Before the Bulford Camp branch opened, all nearby railway routes had skirted Salisbury Plain, but none led through it.

A bill was deposited in Parliament in November 1882, for a line to branch away from the LSWR between Salisbury and Basingstoke at a point around two miles west of Grateley railway station.

This proposed a route from Pewsey railway station on their main line, leading south over the Plain and then onward to Southampton.

This light railway was to run up the Avon valley from Bemerton (near Salisbury) to Amesbury via Stratford, Woodford, Durnford and Wilsford.

[1] In the meantime, the War Office had been purchasing large areas of Salisbury Plain, and had already commenced negotiations with the LSWR for a light railway, very like the 1882 scheme.

This would run from Grateley station and over the Plain, via Newton Tony and Amesbury, to a terminus just east of Shrewton, making the line 10 miles and 62 chains long.

Although the line was officially a light railway, it was built to far more substantial standards, with heavy engineering works required.

When passenger services commenced, the first train to arrive at Amesbury brought the newspapers announcing the end of the South African War.

A further extension was added south-east from Rollestone to Fargo, where there was a military hospital; this line then dividing with one branch going south to Druid's Lodge and one to Stonehenge Aerodrome.