Hythe Pier
| Hythe Pier, Railway and Ferry | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type | Pier, railway and ferry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stations | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operator(s) | White Horse Ferries Ltd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 2 ft (610 mm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hythe Pier, the Hythe Pier Railway and the Hythe Ferry provide a link between the English port city of Southampton and the Hampshire village of Hythe on the west side of Southampton Water. It is used both by commuters and tourists, and forms an important link in the Solent Way and E9 European coastal paths.
The pier, railway and ferry service are currently operated by White Horse Ferries Ltd of Swindon. In October 2016 the White Horse Ferries staff were given redundancy letters which suggests an uncertain future from the pier and ferry service.
The railway is the oldest continuously operating public pier train in the world.
Hythe Pier stretches 700 yards (640 m) from the centre of Hythe to the deep water channel of Southampton Water. It is approximately 16 feet (4.9 m) wide, and carries a pedestrian walkway and cycleway on its northern side and the Hythe Pier Railway on its southern side. During normal high tides the pier is 4 feet (1.2 m) above the surface of the water.
A company was formed to construct a pier in 1870 and in 1871 it obtained an Act of Parliament in order to do so. This effort then stalled and a pier was not constructed.
A second company called the Hythe Pier & Hythe & Southampton Ferry company was formed in late 1874. A new act passed parliament in 1875 but legal disagreements with the Southampton Harbour and Pier Board delayed royal assent until 1878. Construction started in 1879 and the pier opened in 1881. Originally there was a tollhouse at the landward end of the pier, and this was replaced by the present ticket office in the first decade of the 20th century. Large scale maintenance was carried out on the pier in 1896 at a cost of £1,500.
The 1878 Act of Parliament made provision for the construction of a tramway along the pier, although one was not originally laid. The trucks that carried luggage along the pier were found to be damaging the pier decking, and in 1909 a narrow gauge railway was constructed to replace them. The vehicles were hand-propelled, and the track was laid flush with the pier decking.
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Wikipedia