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This was produced for the Millenary Celebrations in
1972. It is reproduced here without updating, as we have been unable to
contact Mr. Lambert. We request the author to contact us concerning
updating, copyright and acknowledgment.
In the early 18th century, two and a
half days was considered an unusually short time for the stage-coach journey
between Birmingham and London. The first mail-coach to Birmingham from the
metropolis ran in the summer of 1785 and an average travelling time was 12
hours. When the "Independent Tally-ho" performed the journey on May-Day,
1830 in only seven hours and ten minutes, the feat received tremendous
acclamation.
Although stage-coach owners were constantly
endeavouring to improve upon their times, it must be remembered that speed
was unnecessary, even undesirable, to the majority of those few who had
occasion to travel long distances. In the same year as this record run, a
gentleman writing on the prospect of a rail-road between London and
Birmingham commented that "it is not one traveller out of a thousand to whom
an arrival in Birmingham or London three hours sooner would be of the
slightest consequence". The pace of life was leisurely and dignified and
devoid of the sense of urgency with which city and town life has become
imbued.
With this in mind, it is not to be wondered at that
the early railways and the idea of a "Puffing Billy" were received with
scorn and incredulity. The concept of travelling at more than eight miles an
hour was beyond the imagination of most. One writer warned that "the
solitary stranger, who had nobody to tell him better, would go swinging at
the tail of the engine, bumping first on the iron-plates on this side, and
then on the iron-plates on that side; and if he escaped being scalded to
death by the bursting of his own engine, or having all his bones broken by
the collision of another, he would be fain to rest for the night within some
four bare walls, and gnaw a mouldy crust which he had brought in his pocket.
.", etc. Fears were not only expressed for the passengers but also for sheep
lest their fleeces would be injured by the smoke of the "iron horse" and for
buildings which might be ignited by the sparks of passing trains.
But the benefits to be derived from railways proved
too great an incentive and the early railway pioneers showed by example that
their proposals were no "dupe of quackery" as one opponent expressed it. The
success of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and the Liverpool & Manchester
Railway encouraged the promotion of further lines and it was not long before
Birmingham figured in these schemes.
A Bill for the construction of a line from London to
Birmingham was put before the House of Commons in 1832 and was accepted but
rejected by the Lords. A further application in 1833 proved successful and
construction work commenced in June of that year. Contemporary chroniclers
seemed to enjoy making peculiar comparisons to give the public some idea of
the magnitude of the railway construction works. One calculated that the
London & Birmingham Railway necessitated the excavation of enough material
to "encompass the earth more than three times with a band one foot high and
three feet broad". The line was completed in the remarkably short time of
four years when one considers not only the scale of the engineering works,
such as the deep cutting at Tring and the tunnel at Kilsby, over two miles
long, but also that nearly all the work was done with a pick and shovel.
The London & Birmingham was not the first railway to
enter the town, the Grand Junction line from Warrington having been opened
to a temporary terminus in Vauxhall in July, 1837, but it was the first line
to pass through the old Manor of Yardley, crossing the northern part of the
parish at Stechford and Kitts Green. The line was opened from Curzon Street
as far as Rugby in April 1838 and on the morning of 17th September 1838,
through trains began running between Curzon Street in Birmingham and London
Euston bringing the capital within six hours of Birmingham.
The beginnings of what later became the Great
Western Railway line to Birmingham from the metropolis are more involved,
partly due to the number of railway companies vying with each other for the
most lucrative routes and partly because of the question of gauge. The
standard gauge of 4ft 8½ in., which was favoured by most companies except
the Great Western, was said to have been arrived at by George Stephenson who
took the average width of cart wheels around his home at Killingworth. The
Great Western was encouraged by its remarkable engineer, Isambard Kingdom
Brunel, to adopt a larger gauge of 7 foot to give greater stability, and
therefore comfort and safety, at speed. The problems encountered in the
transfer of goods and passengers where the two gauges met, as at Gloucester,
can be imagined and in a Parliamentary Inquiry, the narrow gauge was
favoured although it was not until 1892 that the last broad gauge train
ran.
It was the broad gauge Birmingham & Oxford Junction
Railway which built the railway through the southern part of Yardley Manor
by way of Acocks Green, Tyseley, and Small Heath. This line was authorised
in 1846 and was to connect up with the Oxford & Rugby Railway at a junction
in the parish of Fenny Compton. This would connect Birmingham with London as
the Great Western line from London (Paddington) to Oxford was already in
use. Construction began in early 1847 and two years later it was reported
that the viaduct into Birmingham (from Bordesley to Moor Street) was
completed and the line as far as Warwick was in an advanced state.
Construction of Snow Hill station itself was not begun until January 1852
because of the problems involved in the purchase and clearance of property.
It is interesting to note that the section of line between Moor Street and
Snow Hill station was largely made as an open cutting and then covered, the
land on top being sold.
By the time work on Snow Hill had commenced, the
relevant section of the Oxford & Rugby Railway from the junction at Fenny
Compton to Oxford was nearing completion. The line from Fenny Compton to
Rugby was later abandoned but the earth works can still be seen from the
train today. By September 1852, the line was ready for inspection by the
Board of Trade except for the final mile into Snow Hill. The engineering
works of particular interest are the high and long embankment near Acocks
Green and a 400 foot long timber viaduct over the reservoir at Olton which
would then be comparatively new having been built, it is thought, by
prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars.
On Friday, 1st October 1852, the line was opened for
passengers between Paddington and Snow Hill via Oxford, the expresses being
allowed only 2¾ hours for the 129 miles which would have to be covered at an
average speed of 47mph. Goods traffic commenced in the following year but
was limited until the opening of the railway through to Wolverhampton, Snow
Hill being a terminus in 1852. The original stations north of Warwick were
Hatton, Knowle, Solihull, Acocks Green, and Birmingham. Lapworth (which was
named Kingswood until 1902) and Bordesley were added in 1854 and 1855
respectively, Small Heath and Sparkbrook in 1863, Olton in 1864, and Widney
Manor in 1899. It is interesting to note that a station was not provided at
Tyseley until 1906, by which time the line to Stratford-upon-Avon was under
construction. From contemporary accounts, Tyseley was an area of green
fields and country lanes even as late as 1906, after which development
began.
The final railway construction within the old Manor
of Yardley was the line from Tyseley down to Bearley to join the Hatton to
Stratford branch. The importance of this 17¾ mile line was that it completed
the Great Western Railway's short route between Bristol and Birmingham via
Gloucester, Honeybourne and Stratford. Eleven steam navvies (comparable to
today's excavators) and twenty-three locomotives were employed in
construction of the line which began in September 1905. The opening for
goods took place in December 1907 but it was not until 1st July 1908 that
the line was opened for passengers. On the opening day, an express from
Wolverhampton to Bristol and back used the line. This type of traffic
developed to such an extent that by 1939, twelve long-distance expresses
each way used the line on Summer Saturdays and it was not until 1962 that
"The Cornishman" was re-routed over the Lickey Hills.
This brief account of the history of railway
development in relation to Yardley has not been brought up to date as
subsequent events are better known.
1972
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