The GLIO Site

     THE PORTSMOUTH RAILWAY COMPANY.—Capital £400,000, In 20,000 Shares of £20 each. Deposit, £2  2s. per share. Under the approval and support of the following, amongst other landowners and gentlemen locally interested in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, and Sussex :—

The Earl of Whiterton, Shillinglee-park, Sussex.
Viscount Monck, M.P., Portsmouth
The Mayor of Portsmouth
John Deverell, Esq., Purbrook-park
Sir Henry John Leeke, West Leigh
W. J. Evelyn, Esq., M.P. for West Surrey
Sir W. G. H. Jolliffe, Bart., M.P.
The Mayor of Petersfield
John Bonham Carter, Esq., M.P.
J. H. Waddington, Esq., Langrish
Rear-Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, Little-green, Sussex
The Hon. J. J. Carnegie, Fair Oak, Petersfield
Major Mundy, Hollybank
Colonel Hugonin, Nurstead
Joseph Martineau, Esq., Basing-park
The Rev. William Legge
Colonel Charles Wyndham, Rogate-lodge
Sir Charles Taylor, Bart., Hollycomb
Sir Archibald Keppel Macdonald, Bart., Woolmer-lodge
Thomas Butler, Esq., Downlands

DIRECTORS. 

Charles Henry Blake, Esq., 10, Devonshire-place.
Major Butler, Liphook
William Eldridge Butler, Esq., Le Court, near Petersfield
H. BohaM Carter, Esq., 6, Whitehall, and Petersfield
The Hon. Thomas William Gage, Westbury, near Petersfield
Fielder King, Esq., Buriton
Henry Lacy, Esq., Petersfield, banker
Ross D. Mangles, Esq., M.P., Woodbridge, Guildford
Benjamin Mew, Esq., Newport, Isle of Wight, brewer
Francis Mowatt Esq., Trotton House, Petersfield; and Devonshire-place, London
Thomas Ellis Owen, Esq., Dover-court, Southsea
Edward John Scott, Esq., Portsmouth
John Stewart, Esq., director of the London and Westminster Bank
Admiral Sir James Stirling, Belmont, Havant.

Engineers.—Messrs. Locke and Errington.

Bankers.—The London and Westminster Bank, London; Messrs. Grant, Gillman, and Long, Portsmouth; the London and County Bank, Petersfield; the West Surrey Bank, Guildford and Godalming.

Solicitors.—Messrs. Roy, London.
Secretary pro tem.— Alexander E. Lloyd, Esq.
Offices.—37, Great George-street, Westminster.

PROSPECTUS.

     It is intended to construct a railway between Godalming and Havant, 32 miles In length, to afford a more direct and a cheaper communication between London and Portsmouth, as well as railway accommodation generally to the large extent of unopened country through which it will pass. 

     The deposit of plans and sections and all other necessary steps have been taken, with a view to an application for an Act of Incorporation during the present session of Parliament. 

     The line will commence at the end of the Godalming Branch of the South-Western Railway, and will pass the towns of Godalming, Haslemere, and Petersfield, and generally following the route of the Direct Portsmouth Railway, as sanctioned by Parliament in 1846, to Havant, it will there unite with the Coast Line of the Brighton Company and the Fareham Extension Line of the South-Western Company, and proceed thence directly to the town and harbour of Portsmouth.

     The landowners and others locally interested in the district have concurred in promoting this measure, and have, to the extent of nearly three-fourths of the length of the line, signed agreements for the sale of their land at its mere agricultural value, and in several instances have agreed to take the Company’s shares in payment.

     The connection with the South-Eastern Railway, near Godalming, will secure to the proposed line the advantage of a second entrance into and exit from, London, the one to the West End, and the other to the heart of the City, establishing by the same means also a direct communication, and with a great saving in distance, between the metropolis, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Reigate, and and the South-Eastern Line generally, and Guildford, Portsmouth, and the Isle of Wight, as well as with all the intervening country. 

     The line will effect all the objects contemplated by the Direct Portsmouth Act of 1846, but at the reduced cost of £400,000 now, instead of £1,500,000 then required. 

     It has been also further greatly improved by a late survey made under the directions of Messrs. Lock and Errington, by which it will not only be materially shortened, but three out of the four most serious and highly objectionable tunnels in the former plan have been entirely got rid of in the present, and the fourth, near Petersfield, reduced to one third its length.

     To avoid all risk and uncertainty, however, on these essential points, the promoters have entered into a provisional contract with perfectly responsible parties for the completion of the entire line from Godalming to Havant, for the extremely moderate sum of £372,000, or £12,000 per mile, including the cost of land, rails, stations, and all other necessaries, excepting only the locomotive plant. And further, the same parties have come under a formal and binding engagement to take a lease, if required, of the line when completed, for the first five years, at a net minimum rental of 4 per cent. per annum, with one-half of the profits beyond that amount.

     Parliament having already in 1846 sanctioned this line now proposed to be constructed, its promoters cannot believe that any serious or effective opposition can be again offered to it.

     To sum up, it may be safely asserted that the undertaking holds out advantages to subscribers and the public generally that have rarely yet been offered by any other railway project, viz. :— 

     It will afford the most direct, and by far the cheapest, route between London and Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, being the shorter by twenty-two miles than either of the two existing lines, and being contracted for at £12,000 a mile, in lieu of about four times that amount expended on the Brighton and South-Western lines; it will have, through the South-Eastern, from Godalming, a double entrance into London; from which it follows, almost as a matter of course, that it will command the entire traffic of the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth, on terms that, while highly remunerative to its proprietary, must make competition on the part of its rivals hopeless, if not impossible. Further, the whole cost of the entire works and materiel has been undertaken, by responsible contractors, for a specific and fixed sum; thus freeing the calculations and estimates of the engineers from all doubt and uncertainty. And, finally, the shareholders will have the power of accepting or not, at their option, the offer of a lease of the line when completed, for five years, at a minimum rate of 4 per cent. interest on their capital, with half the profits beyond.

     Below are given the particulars of the lengths of the different lines, together with the existing population and traffic, referred to.

     Applications for the Company’s shares remaining undisposed of may be made to Messrs. Joshua Hutchinson and Son, stockbrokers, 39 Lothbury, London; to the solicitors, Messrs. R. and W. G. Roy, 4, Lothboury, and 37, Great George-street, London; or to Thomas Mellersh, Esq., Godalming; G. J. Parson, Esq., Haslemere; Messrs. Mitchell and Minty, Petersfield; C. J. Longcroft, Esq., Havant; the London and Westminster Bank, London; the West Surrey Bank, Guildford and Godalming; the London and County Bank, Petersfield; and Messrs. Grant, Gillman, and Long, bankers, Portsmouth; in the following form :—

 FORM OF APPLICATION FOR SHARES
To the Directors of the Portsmouth Railway Company.

     Gentlemen—I request that you will allot to me           shares of £20 each, or such smaller number as you may think proper, in the above Company; and I undertake to accept such shares, and to pay the deposit thereon, and to execute the subscribers’ agreement and subscription contract when required.

Dated this      day of                    1852.
Name
Profession or business
Address
Reference

Offices, 37, Great George-street, Westminster, Dec., 1852.