St Helen's with its 232-foot-long (71 m) single platform[1] was the only intermediate stop on the 2+3⁄4-mile (4.4 km) branch line that connected Brading to the coast at Bembridge.[2]
History
Opened in 1882, when the area was the Island's main port,[3] it ran with ever-dwindling passengers until 1953.[4] Pomeroy[5] described the station thus:
An imposing structure with tall chimneys and elegant dormers, particularly pleasing to the eye.[6]
Train Ferry
From 1885 to 1888 St Helens was the Isle of Wight end of a Freight only Train ferryService. This connected the Isle of Wight Rail Network with Mainland Great Britain's network at Langston railway station, using the Former Firth of Tay Train Ferry TF Carrier.
Stationmasters
In 1931 the stationmaster, Thomas George Clayton Weeks was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for theft and forgery of receipts. He had created fictitious wage sheets for casual workers at the Southern Railway quay and robbed the company of around £3,000 (equivalent to £257,500 in 2023)[7] in four years.[8] It was reported that he had been spending about £5 (equivalent to £400 in 2023)[7] per week on drink, and made presents of joints of beef to various villagers, spending over £400 (equivalent to £34,300 in 2023)[7] at one butchers shop in twelve months.
William Weeks from 1882[9] (formerly station master at Wroxall)
^Paye, Peter (1984). Isle of Wight Railways remembered. Oxford: OPC. ISBN0-86093-212-5.
^Bennett,A "Southern Holiday Lines in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight": Cheltenham, Runpast 1994 ISBN1-870754-31-X
^Viv Hailes quoted in "Once upon a line (Vol 4) Britton,A": Oxford, OPC, 1994 ISBN0-86093-513-2
^Hay,P "Steaming Through the Isle Of Wight": Midhurst,Middleton, 1988 ISBN0-906520-56-8
^"Isle Of Wight Railways, Then and Now": Oxford,Past & Present Publishing, 1993, ISBN0-947971-62-9
^A view Gammell(Southern Branch Lines": Oxford, OPC, 1997 ISBN0-86093-537-X) concurs with One of the most attractive station conversions I have ever seen.