West Meon Railway Station (former site of)

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www.envf.port.ac.uk/hantsgaz/hantsgaz/s0004396.htm

Meon Valley Railway, branch of the LSWR, from Alton to Fareham, Hampshire, authorized 1897, opened 1 June 1903.
The company was incorporated to build a railway by Act of Parliament:-

refce: 60-61 Victoria cap.35 1897
2 Edward 7 cap.31 1902
The route ran from Butts Junction at Alton, through Tisted Station, Privett Station, West Meon Station, Droxford Station, Wickham Station, to Knowle Junction at Wickham.

Associated with London and South Western Railway, LSWR 1897-1923.

Associated with Southern Railway, SR 1923-1948.

Associated with British Railways, BR 1948

mapping: goes through
Butts Junction, Alton
Tisted Station, East Tisted
Privett Station, Froxfield
West Meon Station, Westmeon
Hayden Barn Bridge, Warnford
Droxford Station, Soberton
Soberton
-- SU607155
Wickham Station, Wickham
Wickham Station Bridge, Wickham
Knowle Junction, Wickham
1897: authorized
1.6.1903: opened

www.escapeartist.com/OREQ13/Converted_Railway_Stations....

Churchill and De Gaulle held a top secret meeting here four days before the D-Day landings: all aboard for a converted railway station with an intriguing war-time history... On June 2nd 1944, just four days before the Allies landed on Normandy's beaches, a train carrying Winston Churchill and members of his war cabinet pulled into a cutting close to Droxford station in the Meon Valley, Hampshire.
Here Churchill met with Eisenhower and De Gaulle to discuss the invasion of Europe, which was scheduled for June 5th. Storms were lashing the coastline and a decision was needed: Ike and company repaired to nearby Southwick House and decided to hold off for twenty-four hours. The invasion went ahead on June 6th instead.

Droxford station was chosen for the rendezvous because there was a tunnel near the cutting and it was hoped that if the Luftwaffe made an unwelcome appearance the allied leaders would be able to take cover there and escape the bombers.
The rest, as they say, is history, but so too, alas, is Droxford station and the 22 mile Meon Valley line from Fareham to Alton that was part of the London to Portsmouth route. Opened in 1903, this once busy route, baptized the Strawberry Line because whole trainloads of the fruit would be loaded at Wickham and Mislingford, closed to passengers in 1955 and to freight in 1968.