Memorial & plaque unveiled marking Royal Corps of Signals contribution across 40 years

Photo: Andrew P.M. Wright

A poignant wooden memorial and a metal tribute plaque marking the important contribution of the Royal Corps of Signals to the development of the Swanage Railway across 40 years have been unveiled on the platform at Herston Halt.

Carol Wright - a volunteer gardener at the halt for almost 25 years with her late husband Peter - performed the honours at the wooden memorial with the new Mayor of Swanage Councillor Mike Bonfield.

Set into the ground vertically, the memorial is composed of an eight feet long wooden railway sleeper on which are 15 small plaques paying tribute to serving Royal Corps of Signals soldiers, and volunteers from the community, who have helped to develop Herston Halt since it opened in 1984.

Mounted on a wall at Herston Halt, the blue circular metal tribute plaque was unveiled by Swanage Railway Trust chair Frank Roberts who has been a dedicated volunteer on the Isle of Purbeck heritage line for more than 40 years and served in the Royal Corps of Signals for 25 years.

In front of invited guests – army veterans and volunteers - who have been involved with the development of Herston Halt, both ceremonies took place on the afternoon of Saturday, 5 July, 2025.

Located a mile from Swanage, Herston Halt was the first station to be built by the Swanage Railway as its dedicated volunteers steadily relaid their tracks heading for the three-mile point at Harman’s Cross where another new station would be built in 1988.

Built in 1983, the original Herston Halt was smaller than today’s concrete structure with the platform originally constructed of wood with the handrails being made from recycled metal boiler tubes from the small industrial steam locomotives that hauled the trains at Swanage between Easter, 1980, and the end of 1983.

The first passenger train from Swanage ran to the halt on Good Friday, April, 1984 – the year that the Royal Corps of Signals began its association with the Swanage Railway.

It was in 2008 that members of the Royal Corps of Signals dismantled the old wooden platform at Herston Halt and replaced it with a large 1930s concrete sectional platform that had been salvaged from Woodside, in south London, during 2005 when the Croydon Tramlink was being built on a former railway line.

Volunteer Swanage Railway Trust chair Frank Roberts said: “There was a wonderful feeling of community, family, camaraderie and shared purpose when the memorial and the tribute plaque were unveiled.

“It was good to welcome the families of some of those people, sadly no longer with us, who played such an important part in the development of Herston Halt over the years. It’s important to remember those people whose determined volunteer work has contributed to the maintenance and development of Herston Halt over 40 years.

“The Herston Halt of today is very different to the small basic halt that welcomed its first train from Swanage on Good Friday, April, 1984 – an historic and exciting day that saw Herston Halt become a springboard to success, enabling the Swanage Railway to push on and relay its tracks to Harman’s Cross, Corfe Castle and Norden,” added Frank.

The first Royal Corps of Signals exercise on the Swanage Railway in 1984 saw 15 soldier tradesmen from the 30 Signal Regiment, based at Blandford Forum in Dorset, install lineside wooden poles and telephone cables along the one-mile of track between Swanage and Herston Halt.

As dedicated Swanage Railway volunteers slowly laid their tracks to Harman’s Cross, Corfe Castle and Norden, soldier tradesmen from the Royal Corps of Signals installed lineside wooden poles and telephone cables as well as telephone exchanges at Swanage, Harman’s Cross and Corfe Castle stations.

The Swanage Railway welcomes new volunteers and anyone interested in finding out more should contact the Swanage Railway volunteer recruitment and retention officer Lisa Gravett on 01929 475212 or email iwanttovolunteer@swanagerailway.co.uk. Details about volunteering can be found at swanagerailwaytrust.org/volunteering.

Story and photograph by Andrew P.M. Wright,

Swanage Railway official photographer and press officer.