Butts Junction was a

railway junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge), provided by ''points'' ( ...

located in

Alton Alton may refer to: People *Alton (given name) *Alton (surname) Places Australia *Alton National Park, Queensland * Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne Canada * Alton, Ontario *Alton, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Alton, New Zealand, ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, England. The junction was the location at which the

Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway was opened in 1901, by the London and South Western Railway. It was the first English railway authorised under Light Railway legislation. It ran through unpromising, lightly populated terrain, and was prob ...

and the

Meon Valley Railway The Meon Valley Railway was a cross-country railway in Hampshire, England, that ran for 22 miles (36 km) between Alton and Fareham, closely following the course of the River Meon. At its northern (Alton) end, it joined with the Alton Line from ...

diverged from the

Mid-Hants Railway The Mid-Hants Railway(MHR) originated when local people promoted a railway line between Alton and a junction near Winchester, connected to the larger London and South Western Railway at each end. It was authorised as the Alton, Alresford and ...

which runs from Alton to Winchester. The junction became operational in 1901. All of the Junction's railway lines had closed by 1973, with the Mid-Hants Railway subsequently reopening as a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

known as the

Watercress Line The Watercress Line is the marketing name of the Mid-Hants Railway, a heritage railway in Hampshire, England, running from New Alresford to Alton where it connects to the National Rail network. The line gained its popular name in the days w ...

in 1977. The location of Butts Junction can still be seen from trains on the Watercress Line, with an embankment tailing off in a different direction.

Location

Butts Junction was located at in an area southwest of Alton town centre known as The Butts, from which the junction takes its name. The Butts is a triangle of open land which in medieval times was used for archery practice, leading to its name in reference to the

archery butt A butt is an archery shooting field, with mounds of earth used for the targets. The name originally referred to the targets themselves, but over time came to mean the platforms that held the targets as well. For instance '' Othello,'' V, ii, 267 ...

s formerly located at the site. Butts Junction was just 20

chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...

(0.25 miles, 0.40 km) from the former

Treloar's Hospital Platform railway station Treloar's Hospital Platform (also known as Alton Park and Cripples' Home Siding) was a railway station which served Lord Mayor Treloar's hospital in Alton, Hampshire, England. History The station was built by the London and South Western Railw ...

, and to

Alton railway station Alton railway station is a station in the town of Alton, in the English county of Hampshire. The station is the terminus for two railway lines: the ''Alton Line'' which runs to Brookwood and on to London Waterloo, and the ''Mid Hants Water ...

located northeast of the junction. The railway crosses Butts Road at the junction over a bridge which was replaced with the opening of the line to Basingstoke. The junction was home to an

LSWR The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

type 4

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

which was built on the site in June 1903.

References

{{coord, 51.140367, -0.982847, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Rail transport in Hampshire Rail junctions in England Alton, Hampshire