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Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society 1984 Volume 28 Number 3 November |
Edwin A. Shearing. Chester Canal Projects: Part 1. 98
Hugh J. Compton. River Brent Navigation. 104
Grahame Boyes. `A small token'.107
The minutes of the first General Meeting of the Company of Proprietors of
the
Grand Junction Canal, on 1 June 1793, record the resolution to make a presentation of a piece of plate to William Praed 'as a small token of their gratitude,
and of the esteem which they bear to his public services, and the Committee are
desired to provide the same and deliver it to Mr Praed'. William Praed had been
the main driving force behind the promotion of the GJC and was to be the The above figures clearly demonstrate that there must have been a considerable
back working of empty barges out of the GJC into the River Thames. This
figure to a limited extent helped the workings of Thames Lock, since being tidal,
loaded barges normally could only enter from the Thames during a four-hourly
period, whereas empty barges, which required a lesser depth of water could lock
down over a six-hourly period. However, as mentioned earlier, there were a
considerable number of wharfs on this reach, and this feature, together with the
restricted access to the Thames, time-wise, resulted in considerable congestion as
evidenced by the picture in Canals & Inland Waterways by G. Cadbury dated
1929. Therefore BWB were right to duplicate this lock in 1962, but if the work
had been done before World War I a pair of the proposed 100-ton standard locks
would have been preferable. At the same time the other suggestions for straightening the canal should have been carried out. The 300-ton standard would, however,
have presented other problems:
(a) Brentford High Street new bridge would have to have been built with its
crown 6, above the roadway level.
(b) During dry seasons, the comparatively low volume of water passing down
the river Brent would have necessitated back pumping to the extent of
913 cu. ft per min.
(c) The lowest of the GWR bridges had been built with a headroom of only
12 , which complied with section 57 of the GWR's Brentford Dock and
Branch Act (1819 Vic. c.cxci) dated 14 August 1855. This was one foot
short of the headroom requirement for a 300-ton barge. Even the French
version would have required an additional six inches.
Strangely enough, the commissioners' report made only a passing reference to
duplication of locks, preferring to leave this aspect for future consideration, but
with the improvements to both locks (100 & 101) and the waterway between
the GJC depot and the river Thames, other parts of the river Brent should have
had a similar treatment, but perhaps on a reduced scale.
106
David Tew. A trip to Constantinople in 1853. 110
I have inherited a manuscript book entitled 'A few Extracts from letters
written by the Revd. T. Henderson whilst upon a tour from England to
Constantinople, in company with W. Dalton Esqre of Bury St. Ednds. in 1852.'
Slipped into the volume is a sheet of paper with an account of his expenses.
I find this much more interesting than his letters, which are decidedly
pedestrian, and I hope it will interest members, particularly in view of
the remarks in the Journal, March 1984, about the relative costs of
various forms of travel. The Revd Thomas Henderson was my great grandfather,
a prominent High Churchman and friendly with the leaders of the Oxford movement.
He was a Student (i.e. Fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford, and subsequently
Vicar of Messing in Essex from 1827 till his sudden death while conducting
a service in, church in 1861. (Some members may remember the Shell advertisement
`Mucking and Messing in Essex but Shell for us in tank!') His wife was Frances
Dalton, daughter of the Reverend Charles Dalton, Fellow of Caius College,
Cambridge, and Vicar of Kelvedon in Essex. Mrs Henderson's uncle was William
Dalton, who was a solicitor in Bury St Edmunds and died at Bury in 1860,
aged 93, so that he was in his middle 80s when he went on the trip to
Constantinople. Mr Dalton's father, also William Dalton, is described as
a banker and wine merchant in Bury St Edmunds, a most satisfactory combination
of activities.
A.L. Barnett. The Railway Acts of Parliament of 1884. 113
In this summary of the Acts of Parliament of one hundred years ago,
wherever possible modern names of junctions and locations are used; descriptions
by parishes can be misleading. However, the spelling of certain place names,
as used in the Acts, is retained. Approximate mileages are given. It has
not been possible to consult Deposited Plans for the proposed railways, and
if mistakes have been made the author would be grateful if they are pointed
out. To avoid repetition, the date of Royal Assent is given at the end of
the appropriate section. In Local and Personal Acts, the Chapter number is
given in Roman figures, but for convenience Arabic numerals are used here.
Except where an asterisk (*) is used the word Railway(s) is included in the
title of the Act. To save space, well-known railways are referred to by initials
or abbreviations, and these are used in subsequent eferences to other railways.
The Acts were consulted in the Archives Department of West Yorkshire County
Council, Wakefield, and thanks are due to Mrs M. I. Frankland and her staff
for their help.
M.J.T. Lewis. Roman navigation in Northern England? A review article.
118-
From time to time there appears a book of direct relevance to members'
interests, but which, emanating, from a different area of study, might not
ordinarily come to their notice. Such is Raymond Selkirk's The Pierce
bridge Formula (217pp, ) profusely illustrated. Patrick Stephens, Cambridge,
1983 which calls for fuller discussion than is possible in an ordinary review.
The author is an amateur archaeologist who does a great deal of aerial
photography, especially of Roman sites in Durham andNorthumberland, and who
has a number of new discoveries to his credit. The emphasis in this description,
to be frank, must be on the word amateur. No blame for that: but Selkirk
is no scholar. His book is undisciplined, full of otiose digressions, innocent
of references. He is not at home with his sources ancient or modern; he is
naive about engineering, whether of bridges, Roman dams, or later navigations;
he is not indeed, well read even in his own subject — he is unaware,
for instance, that the old notion of the Car Dyke being a navigation canal
has been thoroughly exploded.' Why, then, bother with the book? Because it
opens up potentially important, and very exciting, possibilities. The pattern
of Roman forts whose garrisons policed the northern parts of England and,
for a time, southern Scotland is quite dense: there are around fifty of
reasonable permanence known in Durham, Northumberland, and Cumberland alone.
To supply these forts must have been some undertaking. One may note that
a large cavalry unit such as garrisoned Chester or Risingham had 1056 men
on the strength, plus 256 horses, the headquarters staff, and an indeterminate
but considerable number of hangers-on, the inhabitants of the vicus or civilian
settlement which sprang up beside virtually every fort. Some of the food
and fodder, some of the daily necessities of life, and some of the military
equipment may of course have been grown or made locally. But, especially
in the case of the more inland and upland forts, much must have been brought
in to them. It is usually assumed that the road network carried these supplies.
Selkirk, however, points out that, where there was any alternative, road
transport was as uneconomic in Roman times as it has been in any age; and
more so since harness was inefficient, vehicle loads light, and road gradients
sometimes so steep as to tax even the internal combustion engine. He argues
that a wagon drawn by oxen — the standard motive power — would
travel only six miles a day, with the oxen consuming the cargo they were
pulling (or its equivalent in weight) in two days flat. Although this may
be something of an exaggeration, the basic point is entirely valid, and is
well understood by historians and archaeologists. To put it another way,
but without going into all the qualifications which surround a complex subject,
transport of bulk commodities in the Roman Empire cost, in very broad terms,
some six times as much by river as by sea, and fifty-five times as much by
road as by sea. On this basis, supplying the military presence of the north
by road, even from the coastal ports, was very expensive indeed. From this
awkward fact sprang Selkirk's inspiration. It is well known that the Romans
made use of the major rivers of the Empire for inland transport — Rhone,
Rhine, Moselle, Seine, Loire etc. etc. — and even the major rivers of
Britain — Severn, Trent, Yorkshire Ouse, and so on. But why, he urges,
should they not also have used the minor rivers of the north and saved on
the enormous cost of road transport there? He found that about 90 per cent
of forts are on rivers of some kind, and at the rivers he began to look:
from the air, on the ground, and in archaeological records. The core of the
book recounts his discoveries. His type-site, which he has investigated most
closely, is Piercebridge on the Tees: hence his title. The features which
he claims to have identified there are a masonry dam (we would tend to call
it a weir) to deepen the river above; a lock-cut containing one or more locks,
evidenced by masonry walls with vertical slots for guillotine gates, to allow
craft to bypass the dam; and an artificial 'harbour' (we would rather call
it a basin) where vessels could unload to supply the adjacent fort and vicus.
Piercebridge lies some 29 miles above the tidal limit, and the Tees here
is about 175 feet above the sea. It makes a very plausible picture, if one
assumes a series of locks of some kind to cater for the average fall of seven
feet per mile; and Selkirk thinks he has spotted two such sites below
Piercebridge.
Book reviews.
John Smeaton FRS; edited by A.W. Skempton. London: Thomas Telford Ltd,
I291 pp. 54 illustrations. Reviewed by Cyril T.G. Boucher.
This is the first full-length biography of John Smeaton, and has been prepared
under the able editorship of Professor A. W. Skempton who has also, along
with seven other experts, contributed to a total of eleven chapters on the
different aspects of Smeaton's work. Your reviewer's first aquaintance with
our engineer was over 50 years ago when he read Samuel Smiles' biography
in The Lives of the Engineers published in 1861. Smiles' account was
compulsive reading and still remains so, and to most people the present work
will be compared with that. The main difference is that this book has been
compiled and written by experts in each field and the works are subjected
to a critical analysis. Adulation is out, but on the whole Smeaton comes
out all the better for this. The book is replete with plans and diagrams,
some reproduced from Smeaton's originals, others specially prepared, and
yet others from sources such as Farey. Appendices list Smeaton's Drawings,
Reports, and Works, while his library and instruments are detailed partly
from intelligent detective work which it is a pleasure to follow. In all,
this is a life and assessment by experts which will give pleasure at any
level ranging from the expert to the mildy nterested, and certainly to members
of The Railway and Canal Historical Society.
NINETEENTH CENTURY RAILWAY HISTORY THROUGH THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS, by Anthony J. Lambert, pp 128, 270 x 215 mm,
over 100 illustrations. David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1984.
ISBN 0 7153 8521 6. £12.95.
`Although well known for its excellent contemporary pictorial record of railway
events, the value of the Illustrated London News as a newspaper is apt to be
overlooked. Not only are all major events reported, but also relatively minor
matters, sod-cutting ceremonies, openings, mishaps, etc. The paper developed
the useful practice of precise dating of events.' So Charles Clinker wrote of the
ILN. Well known the paper may be, but there are very few of us lucky enough
to have the space to accommodate long runs of our own — even if it were possible to obtain such runs. And there will be many transport historians who do
not have the good fortune to have ready access to a library with anything like
a complete set.
125
z.""'"'"lsto&SSM.MS,ssete,,,I 4 ti
New Grand Central Railway Station, at Birmingham, opened on Thursday, June I
(From
Illustrated London News)
Anthony Lambert has selected eighteen different railway topics, ranging from
Construction and Opening by way of Accidents and Disasters to Abortive
Schemes and Civil Unrest. A commendably clear and brief introduction sets the
scene. Then each chapter consists of a number of reproductions of illustrations,
together with extracts from the original text of the ILN and a pertinent commentary from Mr Lambert. The use of Roman type for the quoted material and
Italic type for the commentary makes for ready distinction.
The quality of the reproductions is excellent, and the design and layout of the
book are highly pleasing. This work appears to fulfil three purposes: it serves as
a constant reminder to the railway historian that the ILN offers rich information
both in its text and in the best of its engravings, and is a source not to be neglected; it provides a comment on the nineteenth-century railway scene as a work
in its own right; and for those of us who will never own a run of the periodical
it offers a selection of fine illustrations that can be looked at and enjoyed again
and again. And some of the items offered, such as that on the Channel Railway
Ferry proposal, give a salutary reminder of how much progress we have failed to
make in the last hundred years! This is a book to be commended very warmly —
and by modern standards it is also very reasonably priced. J. V. GOUGH
LOCOMOTIVES OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY, Part 13.
PRESERVATION AND SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION. 44 pages, 31
black and white illustrations, 1 colour, 2 diagrams, card covers with coloured
jacket. Published by The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society.
ISBN 0 901115 60 6. 1983. £2.50.
This is a useful reference book, even to those without Parts 1-12. It contains a
complete list of preserved GWR locomotives, 153 altogether, with their locations;
a list of services worked by GWR steam rail-motors with their dates of introduction and withdrawal; a list of over 270 industrial steam locomotives registered for
running over the GWR: a list of Dean Goods 0-6-0s in war service; and drawings
of two projected Garratt designs of 1931, a 2-8-0 + 0-8-2 and a 4-6-0 + 0-6-4.
The title of the latter has been wrongly placed on the page. Also, there is a list
of additional information and corrections relating to Parts 1-12. The book is
uniform in style with the other parts.
Out of the 44 pages of text only 6 can be described as 'reading matter'; the
remainder consists of tabular material. All the illustrations are interesting, three
are of great antiquity; it is a pity that 24 are reproduced only 75 x 43 mm and
others but little larger. In common with all the RCTS locomotive histories, the
book is well produced. JOHN MARSHALL
THE NORTHAMPTON & HARBOROUGH LINE, by John Gough. Card covers,
112 pp., 11 photographic illustrations, track diagrams, gradient profiles. Railway
& Canal Historical Society, 1984. ISBN 0 901461 35 0. £3.95.
In recent years there have been many 'branch line' books — some good, some
bad — with differing emphasis, from photo-albums through anecdote to classic
history. If well done, all can contribute to our appreciation of the railway scene.
John Gough's Northampton & Harborough Line is an admirable example of the
historical approach. The author has delved deep in the public archives, to bring
127
us a history of false starts, delayed construction, and final opening of this LNWR
secondary route. The Northampton 'myth', that most enduring of railway nonfacts, is explored, as is the reason for this line being built at all.
From a personal acqaintance with many of the lines in the area the reviewer
found the story absorbing, but John Gough's work merits a wider readership
than local interest or LNWR devotees, for he portrays the early anxieties of
railway promoters about gradients and the expense to which they would go to
reduce them. We learn how costly this line would have been as a pioneer trunk
route, and see how better motive power prompted an acceptance of steeper
gradients, even on main lines, whilst still greater economy was sought in branchline construction. We learn of inter-company rivalries, the principles of 'blocking' lines, of many little-appreciated factors in setting out any railway line, and
of the mediocre results — even in Victorian times — of a line such as this.
Historically, the book is highly commended. One would have enjoyed more on
traffic operation and the ironstone workings, but the reviewer who laments
such gaps often overlooks the rigid constraints of cost and space to which authors
and publishers are always subject. All too often such omissions could only be
filled by trimming elsewhere to keep within acceptable confines. In this instance
the RCHS and the author are to be commended on an excellent historical perspective and an efficient and capable use of the space at their disposal, without
the irritating waste of space which some publishers are still wedded to.
R. POWELL HENDRY
THE CHESHIRE LINES COMMITTEE by Paul Bolger. 144 pp. Numerous
maps, plans and photo illustrations. ISBN 0 947562 00 1. Heyday Publishing
Co., 83, Crosby Road North, Merseyside. £10.95.
The joint railway was very much a British institution and of the many in these
islands the Cheshire Lines must be regarded a
rivers of some kind, and at the rivers he began to look: from the air, on the
ground, and in archaeological records. The core of the book recounts his discoveries. His type-site, which he has investigated most closely, is Piercebridge
on the Tees: hence his title. The features which he claims to have identified
there are a masonry dam (we would tend to call it a weir) to deepen the river
above; a lock-cut containing one or more locks, evidenced by masonry walls
with vertical slots for guillotine gates, to allow craft to bypass the dam; and an
artificial 'harbour' (we would rather call it a basin) where vessels could unload to
supply the adjacent fort and vicus. Piercebridge lies some 29 miles above the
tidal limit, and the Tees here is about 175 feet above the sea. It makes a very
plausible picture, if one assumes a series of locks of some kind to cater for the
average fall of seven feet per mile; and Selkirk thinks he has spotted two such
sites below Piercebridge.
Armed with this theory, he spread his search more widely, hunting mainly from
the air. He claims to have located about forty sites which show, he says, signs
of artificial improvement to rivers in the interests of Roman navigation, in the
form of remains of dams, lock-cuts, basins or wharves. The net result, in summary, is that by his reckoning the Romans navigated the following rivers, normally serving a number of forts en route. I have added my own estimates of
distance by river above the tidal limit and of height above the sea.
East coast: Tweed to Newstead (39 miles, 350ft)
Coquet to Sharperton (35 miles, 400ft)
North Tyne and Rede to Risingham (36 miles, 400ft)
Derwent to Ebchester (10 miles, 250ft)
Wear to Binchester (30 miles, 220ft)
Tees and Greta to Bowes (49 miles, 850ft)
lire and Swale to near Richmond (76 miles, 250ft)
West coast: Eden to Brough (63 miles, 550ft)
Eden and Eamont to Brougham (44 miles, 350ft) and maybe to
Ullswater (51 miles, 470ft)
Petteril to Old Penrith (25 miles, 400ft)
Esk to Netherby (6 miles, 60ft)
Irthing to Willowford (31 miles, 360ft)
He has not looked further afield, but suggests, rightly, that others should do so,
in Britain and in Europe.
How likely is all this? In no case has his theory yet been tested by excavation,
to discover if the features are really what he says, and really are Roman. At
Piercebridge itself — his most convincing instance because the most fully argued
and the most easily visible — the 'dam' abutment, excavated a few years ago,
certainly is Roman; it is however interpreted by the orthodox as a bridge, somewhat dubiously since another bridge carrying Dere Street is known to have
existed 500 yards upstream. Selkirk claims his 'harbour' and lock-cut' are
Roman mainly because of their size: they served as mediaeval millraces, for
which they are improbably large, and he suggests the mill builders simply re-used
existing cuts. His scenario is plausible, but it is only inference. The Romans'
ability to carry out this kind of work is not in question. If they could divert a
complete branch of the Rhine — the Waal4— then any river engineering in
Britain would be child's play by comparison. At Piercebridge, I am sympathetic
to the interpretation, but remain to be convinced by fuller evidence.
Elsewhere the same holds true. In many cases Selkirk's evidence is no more than
the suspicious appearance of features seen from the air alone. Sometimes his
arguments are questionable, as in the instance of Hylton on the Wear. Here
there was a masonry barrier across the river, certainly Roman, but removed early
119
last century to allow easier passage for keels. Selkirk inevitably reads it as a
navigation weir; the standard view is that it was a causeway or paved ford, after
the manner of the better-known example across the Trent at Littleborough.5
The orthodox line is the more convincing if only because of the site: a mere
41/2miles upriver from the sea, and 51/2miles below the present tidal limit. In
later centuries keels plied happily, except for the inconvenience of this barrier, up
to Fatfield and Biddick, almost at the tidal limit, with no assistance from locks
or weirs. By the same token, would Roman boats need a weir so low down as
Hylton? Hardly; unless the whole east coast has sunk, which is denied by the ot\
experts. Again, Selkirk emphasises that the fort at South Shields, the main
supply-port of the north-east, was manned in the late Empire by a unit of
barcarii — bargemen: not a defensive garri
BOOK REVIEWS 124
CORRESPONDENCE .. 136
MISCELLANY .. 141
97
Book reviews
STEEL WHEELS TO DEESIDE by John W. Gahan, 80 pp. paperback. 44 illustrations.
One map. Avon Anglia Publications.
This is the third book by John Gahan about the smaller railways of Merseyside,
the previous ones having been on the Liverpool Overhead and Mersey Railways.
Apart from Campbell Highet's book published in 1961, not a great deal has
been written about the Wirral Railway. This book is sub-titled 'The Wirral
Railway past and present' and its chapters cover the history of the lines
proposed and built, the railway and its features, ocomotives and rolling
stock, electrification, and train services, together with an appendix giving
the mileages of the various sections. Somewhat unusually, the sequence of
the chapters gives details of the electrification, from 1938 onwards, before
those of the steam locomotives. A sketch map is included which, although
showing the Seacombe branch, which itself is well written up in the text,
does not name Seacombe station, merely showing it as an anonymous black dot.
The book brings the story up to date, referring to the class 508.EMUs and
the motorway developments around Bidston station. There is also reference
to passenger train services since they came under the direction of the Merseyside
Passenger Transport Executive in 1970. The illustrations comprise an interesting
selection overing the period from WR days to the present time, and have
reproduced reasonably well, even the early ones. The book can to recommended
to anyone with an interest in railways in the Merseyside area and particularly
to those of them who have occasion to make use of the busy commuter service
to and from Liverpool now provided by the line. NEIL PITTS
FORGOTTEN RAILWAYS: NORTH AND MID WALES, by Rex Christiansen. 168 pp. 32
photo illustrations. Folding map, 17 maps diagrams and drawings in text.
ISBN 0 946537 05 4. David & Charles. £8.50. page 132
This is the second edition of a work by our member, Mr Christiansen, first
published in 1976. It follows the standard pattern of the Forgotten Railways
series. The first part of the book is divided into eight chapters, each devoted
to a particular section of the whole area, giving the historical background,
frequently brought to life with the author's personal recollections. The
final section consists of a gazetteer of the various individual lines with
details of surviving features and uses to which trackbled and remaining buildings
have been put. Mention is made where preservation is contemplated or already
accomplished. The author states early in the book that it is mainly concerned
with standard gauge lines, those of the narrow gauges having been well documented
elsewhere. A very true statement, but does it not beg the question, why
'Forgotten Railways'? The authors and the series editor, Allen Patmore, go
to great pains to encourage us to remember them, and quite rightly so. Surely
'Lost Railways' would be a better collective title for the series. Mr
Christiansen has undertaken much research in order to produce this book and
has achieved a very good coverage of a part of the country the differing
physical characteristics of which had enormous effects on the railway
developments which took place in the last century. Whilst the railways in
the Snowdonia district are nowadays well known, not a great deal has been
written about the fascinating group of lines which were built to serve the
coalfield and industrial region around Wrexham and Ruabon. Mr Christiansen
has done full justice tothis section of our railway heritage. Is it possible
that any of our older members ever travelled by train between Legacy and
Ponkey? The author comes up with such interesting snippets as the GWR
half-signalman at Corwen. It is features such as this which make it a most
readable book, and not merely a catalogue of facts. A book with this scope
can easily become just that, but not this one. A few very minor errors have
crept in. Barges did not cross Pontcyssylte aqueduct — it is not wide
enough! Blaenau Ffestiniog is at the southern and not northern end of the
Conwy Valley line. These are minute blemishes on an excellent work. The blurb
on the dust jacket tells us that Mr Christiansen is working on two further
volumes in the Forgotten Railways series. One looks forward to their appearance
with pleasurable anticipation. NEIL PITTS
RAILWAYS IN IRELAND 1834-1984, by Oliver Doyle and Stephen Hirsch. 204 pp.,
248 x 180 mm, with 94 illustrations and 6 maps. Signal Press, 17 Millview
Court, Malahide, Co. Dublin, 1983. ISBN 0 906591 02 3. IR.E12.50 + 1R£1.25
p&p.
This year sees the 150th anniversary of the opening of the first railway
in Ireland, the Dublin & Kingstown, and the appearance of this book covering
the history of Irish railways as a whole is timely, particularly in view
of the dearth of other books on the subject. The story of the development
of the Irish railway system up to the Grouping of 1925 takes up the first
76 pages. It is a large subject which could fill several volumes, so that
the treatment here is necessarily concise, and the frequent use of abbreviations
for unfamiliar early companies does not make for easy reading, nor can we
expect much reference to contemporary economic or social conditons. With
these reservations however the history of all the railways in the country,
which eventually reached a mileage of nearly 3,500, is well covered. Nor
does the account omit reference to some interesting details, such as, for
instance, that the Boyne Viaduct while still under construction in 1853 was
used by trains for the Dublin International Exhibition which ran on a temporary
single track over thewooden scaffolding. The next 30 pages take the story
from 1925 to the present day, and the second half of the book deals with
locomotives, rolling stock, train services, engineering, as well as various
ancillary activities and other subjects. The latter, frequently neglected
by railway historians but none the less of considerable interest, include
architecture (of which Ireland has some excellent examples), hotels, catering,
railway communities, labour relations, bookstalls and road and steamer services.
The illustrations, many of them new to your reviewer, are well reproduced
and the maps are very clear. The latter show the Irish railway system at
four different dates together with plans of the Dublin and Cork areas. Altogether
the book is an excellent introduction to the history of Irish railways from
their beginnings to the present time and is a useful source of reference.
H. C. L. TRICKETT