Monument MPM1185 - Bridge foundations, Portsdown & Horndean Light Railway

Construction trenches containing brick and concrete foundations, interpreted as the remains of the foundations of a bridge belonging to the former Portsdown and Horndean Light Railway recorded during a watching brief in 2008. A layer of soil was thought to be part of an embankment by which the bridge was approached.

Several features observed during a watching brief at Cosham Interchange in 2008 were identified as relating to the infrastructure of the former Portsdown and Horndean Light Railway. The railway, an electric tramway, opened in 1903 and closed in 1935. The Ordnance Survey maps of 1938 and 1952 show a bridge where the tramway crossed the main-line railway, approached by an embankment.

A low mound at the north edge of the site coincided with the location of the former bridge. Construction trenches containing brick and concrete foundations were interpreted as the remains of the foundations for the bridge. A layer of mixed soil with common chalk fragments was thought to be material which had been deposited in order to construct the embankment. Two further layers of clay, one containing fragments of brick, were probably redeposited material from the embankment.

Accession number: 2008/6

Cottrell, P R, 2008, Archaeological Watching Brief at Cosham Transport Interchange, Roebuck Close, Cosham, Portsmouth (Unpublished document). SPM157.