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In the Footsteps of Bertram Baxter RAILWAY and CANAL

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In the Footsteps of Bertram Baxter RAILWAY and CANAL RAILWAY AND CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY EARLY RAILWAY GROUP Occasional Paper 202 In the footsteps of Bertram Baxter John Wooldridge 5: SUTTON WHARF TRAMROAD, SHROPSHIRE (Recent digital photos of this line can be emailed on request: [email protected]) History The Shropshire Canal, opened in 1792, formed the main element of the east Shropshire tub-boat canal system. By 1796 some of the ironmasters and coal owners of Snedshill and Hollinswood were in dispute with the canal company, especially because of the tolls for using the canal’s inclined planes. As a result, in 1799 they built their own tramroad, more or less parallel with the canal, to carry their goods to Sutton Wharf on the River Severn about a mile downstream from the Shropshire Canal’s wharf at Coalport. The tramroad avoided the canal’s two inclined planes and provided a faster and cheaper means of transporting goods. In 1815, agreement was reached with the canal company and the tramroad was dismantled. 1 It is clearly shown on Robert Baugh’s 1804 map of Shropshire (overleaf, running south through the “C” of Dawley Church and the “S” of Stirtchley). It does not appear in Baxter’s Stone Blocks and Iron Rails and I have found no mention of it in the Baxter Collection in Birmingham Library. This is surprising because, though it was in existence for only 12 years, it seems to have been successful. Moreover, although many tramroads were built in conjunction with a canal, this was one of the few built in competition with one; its success was perhaps an early indication of things to come. The Tramroad Most of the tramroad has been lost in Telford New Town developments. However it is still possible to walk along or beside it for just over a mile, from the Telford town boundary south to Sutton Wharf on the Severn. Brick Kiln Lane, opposite the “Council Houses” A (SJ 711030) provides a convenient spot to park a car and start the walk. The hedge line bordering the south western side of Brick Kiln Lane probably ran alongside the tramroad, and one can walk beside it to the northern end of Brick Kiln Lane where it continues to the NNW for a short distance. Northwards, Telford New Town developments have obliterated all trace. Retrace your steps to the junction with the road to Coalport. Monarch’s Way long-distance footpath follows Brick Kiln Lane and, across the road to Coalport it continues along the edge of Brick Kiln Coppice, where there is evidence of old workings. Here the tramroad is carried for a distance of about 60 metres on a distinct terrace, 4 metres wide. The tramroad then bends to follow the contour (but descending slightly) beside a raised hedge line to B. At B Monarch’s Way turns to the SE but the tramroad continues to the SSW, still descending slightly, beside the hedge line. One has the choice of following the tramroad across private land (not encouraged by the landowner) or following Monarch’s Way to regain the tramroad, now an unmade road, at C. The unmade road continues SSW, passing on the left a small pool, and continues to Sutton Wharf to end at two cottages D. The cottage straight ahead is Lanes End Cottage whose owners (January 2008) neither knew nor wished to know anything of the history of the locality. 1 Barrie Trinder, The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire (3rd ed. 2000), 72-3. 1 Lanes End Cottage is at the head of the incline down to Sutton Wharf. To reach the incline, retrace your steps to the unmade road signed “Sutton Wharf”. It is marked “Private” but provides access to a small caravan site. 100 metres down this unmade road, on the right is a woodland path (not a public path) that soon crosses the incline. At this point, looking upwards, a slight embankment about 40 metres long ends at the building extension at the rear of Lanes End Cottage. Looking downwards is a cutting, 5 metres wide and up to 8 feet deep which ends after about 120 metres at an ugly concrete junction box which has been built on the incline and through which the sewage of Telford is turned through 90 degrees into two large pipes that cross the river to Gitchfield sewage works. This point on the incline is more that 12 metres above the river. Projecting the line of the incline downwards would suggest it terminated not far short of the river’s edge, close to the stile at the NW corner of the garden of “The Cottage”. The width of the incline would easily allow a double track. I would estimate the gradient to be 1 in 5 or 6 so some means of controlling the ascending and descending wagons would have been necessary, most likely on the spot where Lanes End Cottage now stands Return to the unmade road and descend to Sutton Wharf F (SJ 708016). “The Cottage” is at the riverside but I could I find no evidence of the wharf beside it. “The Cottage” bears a plaque of a badger in relief, an indication that it was once part of the Badger estate. Two of the cottage’s walls have blind arches that might suggest an earlier use. The occupier, who told me he was a 78 years old Brummie, was aware of the tramway but knew little about it. He believed that the nearby three-storey building dated from the 1780s and was listed. The building is disused and in danger of becoming ruinous. Rectangular in plan, it has a chimney breast at each gable end. I saw nothing to suggest it had ever been other than a large house; neither this building nor “The Cottage” appears on the English Heritage database or on the local authority’s register of Listed Buildings. I am indebted to Paul Luters for researching the history of the tramroad. A summary of his talk to the Broseley Local History Society is at http://www.broseley.org.uk/Newsletters/Newsletter%20November%202004.pdf August 2009 2 .
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