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Durham E-Theses The last of the railway kings: the life and work of sir Edward Watkin, 1819 - 1901 Greaves, John Neville How to cite: Greaves, John Neville (2002) The last of the railway kings: the life and work of sir Edward Watkin, 1819 - 1901, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3947/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 THE LAST OF THE RAILWAY KINGS; THE LIFE AND WORK OF SIR EDWARD WATKIN, 1819- 1901 JOHN NEVILLE GREAVES DEGREE OF MASTER OF LETTERS THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY 2002 The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Contents 1. Social Background 4 2. Infancy and Youth 11 3. Cultural Involvement 25 4. The Trent Valley Railway 34 5. The Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, 1831-1861 52 6. Canada, 1861-1867 69 7. The Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, 1863-1877 98 8. The South Eastern Railway 109 9. The Metropolitan Railway 132 10. The Great Eastern Railway, and other Directorships 155 11. Grimsby 167 12. Cheshire Activities: (a) The Cheshire Lines Committee 175 (b) The Weaver Navigation Trustees (c) The Local Benefactor 13. Watkin the Politician 202 14. Watkin and Labour 242 15. The Channel Tunnel 253 16. Expansion into Wales 284 17. Snowdon Fastnesses 302 18. A Brief Lancashire Excursion 310 19. Forward to London 315 20. The Railway Philosopher 338 Bibliography 350 CONFIRMATION I confirm that no part of the material offered Has been previously submitted by me for a degree in this Or any other University. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am primarily indebted to the late George Dow, to whom, on a reading of his benchmark railway history of the Great Central Railway, published 1959-1965, I owe my original inspiration for this study of Sir Edward William Watkin. I am grateful also to the public library network of Great Britain for materials obtained readily, and within two weeks, even from Canada. My particular thanks are due to the staff at Nantwich, Folkestone, Manchester Central, and North Lincolnshire for help beyond the call of duty, and to numerous people who have helped me with information technology. I am grateful, too, to Dr Sheridan Gilley of Durham University, for both his rigorous criticisms and his warm encouragement. Finally, I thank the descendants of Absolom and Edward Watkin: Dorothea Worsley-Taylor for her help and friendship, and Magdalene Goffin, to whom my indebtedness is obvious from the text. STATEMENT OF COPYRIGHT The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 4 Chapter 1 The Social Background Edward William Watkin was a quintessential Victorian. He was born in the same year as Victoria- 1819, on 26 September, and died in the same year, 1901. He personified the spirit of the age in believing that what was scientifically conceivable was perfectly achievable, given imagination, energy, and perseverance. The England into which they were born was a rapidly-changing society: it was emerging from the Napoleonic wars, the impact of industrialisation was increasing, there was a sudden surge in the pace of life with the railway revolution, and great conflicts appeared in the land as mass poverty and unemployment spread. There was a buoyant belief in progress together with a great nostalgia for the past. The Romantic movement in the arts, and religious revivals, showed a reaction against the static rationalism of the eighteenth century. The American and French Revolutions, based on equality, liberty, and democracy, had aroused the fear of similar movements in Britain. The 'Peterloo' Massacre' in Manchester in 1819, in which a popular demonstration against the government was put down by the military, was seen to be a sign of the times. In manufacturing, steam, generated from coal, replacing water and wind power, was transforming both the rate of production and the living and working conditions of the population. Along with this was the adoption for the first time of the theories of Adam Smith; the institution of a market economy free from social and political control, in which prices of commodities and labour found their own level through free competition. 5 Manchester, the world's first industrial city, became "a grim utilitarian place - the city of long chimneys." 1 Alexis de Tocqueville, on his visit to Manchester in 1835, wrote of the six-storey factories "which keep air and light out of the human habitations which they dominate . from this foul drain . the greatest stream of human industry flows out to fertilize the whole world. From this filthy sewer gold flows. "2 Even so, Disraeli could say later that "Manchester is as great a human exploit as Athens. "3 The textile business of John Watkin (1752-1812) had been established in Manchester in the late eighteenth century. He was the son of John Watkin (1734- 1809), a yeoman farmer at Audlem, near Nantwich in Cheshire. The family had come originally, via Shropshire, from Wales, but the farm could not support all John Watkin's eleven children, and some had to seek their livelihood elsewhere.4 Thomas Watkin, another of the sons, went to London and became a private in the First Regiment of Guards, and afterwards an innkeeper there, where his son Absolom was born, in 1787. In 1801 Absolom was offered a job with his uncle John in his Manchester cotton firm,5 and by April 1807 he had bought out the business and changed it to his OWfl name. He bought a house in Salford, where he was listed in the 1819/20 Street Directory as a 'Manufacturer and Gent.' living at No.19 Ravald Street. Absolom married Elizabeth Makinson, daughter of Joseph Makinson, the proprietor 1 Michael Harrison in A.J.Kidd and K. W.Roberts, eds, City, Class and Culture (Manchester University Press, 1985), p.l20. 2 Quoted, Gary Messenger, Manchester in the Victorian Age (Manchester University Press, 1985), p.l40. In Coningsby. Quoted, N.J.Frangopulo, Rich Inheritance: A Guide to the History ofManchester (Manchester Education Committee, 1962), p.24. 4 Magdalene Goffin, The Diaries ofAbsolom Watkin: A Manchester Man 1787-1861 (Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1993), p.xi. s Ibid, p.3. 6 of an 'Adventure School', on 3 November in her parish church, StJohn's, Deansgate, Manchester. 6 From the age of twenty-three Absolom kept a daily Journal of events and reflections, from which all our knowledge of his son Edward William, born in Ravald Street, is derived. Absolom's heart and soul were not in his business: his "great and enduring pleasure" 7 was books, and the scope of his reading testifies to a lively and enterprising intelligence. He wrote in his Journal of his close involvement in the social and political activities of those eventful times. These included founder- membership of the council of the Anti-Com Law League; helping to write the famous protest against the conduct of the yeomanry at the Peterloo massacre; drawing up the petition in favour of the Reform Bill of 1832 and being the scribe of the various groups to which he belonged. He also wrote the loyal address to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her marriage. 8 "His library was a fine one, and for an ordinary private citizen of those days was large. "9 It contained history, grammar, politics, travel, medicine, poetry, biography, and works on religion, science and philosophy. Edward spoke admiringly in later years of the range and depth of his father's library, which he inherited and treasured himself. 10 Amongst the political ferment of which Manchester was the main generator was the agitation against the Corn Laws, and the formation of the Liberal Party, intent on bridging the gap between rich and poor and on social justice. This philanthropy was based not so much on 'The Rights of Man', or a revolutionary reaction against social inferiority, and certainly not on manufacturing utility 6 Ibid, pp.3,6,11, and 14. 7 Ibid, p.3. 8 Ibid, p.208. 9 AE.Watkin, Absolom Watkin: Extracts from his Journal, /814-1861 (London: T.Fisher Unwin, 1920), p.8. 10 E.W.Watkin, Catalogue of the Library at Rose Hill (Manchester: Henry Blacklock, 1891). 7 (contented labour as the engine of capitalism), as on a Christian doctrine of man. Thus Absolom wrote to John Bright about the Crimean War: "For liberty, for civilisation and progress, for justice and for truth ... our battle is for the welfare of the whole human race, and our trust is in the righteousness of our cause, and in his aid who has called us to this glorious work." 11 "Absolom had a strong belief that it was Christianity that promoted the happiness and contentment of mankind." 12 John Vincent claimed that "It is necessary to insist upon the Christian dimension of Liberalism ..