Listing rejected, but new evidence found

In July 2016 local railway historian Nigel Welbourn made a second application to get the footbridge at Alton station listed. Much to everyone's dismay, we heard on the 3rd October that the application had been turned down (the determination is available to download on the 'Restoring 1892 Footbridge' page of this website). Apart from arguing that all UK railway achitecture after 1840 is only listed when a structure is extremly rare or of great architectural merit (and our footbridge aparently does not meet these criteria), they also said that the story about the ladies of Alton petitioning the railway to cover the footbridge was unsubstantiated. Not any longer...

Local historian Jane Hurst went through the back copies of the Alton Gazette and found letters published in 1894 that substantiate the facts stated in a number of books that cover Alton station. The full text of the letters can be read on the 'Footbridge History' page of this website). This is a minor triumph for us in our struggle to show that our footbridge is worth preserving for future generations to appreciate.