PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL AWARD PLAQUE INSTALLED AT CORFE CASTLE ON 26th OCTOBER 2008

News Item and Press Release from Andrew P.M. Wright - dated 2nd Nov 2008
Official photographer & press officer, Swanage Railway.
Photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright.
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A plaque marking a prestigious and coveted national award won by dedicated volunteers who saved an historic Victorian footbridge in London from demolition - restoring and rebuilding it for a new working life on the Swanage Railway - has been officially installed.

The five year project at Corfe Castle station won the Volunteers’ Award - sponsored by the Great North Eastern Railway company owned by National Express - in the annual National Railway Heritage Awards held at the historic Merchant Taylors’ Hall in central London in December, 2007.

Heavy rain did not dampen spirits at Corfe Castle station on the morning of Sunday 26th October, 2008, when National Railway Heritage Awards representatives and Swanage Railway volunteers who had worked on the footbridge project joined John Gelson of National Express for the formal unveiling and installation of the award plaque.

Also present for the ceremony were Mike Stanbury, secretary of the National Railway Heritage Awards, who was accompanied by his treasuer Tony Saunders.

The ceremonial plaque was installed below the 'up' platform station sign at Corfe Castle, next to a plaque previously installed - when the bridge was officially opened in April, 2007 - giving the history of the footbridge and the lengthy, detailed and complex project to save, restore, extend and install it at the picture postcard Victorian station.

The coveted National Railway Heritage Awards plaque had previously been presented to civil engineer Philip Wycliffe-Jones of the Swanage Railway and his team of fellow volunteers by the late Gwyneth Dunwoody, Chairman of the House of Commons’ Transport Select Committee who was the Member of Parliament for Crewe and Nantwich

Philip Wycliffe-Jones, who lives near Christchurch and led the project, said: "We are absolutely delighted to have won this award and I would like to pay tribute to all my fellow volunteers who have made this important project happen over the last five years.

"The opening of the footbridge at Corfe Castle in April, 2007, by David Quarmby, CBE, was vitally important because it is a much safer and more convenient for the public than crossing over the track via the gated and lock foot crossing.

"The footbridge can also handle the large numbers of people who use Corfe Castle station at peak times," he added.

The footbridge was built in 1893 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. With cast iron columns and a wrought iron span, the footbridge spent its life at Merton Park in London, near Wimbledon, on the West Croydon line.

Mr Wycliffe-Jones explained: "It’s a very attractive footbridge which looks as if it has always been at Corfe Castle station which was built in 1884.

"In fact, it spent most of its life on the Wimbledon to West Croydon branch in south London and became available when that line was taken into the Croydon Tramlink system.

"Everyone concerned has carried out a magnificent job in dismantling the bridge, getting it down to Dorset and then restoring it. I would like to say a big thank you to the members of the Swanage Railway’s 200 Club which raised the £35,000 needed for the footbridge project.

"We had to have the bridge span extended before we could crane it on the platforms at Corfe Castle station and paint it before it was finally commissioned.

"The Swanage Railway goes from strength to strength, enhancing the tourism economy in the Isle of Purbeck and providing a valuable park-and-ride facility for Swanage too. Last year, more than 200, 000 passengers travelled on the railway and this year we should see more," explained Mr Wycliffe-Jones.

The GNER Volunteers’ Award was shared with the Severn Valley Railway for a replica Great Western Railway-type Pagoda waiting shelter at Northwood Halt.

Since 1979, the annual National Railway Heritage Awards have been sponsored by the leading railway publishers Ian Allan Publishing Ltd of Hersham in Surrey in partnership with the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC); two train operators - First and the GNER - as well as the London Underground, Network Rail, the Railway Heritage Trust and Invensys Westinghouse Rail Systems.

The annual National Railway Heritage Awards are supported by the Heritage Railway Association and J & JW Longbottom Ltd.