The London and Birmingham Railway, with the home and country scenes on each side of the line

Front matter

7rm from Hit toft of Kusby TktwsJs . THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY; TlTil THE HOME AND COUNTRY SCENES ON EACH SIDE OF THE LINK: lSCl.ll)l>0 SKETCHES OF KENILWORTH, LEAMINGTON. \V\R\\KK, GUY'S CLIFF STRATFORO, fcc. i-\ THOMAS ROSCOE, ESQ., (author of "wanderings and excursions in wales.") A.SSISTBW T« THC HI5T0BICH r-rT\iI- BY PETftR LECOl NT. ESQ.. F.R.A.S.. CIVIL ENOINF;T.K. v, 1 iio hi* t*p*n coorrir^ whh tin* Railway Tfoni ii« nimnmmneni WITH A MAP OF THE LINE, EIGHTEEN FINE STEEL PLATES, *NI> m-MTH'ii * WOOD PNfcAATrKOS LONDON. CHARLES TILT, FLEET STREET. WRIBHTSON AND WEBB, BIRMINGHAM When new and interesting facts regarding the progress of steam science — for it has now assumed a nomenclature of its own — continue to excite popular wonder and admiration, — when a voyage across the Atlantic is thought little more important than a trip in one of our pleasure yachts, it would be strange, indeed, were the completion of the most extensive and magnificent Railroad in Great Britain to produce no feelings of national exultation, or to be allowed to go unduly celebrated.

The mind is lost in amaze ment as it contemplates so vast and splendid a structure in all its bearings, in its yet undeveloped powers, and in its future results and influences upon the resources of a great country. Nor would the most full and particular history of the details connected with its formation, assisted by the most varied and beautiful illustrations — such as have been attempted in the following work — convey a just idea of its magnitude and importance. The effect can only be adequately realized by ocular observation ; and its vast capabilities seem, as it were, to be revealed to the eye, as its grand successive trains — rilled with a world of business and pleasure — come sweep ing majestically by. If we look back at what has already been accomplished within the present century, how strange and unlimited a prospective un folds itself, connected with this invention, on trade and commerce — on all the social relations and intercourse of life, — and most of all in the rapid interchange of thought and communion of interests it will create ; and this too resulting from a single discovery, as yet in its effects but imperfectly applied in traversing both land and sea.

While it is impossible, however, to estimate the extent and importance of this discovery, the more immediate and prominent advantages are already beginning to develope themselves, and will ere long become conspicuously apparent. These are felt and appre ciated by the public at large in the conveyance of intelligence by the posts ; in a gradual equalization in the value of all property and productions ; and in a more equal diffusion of the town and rural population, by the increased intercourse opened with remote dis tricts, and with the most distant coasts. Nor is it a less striking and remarkable feature of this unconscious yet beneficent power to diminish, in a vast ratio, the amount of human suffering and toil, — even anxiety and mental pain, — by the rapid transmission of necessary and important intelligence of whatever nature.

Chapter I

The London and Birmingham Railway is unquestionably the greatest public work ever executed, either in ancient or modern times. If we estimate its importance by the labour alone which has been expended on it, perhaps the Great Chinese Wall might compete with it, but when we consider the immense outlay of capital which it has required, — the great, and varied talents which have been in a constant state of requisition during the whole of its progress, — together witli B the unprecedented engineering difficulties, which we are happy to say are now overcome, — the gigantic work of the Chinese sinks totally into the shade. It may be amusing to some readers, who are unacquainted with the magnitude of such an undertaking as the London and Birmingham Railway, if we give one or two illustrations of the above assertion.

The great Pyramid of Egypt, that stupendous monument which seems likely to exist to the end of all time, will afford a comparison. After making the necessary allowances for the foundations, galleries, &c, and reducing the whole to one uniform deno mination, it will be found that the labour expended on the great Pyramid was equivalent to lifting fifteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-three million cubic feet of stone one foot high. This labour was performed, according to Diodorus Siculus, by three hundred thousand, and by Herodotus by one hundred thousand men, and it required for its execution twenty years. If we reduce in the same manner the -labour expended in constructing the London and Birmingham Railway to one common denomination, the result is twenty-five thousand million cubic feet of material (reduced to the same weight as that used in constructing the Pyramid) lifted one foot high, or nine thousand two hundred aud sixty-seven million cubic feet more than was lifted one foot high in the construction of the Pyramid ; yet this immense undertaking has been per formed by about twenty thousand men in less than five years.

From the above calculation has been omitted all the tunnelling, culverts, drains, ballasting, and fencing, and all the heavy work at the various stations, and also the labour expended on engines, carriages, wagons, &c. ; these are set off against the labour of drawing the materials of the Pyramid from the quarries to the spot where they were to be used — a much larger allowance than is necessary. As another means of comparison, let us take the cost of the Railway and turn it into pence, and allowing each penny to be one inch and thirty-four hundredths wide, it, will be found that these pence laid together so that they all touch would more than form a continuous band round the earth at the equator. As a third mode of viewing the magnitude of this work, let us take the circumference of the earth in round numbers at one hundred and thirty million feet.

Then, as there are about four hundred million cubic feet of earth to be moved in the Railway, we see that this quantity of material alone, without looking to any thing else, would, if spread in a band one foot high and one foot broad, more than three times encompass the earth at the equator. It will be evident that such a work as this could only have been undertaken in a country abounding with capital and possessing engineering talent of the highest order. The steps by which the science of Railways has arrived at its present position were slow yet progressive. Railways of wood and stone were in use, as well as the flat iron or tram rail, in the middle of the seventeenth century, particularly among the collieries of the north, and were gradually im proved from time to time; they still however retained a character totally distinct from those structures which will soon form the means of transport through all the principal districts of the kingdom.

At length we lived to see the splendid creations of George Stephenson, one of those gifted beings who are destined by one unerring stroke to annihilate those bonds which limit the fame of ordinary men. Watt and Stephenson are of no country; they belong not even to Europe; they are citizens of the world in the truest and the best meaning of the word. Centuries hence, when with few, very few, exceptions, even the deeds as well as the names of the heroes, the conquerors, and the politicians of the present day will have become engulphed in one common oblivion, those of Watt and Stephenson will be found rolling imperishably down the stream of time, and fertilising the whole habitable globe with the magnificent creations of their genius. The first performance to which Mr. Stephenson directed the resources of his mind was the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

This was certainly a great attempt ; the ice was broken, the old track was fearlessly abandoned : yet it was but the planting of that, ladder by which he was to ascend to his present eminence,— he scaled that eminence on the Liverpool and Manchester line. It was there the system was shown in all its bearings, and at one blow a full and entire revolution was effected in all our habits and manners, and in our customs and feelings, — a revolution which every person will confess is of such extent that its consequences and its bearings on all the circumstances of civilised life are not capable of being even guessed at, but which even now almost justifies Bishop Wilkins's idea, that in some future time a man would be as likely to call for his wings as he then did for his boots. It is certainly a splendid sight to see one man, by the magic powers of his mind, more than realising the far-famed boast of Archimedes, taking a railway for his fulcrum, and moving the world.

It will readily be supposed that in such an enterprising country as this a successful experiment like that of the Liver pool and Manchester Railway, would at once be followed out in all directions, bearing in mind that the expense of such enormous works will at all times limit them to main lines of travelling, in order to insure a proper return of capital to the spirited individuals who embark their property in them. Lines from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Bir mingham, and from Birmingham to London, were among the first which were projected ; and, in fact, surveys and other preparations for the London and Birmingham line were in progress prior to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, (September, 1830,) and the projectors were waiting only the successful result of that event to mature their plans.

Some of these surveys were made as far back as 1825. In 1830 two lines were proposed ; one by Sir John Rennie, taking the Banbury and Oxford line of road, and the other by Mr. Giles, taking its course by the way of Coventry. Companies were formed in each case, and were duly marshalled against each other, with their various staff appointments fully organised, directors, secretaries, engineers, solicitors, bankers, &c, and great were the rejoicings in West minster Hall. If the battle had been waged, and if any poet could have been found, capable of bringing into harmonious numbers such uncouth sounds as cuttings and embankments, — blocks and sleepers, — and slopes of one thousand eight hundred to one, — Homer's Ghost might have trembled till all Pluto's dominions gave a simultaneous sympathising shake, like those comical clocks furnished with Hardy's "Noddy,"* where the one cannot rejoice in a little irregular motion without the other telling tales by instantly wagging about too.

But for tunately, all parties were too wise, and they deemed it much more prudent, instead of throwing away their money in an uncertain Parliamentary contest, at once to consult, as far as possible, the interest of their several proprietaries, by select ing that line which a majority should consider the best, and thus unite the two companies into one. George Stephenson had, a little prior to this, been engaged by the parties who had chosen the Coventry line for the Rail way, and as he also gave his opinion in favour of that route, it was finally decided that the London and Birmingham Rail way should go via Coventry, and George Stephenson and his Son were appointed engineers to the now united ' London and Birmingham Railway Company.' It may be thought that this period of time is passed over too lightly ; but it is best.

Why should the party feelings, the hopes and the fears, the disagreements, the quarrels, and the heart burnings of five or six years ago, be perpetuated ? It would be in excessive bad taste, to say the least of it, and anything but amusing to the public at large ; all parties did then what all have done since, that is to say, they strained every nerve for the interests of the proprietors to the best of their ability and judgment, and who could do more? It may * This philosophical little instrument, for which the talented Mr. Hardy received a Medal from the Society of Arts, is an inverted pendulum which moves isochronally with that of the clock on which it is put, and shews when the clock is not firmly fixed. be just observed, that through the proprietors principally residing in Lancashire, and from their proximity to the Liver pool and Manchester line, being to a certain extent practical men, they were better able to take a leading part, and to judge what was most advantageous; and they had heavy votes enough to oblige their judgments to be executed.

There was this object also to be kept in view, in forming such a line as the London and Birmingham Railway, that it is a grand trunk from the metropolis towards the northern part of England, and that numerous branches would in all proba bility fall into it at no very distant period ; that the Irish traffic would all come along it, and most probably the Scotch. It was also to be remembered, that not only the towns near the line would be benefited, but others far distant. The impulse to travelling which has been given from the facilities afforded by railways, and the cheapness of this mode of conveyance, has been astonishing; and will, of course, con tinue to improve the more they are brought into use. The inci-ease has varied in all proportions up to the ratio on the Stockton and Darlington line, where the passengers are now eighty times as many as they were before it was in operation. EXCAVATION BENEATH THE HAMPSTEAD ROAD,

Chapter II

On September the 11th, 1830, the two Companies united themselves, selecting eight persons from each as a provisional committee. Much had been done previously to this in prepar ing the public mind, and in endeavouring to obviate opposi tion, which, however, still continued very strong among those who either could not or would not see the advantages of establishing this means of communication. This has, how ever, perhaps worked good rather than evil ; for it could only be met by the free use of the press, in order to enlighten all those who were willing to receive information on the subject of railways, and this was done to such an extent that it soon became apparent our danger would be in having too many railways instead of too few. In the latter end of 1830 a committee of survey was appointed to establish a regular communication with the Engineers, by way of periodical reports, and to correct errors, make improvements, confirm friends, and conciliate enemies.

In October, Messrs. Stephenson and Son reported that the line, as laid down by Mr. Giles, from Islington to Chipping Barnet, South Mims, Leverstock Green, and Hemel Hemp stead, was exceedingly rough, and incurred deep and extensive excavations, and that they would recommend it to leave London near Hyde Park, running almost parallel with the Edgeware Road to Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Great Berk hampstead, and Ivinghoe. It was also proposed to enter Birmingham on the south side by a tunnel, so as to gain a central terminus. Another plan was to pass up the Tame Valley from Stone Bridge, and join the Grand Junction Railway at Wednesbury, having a branch line to Birmingham ; this was done with a view to the advan tages of the whole line from London to Liverpool. Both companies were to have stations in Broad-street, — the Grand Junction on the north-west side, on a piece of ground of about seven and a half acres; and the London and Birmingham on the south-east side, containing about nine acres, with another station at the Bell Barn Road.

In the Summer of 1831 Mr. Creed examined another line, with the mountain barometer, from Northampton, through Bedford, Baldock, and Hutford, to near the West-India Docks; another line through Buckingham, Brackley, and c Warwick was surveyed, and many other attempts at improve ment were made, each line having its advantages and disad vantages; the chief things next to the traffic to be kept in view being to select that line where there is the least difference between the highest and lowest levels, and also that which is least expensive, even if it is not the most direct. The country between London and Birmingham is a series of basins or low districts, separated from each other by consi derable ridges of hills; the object to be gained was, therefore, to cross the valleys at as high a point as possible, and the hills at as low an one.

The low districts are the London basin — the valley of the Colne, extending from Brentford by Watford, to St. Alban's, — the lowland in the neighbourhood of Leighton Buzzard, on to Stoke Bruern, — the valley of the Nen, in which is Northampton, — and the basin of the Avon ; which last, from its great depth, low level, and abrupt termination on the south, by the high ridge of hills on which Daventry, Kilsby, and Crick are situated, and on the north side by the Meriden ridge, required particular attention. The high grounds which bound these districts are the county boundary between the London basin and the valley of the Colne, — the Chalk ridge, at Ivinghoe, which rises between the Colne valley and the Leighton Buzzard district, — the Blisworth ridge, which forms the southern side of the valley of the Nen, — and the Kilsby and Meriden ridges, forming the abrupt sides of the valley of the Avon.

The whole will, therefore, stand thus : — 1. The basin at London formed by the Thames. 2. The summit at Oxhey, near the division of the counties of Middlesex and Hertford. 3. The basin of the Colne river. 4. The summit at Tring. 5. The basin of the Ouse, near Stoney Stratford. 6. The summit at Blisworth, opposite Towcester. 7. The basin formed at Weedon by the streams flowing into the river Nen at Northampton. 8. The summit at Kilsby, opposite Daventry. 9. The basin of the river Avon, crossed near Wolston, about five miles south of Coventry. 10. The summit of the Meriden ridge. 11. The basin at Birmingham formed by the river Rea, which flows into the Tame. From this sketch of the nature of the ground it is evident what care was required in searching for the best line of road. Mr. Robert Stephenson examined the country in the Autumn of 1830, and was ordered to prepare the necessary plans and sections to deposit with Parliament in the November of that year.

The time, however, was much too short; and it was only by great haste and force of numbers that the prelimi nary step of depositing these plans was accomplished. The standing orders of the Houses of Parliament, although not then so strict or minute as in the present day, required more labour and closer attention than the time would admit of, and the result of all this hurried preparation was by no means satisfactory, and particularly so to the Engineer, who felt that he had not been able to devote that time and consideration to the project which it demanded. After some further prelimi naries, therefore, it was determined to defer the application to Parliament for a bill till the following year, and thus give the Engineer the opportunity of examining and selecting such a line as he could confidently report on as being the best the country would afford.

When this was done, the plans and sections were deposited with Parliament in the November of 1831, showing a line almost identical with that which is now executed, where the steepest gradient (except where the line has been extended from Camden Town to Euston Square) is sixteen feet per mile. During the preparation of these plans it was, of course, necessary that, before they could be made out, the Surveyors and Engineers should go upon the different properties through which the line was to pass, for the purpose of taking the necessary levels, and obtaining the data on which they were to found their drawings. This is a subject which merits the attention of our legislators in no small degree. Parliament orders certain plans and sections of any proposed public work, for which an act is sought to be obtained, to be deposited with their clerk, and with all the respective clerks of the peace for the counties through which such public work is to pass.

This is a wise and prudent regulation, as it enables every landed proprietor, or other person interested in pro perty which will be interfered with by the work in question, to go and inspect the nature of this interference, and thus ascertain if any and how much damage will be done to his interests, and to provide against injury, by making a special agreement for the necessary compensation; or he may oppose the bill altogether. This provision is so far good, — but no farther. When Providence ordained that human beings should eat, it was at the same time ordained that the earth, on which they were to live, should afford them food. The legislature has not thought it necessary to follow this wise example it has ordained that plans and drawings shall be made, but it has not provided the means by which this is to be done ; consequently the engineers and surveyors are completely at the mercy of any opponent who holds land through which the projected line is to pass, as he can at all times prevent them from making the necessary surveys.

Indeed, if he be not an opponent, but happen to have had a bad digestion, or his bilious organs dis turbed from any cause whatever, he warns them off his land, and they are left to make their survey how they can, while the measure in question, no matter how advantageous to the public, is put in jeopardy through the want of one or two of Abernethy's blue pills. A great deal of this opposition was encountered in making the surveys for the London and Birmingham Railway, and although, in every case, as little damage was done as possible, simply because it was the interest of those concerned to con ciliate all parties along the line, yet, in several instances, the opposition was of a most violent nature ; in one case no skill or ingenuity could evade the watchfulness and determination of the lords of the soil, and the survey was at last accomplished at night by means of dark lanterns.

On another occasion, when Mr. Gooch was taking levels through some of the large tracts of grazing land, a few miles from London, two brothers, occupying the land, came to him in a great rage, and insisted on his leaving their property immediately. He contrived to learn from them that the adjoining field was not theirs, and he therefore remonstrated but very slightly with them, and then walked quietly through a gap in the hedge into the next field, and planted his level on the highest ground he could find, — his assistant remaining at the last level station, distant about one hundred and sixty yards, apparently quite unconscious of what had taken place, although one of the brothers was moving very quickly towards him, for the purpose of sending him off. Now, if the assistant had moved his staff before Mr. Gooch had got his sight at it through the telescope of his level, all his previous work would have been lost, and the survey must have been completed in whatever manner it could have been done ; — the great object, however, was to prevent this serious inconvenience.

The moment Mr. Gooch commenced looking through his telescope at the staff held by the assistant, the grazier nearest him, spreading out the tails of his coat, tried to place himself be tween the staff and the telescope, in order to intercept all vision, and at the same time commenced shouting violently to his comrade, desiring him to make haste and knock down the staff. Fortunately for Mr. Gooch, although nature had made this amiable being's ears longer than usual, yet they performed their office very badly, and as he could not see distinctly what Mr. Gooch was about, the hedge being be tween them, he very simply asked the man at the staff what his (the enquirer's) brother said. " Oh," replied the man, " he is calling to you to stop that horse there which is galloping out of the fold yard."

Away went clodpole as fast as he could run, to restrain the unruly energies of Smolensko the Ninth, or whatever other name the unlucky quadruped might be called, and Mr. Gooch in the meanwhile very quietly took the sight required; he having, with great judgment, planted his level on ground sufficiently high to enable him to see over the head of any grazier in the land ; but his clever assistant, as soon as he perceived that all was right, had to take to his heels, and make the shortest cut he could to the high road. In another instance, a reverend gentleman of the Church of England made such alarming demonstrations of his opposition, that the extraordinary expedient was resorted to of surveying his property during the time he was engaged in the pulpit, preaching to his flock. This was accomplished by having a strong force of surveyors all in readiness to commence their operations, by entering the clergyman's grounds on the one side at the same moment that they saw him fairly off them on the other, and, by a well-organised and systematic arrange ment, each man coming to a conclusion with his allotted task just as the reverend gentleman came to a conclusion with his sermon ; and before he left the church to return to his house, the deed was done — the sinners had all decamped, " And like the baseless fabric of a vision " Left not a wreck behind."

These are a few specimens of what is really a very great hardship, and a hardship which might easily be prevented by Parliament. Whenever a measure of importance to the pub lic comes to such a stage as to render surveys necessary, in order to comply with the standing orders of either branch of the legislature, the parties should be enabled to comply with those orders, or it is manifestly the old plague of the Israelites re-enacted — making bricks without straw. At last, however, the business was all completed, and the share list being filled, a bill to enable the Company to make a Railway from London to Birmingham was read a first time on February the 20th, 1832, and a second time on February the 28th, 1832, after a division of one hundred and twentyfive to one hundred and forty-six. It went into committee in the Commons, April the 5th, 1832, and witnesses were exa mined till the 13th of April; the committee then adjourned, and the examination was resumed on the 21st of May, and on the 5th of June the Bill passed the committee, after the examination of nearly a hundred witnesses of various kinds, among whom were merchants from London and Birming ham, manufacturers, carriers by land and water, farmers, gar deners, graziers, &c. BEECHWOOD TUNNEL, NEAR COVENTRY And Kenilworth Road Bridge. ENTRANCE TO THE PRIMROSE HILL TUNNEL.

Chapter III

It may be safely said that no private bill was ever more strictly scrutinized than was that of the London and Birm ingham Railway; the opposition to it being confined more to the cross examination of the witnesses in its favour than in producing any direct evidence against it, which, it must be confessed, would have been rather a difficult task.

There was not a single fact proved against the great utility of the measure, while its advocates clearly established in its support the following important points, — viz., that the exporting of goods suffered material loss and great inconvenience by the present slow mode of traffic, — that goods for the Baltic trade were often detained by the frost for the whole winter, through a very short delay in shipping them, — that consider- D able orders were frequently lost from the impossibility of completing them in time, — that merchants keep large stocks of many sorts of articles in London to meet these emer gencies at a consequent outlay and loss, — that some particular trades have been almost ruined through the impossi bility of getting goods forwarded in time, the coach proprietors having refused to take articles of considerable weight, — that nothing is so invaluable in the export trade as expedition and certainty, — that in fancy articles it is almost indispensable, orders being frequently sent subject to the condition of their being shipped in a particular vessel, — that returns of money were sometimes made in eighteen months instead of nine, through this delay in the shipment of the goods ordered, — that farmers would be able to send to London a different kind of produce altogether, and a much better one, particularly lambs, calves, dairy produce, &c, saving also a great expense in their carriage; — besides which, cattle were often driven till their feet were sore, and they could go no further, they were then sold on the road for what they would fetch.

In the same manner sheep were continually being left in every town on the road at a ruinous sacrifice in price, — that many estates along the line of railway would be increased in value at least thirty per cent., the consumer being also benefited as well as the producer. It was also proved in evidence, that killed meat was re peatedly putrid in Summer before it could be sent to the proper market; that the cost of carriage limited the vast supply of manure to a short distance round London ; whereas, by a railway, its application would be most materially ex tended, — that all cattle became deteriorated considerably when driven even a moderate distance to market, and pro duced a proportionally less price ; for instance, a sheep driven eighty miles lost eight pounds in weight. In addition to the speed and comfort of railway travelling, the cost would be reduced; — a person living at Malvern would require sixteen hours and a half to get to London, and pay forty-three shillings ; while, by the railway, he would be eight hours and a half, at a cost of thirty-two shillings.