Train derailment at Fratton | Nostalgia

When I was editor of the railway staff magazine The Woking Grapevine I was often given photographs like the one on the right which were taken by staff on their travels.

By Bob Hind
Tuesday, 26th November 2019, 1:46 pm
Updated Wednesday, 27th November 2019, 5:03 pm
The footbridge at Fratton station was nearly brought down when this train derailed beneath it. Picture: Andrew Cooper.
The footbridge at Fratton station was nearly brought down when this train derailed beneath it. Picture: Andrew Cooper.

I always published them if they were not of a serious accident and I always captioned them ‘Oops!’ followed by the location.

This one shows a near disaster with Fratton footbridge 20 years ago.

It happened when the second and third carriages of two four-car sets entering Fratton depot derailed just missing the bridge uprights. If anyone has any more information I would be interested.

Margaret Sykes (née Walker) in her pram outside the fish and chip shop in 1945.

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•The photograph of shops awaiting demolition in Lake Road, Portsmouth, drew a big response. One letter came from Margaret Sykes (née Walker) who now lives in Northumberland.

She tells me Walker’s fish and chip shop in Lake Road opened in 1930 with her grandfather George as the proprietor. His son left school at 14 and worked in the business taking over when his father died in 1954. He traded until 1962.

Here we see two of George’s granddaughters outside the shop in 1945 and 1960.

• Paul Newell has written another volume of ‘shocking tales’ from Victorian Portsmouth.

Margaret’s sister outside the shop in 1960 in a more modern pram.

It includes tales from the courts, a large number of suicides, a horse falling through a skylight, several murders of prostitutes, smuggling on Southsea beach, drowning in Hilsea moat and a madman at Landport. There are more than 200 incidents to get to grips with.

It is available from New to You Books in High Street, Cosham.

More shocking tales from the past.