INTRODUCTION
Oyster fishing has been practiced in a number of locations on the shores of Hayling Island since Roman times.
The Oyster bed site at the north west of Hayling Island was developed in 1863 by the South of England Oyster Company, on re-claimed mud land created in the construction of Hayling Branch line by the Hayling Railway Company. More on this can be found here.
When the Hayling Branch line was completed, Oysters were transported by rail between the Hayling beds and Whitstable, Kent. More can be found here.
The Victorian development comprised a series of lagoons, formed by embankments of London Clay enclosing parts of the intertidal area, topped by chalk, shingle and brickearth. Seaward the
embankments were reinforced with timber palisades. The lagoons were filled by tidal overtopping of the embankments, with outflow regulated by sluices and wind pumps.
Following the First World War pollution and disease forced the closure of the fishery, and the site fell into dereliction. Being in deep water, the embankments eroded, the sluice gates collapsed and, by 1963 when the railway line was closed and the Urban District Council purchased the area for refuse disposal and highway purposes, the Victorian embankments consisted of little more than strips of shingle snaking across the tidal mud flats of the Harbour.
DEVELOPMENTS POST 1963
Council use to 1974
Two areas of marshland to the west of the former railway line were reclaimed with domestic refuse in the period to 1969, tipping then being abandoned. In 1974, when the Urban District Council lost its status as the Highway Authority and Havant Borough Council was formed, the route of the former railway, held for highway purposes, was transferred to Hampshire County Council. The adjacent reclaimed land and mud flats (including the former Oyster beds) remained in Borough Council ownership.
Commercial proposal 1980-87
The Oysterbeds remained untouched until 1980 when a private company wishing to reintroduce the shellfish farming industry approached the Borough Council. Planning permission was given to reinstate the Victorian embankments, construction commenced in 1981 and placed new material (derived from building rubble) directly on top of the eroded shingle embankments. Drainage between the various lagoons was now to be achieved by including 600mm diameter steel pipes, with control structures at each end, into the new embankments. A total of 100,000 tonnes of material was imported until in 1982, rather belatedly, it was realised that the Planning Consent had erroneously quoted the permitted level as being 5 m above Ordnance Datum. It had been intended that the banks should have been at a level approximating to high tide (+5m above Chart Datum). The banks were thus some 2.7 m above the anticipated level.
After a period of claim and counterclaim the operating company ceased trading in 1987, before finishing works such as the placement of protective shingle to the seaward face of the embankments, and theplacing of topsoil to landscape the site, had been completed, thus leaving the site overall in breach of the Planning Consent. The Borough Council as landowner was left with a dangerous legacy. Access by the public had became unrestricted for recreational use in the intervening years; however the new material, which had only been end tipped from lorries, consisted of an apparently firm crust that could overlie voids between large masonry blocks and was thus inherently unstable. Reinforcing rods and other metal waste contained in the rubble represented a hazard. Exposed to wind and wave action, the embankments eroded and quickly grew to present a very real danger to any members of the public walking upon them.
The sluices and flaps on the pipes that passed through the embankments were stolen and sold for scrap, giving rise to spectacular but deadly whirlpools as tides flowed and ebbed around the lagoon complex. The Council tried to control the risk to the public by erecting fencing and signs, but these were repeatedly vandalised.
SOUTH OF ENGLAND OYSTER COMPANY
The 1860 Act of Parliament, authorising the construction of the Havant to Hayling Island branch line
included the reclamation of 1000 acres of mud land by the construction of the railway embankment in
Langstone Harbour.
Mr Robert Hume (a prominent supporter of the branch line) bought the mud lands 1863 from the representatives of William Padwick (The Lord of the Manor) and entered into an agreement to lease 300 acres to the South of England Oyster Company.
An important part of this agreement was that the railway would maintain the embankment and sluices. At the time, this seemed perfectly reasonable because the railway would have needed to do this to protect the railway it was building.
Things were not going too well for the railway company due to problems with the railway embankment across Langstone Harbour which led to this work being stopped with only 176 yds completed.
Francis Fuller proposed a bill in 1866 which would lead to the abandonment of the off-shore route and replace it with one that hugged the western coastline of Hayling Island.
This Bill was immediately objected to by the South of England Oyster Company on the grounds that the 1863 agreement with the railway would no longer be fulfilled.
It became urgent that agreement with the Oyster Company be reached as the railway line had been completed and offered for inspection by the Board of Trade 4th July 1867. The Bill was passed to committee stage mid July 1867 and reported in the Hampshire Telegraph 27 July 1867
Hampshire Telegraph 27th July 1867
This bill, for enabling the Hayling Railway Company to abandon portions of their authorised railway, to make a substituted line of railway, and for other purposes, came before a House of Commons Committee on Tuesday, Mr Dobson in the chair.
The preamble recites that by the Hayling Railway Act, 1860, the company were incorporated with a capital of £50,000, and were authorised to make and maintain the two railways specified in the act -that the Hayling Railways and Dock Act, 1864, the company were authorised to make and maintain the extension railway and works therein specified, and to raise additional sums of money - that portions of the lines authorised have not been made, and it is expedient to abandon portions, and in lieu thereof to make another railway, and that it is expedient the the London and South Western Company and the London, Brighton and South Coast Companies be authorised to use the railways of the company, and enter into traffic arrangements with them.
It is then enacted that the company may make and maintain the railway hereinafter described, with all proper stations, apparatus, works, and conveniences connected therewith, and may enter upon, take and use, certain lands. The railway is thus described :- "A railway two miles six furlongs four chains and fifty links or thereabouts in length, commencing in the parish of North Hayling by a junction with railway No. 1, mentioned in the fifteenth section of the Act of 1850, at a point thereon sixty yards or thereabouts from the south end of the viaduct carrying the said railway over Langstone harbour, and terminating in the parish of South Hayling at a road leading from Havant to Portsmouth, in a field the property of Captain George Staunton Lynch Staunton, and about sixty one yards in an easterly direction along the said road, from a cottage the property of Mrs Bone." The bill then provides that the company shall make and maintain, at or near the junction last mentioned, a passenger and goods station, at which trains shall be stopped at such hours as, in default of agreement, shall be settled by the Board of Trade:- That the company shall make and maintain a junction between the siding and their main line of railway, with all necessary works and conveniences at or near the commencement by the act authorised for the use and convenience of the Oyster Company, and the satisfaction of the engineer of that company, and, in case of dispute, to the satisfaction of an engineer appointed by the Board of Trade.
That the Oyster Company from time to time may make and maintain all such sluices, culverts and waterways necessary for oyster culture, as they may deem requisite, in and through the siding. That the company shall construct and maintain a culvert and a sluice to the satisfaction of the Oyster Company's engineer, and the engineer of the company, in and through the portion of railway authorised by the act, where the said will be carried across the Oyster Company's works or bed, and in the case of difference, such culvert and sluice shall be made to the satisfaction of the Board of Trade.
For the purpose of this act the company may apply any funds which by the previous act they are authorised to raise for the purposes of their railway undertaking, as distinguished from the dock capital, may issue as part of their ordinary share capital, shares which have not yet been issued, to an amount not exceeding £6,000, or may create and issue new preference shares of the value of £10 each to an amount not exceeding £6,000. The quantity of land to be taken by the company is not to exceed one acre, and the power of compulsory purchase is not to be exercised after the expiration of one year from the passing of the act, with respect to any purchase land. It is provided that the Oyster Company shall have the right prior to the 26th March 1875, to require the Railway Company to sell to them the whole or any part of the of the surplus land adjoining any mud land occupied by or leased to the Oyster Company, the price to be settled by arbitration.
The period for the completion of the works is within two years from the passing of the act. It is then provided that the company shall abandon and relinquish the formation of so much of the railway authorised by the 15th section of the act of 1860, and in the said section firstly mentioned, as is situate between the point where the railway by this act authorized commences and the termination of the by the 15th section of the act of 1860 authorized and firstly mentioned, except the siding, and shall also abandon and relinquish the formation of the railway in the 9th section of the act of 1864, described as "Railway No. 1:" Provided always, that the company shall, during the tenure of the Oyster Company, use the siding for siding purposes only, and that with the consent of the Oyster Company: Provided also, that the company shall, on the passing of this act, convey to the Oyster Company, their successors and assigns, all their right and interest (if any) in the railway embankment and other works already constructed near Sinah and by this act abandoned.
Compensation is then given for damage to land by entry, &c., for the purposes of railway abandoned. The tolls on the substituted line are to be the same as those on the authorized lines. Provision is made that the South Western and Brighton Companies shall be authorized to use the railways and stations of the company and that for the purposes of tolls and charges the three railways shall be considered as one railway.
Mr G.F. Smith, solicitor, having been given proof of the statements contained in the preamble, the clauses were examined and agreed to, and the bill was ordered to be reported to the house.
The Bill was passed into law with the Approval of the Act of Parliament in Aug 1867.
Although the dispute was settled, the issue was raised again and not finally settled until 1874.
1870's Map
Created by Mike Beel
to give a clearer picture below.
