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On August 14th 1855 the Stokes Bay Railway and Pier Act passed through Parliament and became law. The estimated expenses were £13,200 for the building of the railway and £7,000 for the construction of the pier, and the share capital was to be £24,000 in £10 shares. The act stated that the work was to be completed within three years and that all plans had first to be submitted to the admiralty for security screening and approval before any work could commence.

Stokes Bay Pier 1950s

The first AGM of the Stokes Bay Railway & Pier Co. was held in October 1855 at the Anglesea Hotel and in reply to a question the Chairman Mr. Fleming concluded, "the probability of the line being used by her Majesty in preference to the main Gosport route was most likely" (as we know this never happened). This hope was fuelled by a visit to the pier by Prince Albert in the company of General Sir F. Smith of the RE, when the Prince was said to be very impressed with the whole operation but surprisingly very little is known of this Royal Visit. November saw the formation of the Isle of Wight Steam Bridge Co. that became a registered in December 1855. Unbelievably the company's original plan was to cross the Solent with a chain driven floating bridge, however after objections, not the least from the Navy this plan was abandoned and the name of the company altered to the Isle of Wight Ferry Co. In July 1856 the Act of Parliament authorized the company to:-

make and maintain, within certain limits, such inclines, landing places, approaches, cuts, works, toll houses and conveniences as necessary and establish and work a ferry with and by a vessel or vessels to ply between the landing place to be constructed by the company at stokes bay and the landing place to be constructed by them at Ryde.

While this legislation was being passed the Stokes Bay Railway & Pier Co. were attempting to implement their Act of Parliament. Here began a delay which was to last eight years and which was to require another Act as the time limit ran out. One of the major delays was the report from the Admiralty Board of Ordinance and the Board of Trade. These reports and recommendations were to increase the cost of the construction by at least £6,000. In January 1856 the company's engineer, Hamilton Fulton, appointed Smith and Knight as contractors; they offered to build the line for £16,200 and they also tendered to construct the pier for a further £8,000. The Stokes Bay Railway & Pier Co.'s board decided that before the commencement of any work it would be as well to have an understanding with the London & South Western Railway Co. (LSWR) from whose main line the junction to the pier line would be made. Financial problems followed and within a short space of time attempts were made to find other contractors who would accept, as payment, a larger proportion of the shares and less actual money than Smith and Knight would, one wonders whether they realised that this was to be a line always dogged by financial problems and that their shares would eventually be more of a liability than an asset.

At the meeting with the LSWR the chairman of the Stokes Bay Co. discovered that the LSWR was  reluctant to commit itself and in 1856 the LSWR wrote to the Stokes Bay Co. to say that they might possibly consider talking when the line was more complete. The same reply was received after representations were made in the July; obviously the LSWR was not  impressed with what it saw. In November the Stokes Bay chairman was granted   another   interview   with  the  LSWR board to discuss the running of the line. It was never the intention of Stokes Bay Co. to provide locomotives and rolling stock; it was hoped that LSWR would work the line for them at an agreed rate. At the November meeting it was decided that the funds of the Stokes Bay Cc. were so limited that the LSWR would work the line at cost price to try to stem the drain on Stokes Bay Company's finances. The LSWR agreed to work the line but insisted on certain improvements being made and by March estimates of over £40.000 were being quoted and the negotiations with the contractors were at a standstill. No agreement could be reached with Smith & Knight so they retired from the scene and devoted their energies to build the Metropolitan Railway instead.