we hope will come to visit us.  Together with generous contributions from Croudace Ltd, who have built the base of the building for us, and BHM Electrical, who will be installing the electricity supply and fittings, it has given us a real injection of self-confidence and renewed enthusiasm.”

 

 

From this

To this (concrete base below wood)

 Stuart McLeod, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South East England said: “ The Romsey Signal Box project is a fine example of HLF’s Sharing Heritage programme that, thanks to National Lottery players, makes it possible for local people to choose what is important to them, what they want to save, and how they want to spread the word throughout their community.” 

They've forgotten the roof...

 



View from canal end of site

View from foot bridge over canal

Last month, Croudace, the building contactors on the school site, dug the foundations for the building and laid a concrete base for the building to stand on (as mention above). This was a big step for the members as this was the first physical sign of the building starting to arrive.  We hope to bring you further progress updates as the building develops, but in the meantime, here are the pictures from today’s work. We at the box are very excited and are looking forward to the new displays we can have and hope it will make your visit more enjoyable. 

 

You can come and see the changes to the site on our open weekend (7/8^th of march) and have a go at operating the signal box for the 150^th anniversary of the ‘Sprat and Winkle Line’.