I’m not totally sure this was ever a railway pub in the proper sense, but it sits right by the small Beaulieu Road Station on the Waterloo to Weymouth line about halfway between Southampton and Bournemouth.
By the same argument I could include any pub near to any railway station but my excuse here is the remoteness of this spot, except for a row of cottages and the adjoining hotel there is nothing else for miles around.
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| Beaulieu Road Station, Drift Inn and Beaulieu Hotel |
The railway station is also about halfway between Beaulieu and Lyndhurst, but it was not built to serve either community. It was built in 1847 by the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, as a private railway station for Lord Montague of Beaulieu in return for him allowing the railway to pass over his land.
The pub used to be called the Beaulieu Road Inn and as far as I am aware it has never had a ‘railway’ name.
The name 'Drift Inn’ now associates the pub with the the New Forest ‘drifts’ when the New Forest ponies are rounded up. The pub is owned by the neighbouring Beaulieu Road Hotel and is an L shaped single storey building with stone floors and a beer garden overlooking the forest heathland at the rear. The pub serves Ringwood Brewery and a guest real ale and provides a range of lunchtime and evening food.
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