Romsey's first railway line ran from Eastleigh to Salisbury, then called Bishopstoke and Milton respectively. It was built in 1846.

In the vicinity of Romsey, the line was constructed on wooden trestles thus raising it above the wet land to the north of the town. Later these were earthed in.

The railway line had to cross the turnpike road from Romsey to Winchester, so the South Western Railway Company made application to the turnpike trustees for permission to build a bridge over the road.

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The trustees made no objection to the construction of a ‘proper railway bridge’. The engineer in charge of constructing the railway was required to ‘regulate the approaches to the arch under which the Turnpike road passes near Romsey so that the fences and the direction of the road may correspond with the plan supplied by the Company.’ In December 1846, the Trustees complained that the Railway Company had not restored the road surface by the railway arch.

The Railway Company was also required to make provision for drainage of rainwater by the bridge and to erect screens on the top of the arch to prevent danger to passengers.

I don’t know when the arch was first called the Sun Arch. It takes its name from the Sun Inn which is close by. In 1792 the building belonged to the maltsters Messrs Trodd. Whether they were selling beer in the eighteenth century is not apparent. The first publican whose name I have is Mary Case in 1851. Later in the 1850s James Shepherd became the licensee and he remained there for more than 30 years. The inn, like the bridge, is still in business.

In 1846 the Sun Arch was large enough to accommodate the traffic that came its way, but the twentieth century saw the spread of motor vehicles, which have grown larger and larger, and the bridge has been the site of some horrendous accidents, resulting in death or near-misses.

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On the other hand, the bridge is so low that large lorries cannot come into Romsey from Winchester Hill (the A 3090) and that undoubtedly reduces the number of them that use our narrow and crowded streets.

The bridge is made more awkward because it is set at an angle to the road, as examination of the brickwork from which it is constructed makes clear.

In the 1970s there were several protests about the dangerous nature of the bridge with overlarge traffic trying to pass under it which resulted in the erection of electronic warning signs, but to this day, the occasional driver causes havoc by ignoring them and then having to turn round or reverse back to Botley Road.