VOLUME 31 Pt. 10 No. 162 NOVEMBER 1995

ISSN 0033 8834

VOLUME 31 Pt. 10 No. 162 NOVEMBER 1995 THE RAILWAY & CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY Founded 1954 Incorporated 1967 PRESIDENT: Edwin Course VICE-PRESIDENTS: Prof. T. C. Barker, Dr A. L. Barnett, G. J. Biddle, Rex Christiansen, Charles Hadfield, D. H. Tew, M. P. N. Reading CHAIRMAN: (Managing Committee): Grahame Boyes HON. SECRETARY: G. H. R. Gwatkin, 17 Clumber Crescent North, The Park, Nottingham NG7 lEY HON. TREASURER: Peter R. Davis, 103 North Street, Hornchurch, Essex RM11 1ST MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: R. J. Taylor, 16 Priory Court, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 2DP HON. EDITOR: Dr J. C. Cutler, 12 St Quentin Rise, Sheffield S17 4PR BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR: Dr N. M. L. Barnes, 322 Shakespeare Tower, Barbican, London EC27 8NJ. (To whom all items for review should be sent.) DISTRIBUTION OFFICER: J. R. Searson, 23 Bank Croft, Longton, Preston PR4 5AL (To whom notification of non-delivery or defective copies of the Journal or Bulletin should be sent.)

JOURNAL OF THE RAILWAY & CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY

VOLUME 31 Pt. 10 No. 162 NOVEMBER 1995

Contents TWO EARLY ROMAN CANALS? THE ORIGINS OF THE TURN- BRIDGEDIKE AND BYCARRSDIKE Pat Jones .. 522 WHITHER CAIRNIE JUNCTION? P. M. Braine . . 532 THE WALESWOOD ACCIDENT: SPECTACULAR-* D. EMI-SE. OF- A* GOODS WAGON]. C. Cutler . . . 535 OVERNIGHT TRAVEL- IN. 184 .5 '0. N** TH. E.. MANCHESTER -- --- AND D.• LEEDS - RAILWAY . . 541 THE RAILWAYS:- 'CH-ALE-N.6ES TO- * SS6IENCIENCE. AND*D. TEC - H*1\1* OLO- 6Y. S . Ill Brag .. .. . 541 GAUGING. R .. EG IS- -RS-6RANGRAND- D. JU-NC.• TION- C -ANAL- 11 .• ug. .11 J. Compton 543 WHAT WAS PADDINGTON THINKING OF? THE HENLEY-MARLOW - SCHEME OF 1997-8 Michael Robbins .* . ...... 544 RAILWAY HOOLIGANS IN THE 1840S Philip L..S .. covvcroft .. .. 545 BOOK REVIEWS 546 CORRESPONDENCE...... • 550 BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR 1995 . ...... •• 557 INDEX FOR VOLUME 31 COMPILEDED BY- .H. C. L.. T. fie. kett .. 597 521 Two early Roman canals? The origins of the Turnbridgedike and Bycarrsdike BY PAT JONES In medieval times the river Don split into two widely divergent branches near Thorne; the south branch (or original course) of the river wound its way into the Humber between the Trent and the Ouse, the north branch flowed into the river Aire along an artificial channel known as Tornebrigg (later Turnbridge) dike. The land between the two branches was appropriately named Marshland. The river Idle was a tributory of the Don, and meandered into the original course of that river near Sandtoft. The Isle of Axholme, which rises to 40 metres above OD in places, was bounded on the east by the river Trent, to the west by the North Idle and river Don, and to the south by the Bycar- rsdike, an artificial channel cut from the river Idle to the Trent at West Stockwith. The lower lying part of the Isle of Axholme differed little from Marshland; most of it was marsh, under water for much of the year, but it had at one time been covered with great trees. According to antiquarian tradition the Romans were to blame for burning the trees and cutting a channel through the natural bank of the Trent, in order to flood the hinterland and flush-out the Brigantes. Research has shown that tradition to have some foundation in that there is evidence of burning, but the great trees were long gone by the time of the Romans. It may well be that neglect or abandonment of sluices at the outfalls of the Turnbridgedike and Bycarrsdike during or immediately after the Roman period was partly responsible for flooding in what are now usually termed the Hum- berhead Levels. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether there is now sufficient evidence to determine why and when these artificial channels were cut.

The Humberhead Levels were very different during the Roman period; evidence of the land's previous suitability for agricultural use was revealed during Vermuyden's drainage works, and first reported in a letter to the Royal Society from Abraham de la Pryme dated 19 November 1701: . . and at the very bottom of a new River or Drain, that the Drainers cut (almost 100 yards wide, and 4 or 5 miles long, at the charge of above £30,000 besides the great sluice at the end thereof, which cost near £30,000 more) were found old trees squared and cut, Rails, Stoups, Bars, old Links of Chains, Horseheads, an old Ax somewhat like a battle Ax, two or three coins of the Emperor Vespasian, one of which I have seen in the hands of Mr Cornelius Lee of Hatfield, with the Emperors head on the one side, and a Spread Eagle on the other, but that which is the more observable is, that the very ground at the bottom of the River was found in some places to lye in Rigg and Fur(row) manifesting thereby that it had been plow'd and tilled in former days.I

The information provided by de la Pryme can now be augmented with the reports of excavation on the site of a Romano-British settlement at Sandtoft, undertaken during the construction of the MI80 motorway: . . . fieldwork suggests that much of the region had been extensively farmed during the Roman period, and that many of the drainage problems were a later development. The evidence combines to imply a mixed farming economy in a wholly cleared landscape, perhaps not too dissimilar to the present one.2

522 ROMAN LINES OF COMMUNICATION IN NORTH-EAST ENGLAND.

MALTON FL AMBOROUGH HEAD ALDBOROUGH R. Derwent / R. Ure R. Ouse YORK 1 I TADCASTER \

R. Wharfe , BROUGH CASTLEFORD R. Aire WINTER'

R. Humber DONCASTER R. Don BAWTRY R. Idle LITTLEBOROUGH R. Trent LINCOLN R. Witham

Roads — — — Navigable rivers Canals 1 Fossdike 2 Bycarrsdike 3 Turnbridgedike

Figure 1. The relationship of the Turnbridgedike and the Bycarrsdike to the Fossdike suggests that each served as links in a unitary system, in a similar way to that by which the Cambridgeshire Cardike and other artificial cuts linked natural rivers to provide a navigable channel from the Cam at Waterbeach directly to the Nene at Water Newton. Roman artefacts including coins of the Emperor Vespasian have been discovered beside the Turnbridgedike, and the Bycarrsike was mentioned in the Domesday Survey. Excavation has revealed evidence indicating that the tide was originally excluded from them, presumably by means of navigable sluices. Each lies close to a line between Lincoln and York, and it would seem reasonable to conclude that they were cut to improve the 9th Legion's supply route, probably soon after 71 AD.

523 Such extensive farming suggests that some of the Roman Army's food was produced in this area, and the lack of roads suitable wheeled transport implies that deliveries in bulk were made by water (see figure 1). It also presumes that contemporaneous land-drainage was reasonably efficient, and certainly better than at any subsequent time prior to the seventeenth century. Two factors which would have contributed to land-drainage efficiency can be identified; the relative level of tidal rivers in the Humber region was lower in Roman times, and Roman engineering skill enabled rivers to be managed effec- tively. The present mean level of high-water of spring tides is 3.4 metres above OD at Immingham (the Humber's Standard Port), and approximately the same around the Wash. The excavations at Sandtoft revealed a fresh-water regime at approximately 1 metre above OD;3 at Faxfleet (north of Trent Falls) Roman occupation material has been recovered from beneath up to 2 metres of silt. 4 Research by Drs G. D. Gaunt and M. J. Tooley has shown that land adjacent to the Humber estuary has subsided in relation to land at the same latitude on the west coast, where fluctuations in mean sea level have followed a trochoidal curve with an amplitude of about 1.5 metres, and peaks about 975 years apart.5 Research by Brian Simmons around the Wash revealed evidence of marine regression of 1.5 metres during the 400 or so years before the Roman occupation.° All the available evidence points to the relative level of tidal rivers flowing into the Humber being between 1 and 2 metres lower at the start of the Roman occupation than at present, although it rose in later Roman times.

In 1975 Dr Gaunt proved that Turnbridge dike was a totally artificial channel, because it had no underlying early post-glacial deeply incised, and subsequently alluvium-filled, precursor (a necessary feature of all natural original river courses flowing towards the Humber), because its course cuts across the natural course of the river Went, and because it has no wide flanking alluvial floodplain, having been confined between man-made embankments throughout its entire existence. These features are illustrated on figure 2. Dr Gaunt reviewed the literary and cartographic evidence relating to Turnbridge dike, which 'implies that the channel was already in existence by 1344', and concluded that `the only earlier periods when such an engineering feat would appear feasible are some time after the Norman conquest or during the Roman occupation'.? The same author commented in 1981 that the channel was cut 'probably as a Roman inland waterway or as a Medieval attempt to improve drainage',8 adding to this conclusion, in 1987, 'If the former by analogy with known Roman artificial waterways the reason may have been to improve inland waterway communications. If the latter, it may have been an attempt by the Crown or one of the major religious establishments to improve land drainage on and adjacent to Hatfield Chase'.° But the fact that it was cut across a gently eastward- dipping plain (i.e., at 90 or more degrees to the direction of natural drainage) and discharged into the Aire (which in flood conditions rises much higher than the Humber at the Don's natural outlet) shows that it could not have improved drainage in high-flow conditions, when improvement would have been most needed. High freshwater flows resulting in a dramatic rise in the level of the river Aire at its junction with the Turn- bridge dike, would have had little effect on the level at the original mouth of the Don. Trent Falls is nearer to open sea, the width and cross-section of the Humber's flow area is very much greater, and flood water is a smaller proportion of the total flow. (See figure 3). As Vermuyden was to discover to his cost in the seventeenth century, Turn- bridgedike could not serve drainage interests; i° it is inconceivable that people having the considerable ability necessary to build it would have lacked that knowledge, which implies that it was built for navigation.

524 The excavations at Sandtoft revealed a marked change in the pattern of alluviation in the bed of the North Idle which could be dated: . . . in the Thorne section the change from grey reduced to more oxidised silts, ident- ical with the warp of the present flood plain, in the fluviatile succession was also noted but could not be dated. At Sandtoft it was apparent that the change had taken place during the late Roman period, or immediately after. The occupation of the adjacent sand ridge was marked by sevral lenses of clean sand at the top of the reduced silts and immediately beneath the fairly abrupt transition to oxidised alluvium, a Romano-British grey-ware base was recovered. The change in character of the alluvium was also associated with flooding on the site, and several ditches were filled with alluvium."

The change in the pattern of alluviation was clearly caused by a change in the balance between the fluvial and tidal streams of both the North Idle and the river Don. The fluvial stream will always scour a certain amount of material from the bed of a river's fast- flowing upper reaches, and carry it downstream and deposit it when the rate of flow has slowed sufficiently. Hence the 'clean sand' on the Idle's bed at Sandtoft. But the origin of 'flood warp' is the soft bed of the Humber; incoming or 'flood' tides particularly spring tides pick up and carry in suspension a vast volume of silt or 'warp' into all the rivers confluent with the Humber, much of which is deposited during the slack high- water period. if, and only if the longer—and consequently slower—ebb tide is sufficiently augmented by the fluvial stream, deposited silt will be picked up and returned whence it came. In practice the tidal reaches of all the Humber's tributaries are subject to annual cycles of siltation and scour; between July and October silt tends to be deposited, while between October and February silt tends to be scoured out. The volume of silt carried upstream in suspension is primarily a function of the rate of the flood tide, which in turn is a function of the range of the tide. The range of the tide at a given location is determined by the relationship of the Earth to the Sun and Moon. That relationship is constantly changing within a pattern which is stable over a very long period of time. Therefore the change in the pattern of alluviation at Sandtoft can only have been due to sustained diminuation of the volume of the Idle's fluvial stream. The diversion of part of it directly into the Trent via the Bycarrsdike would certainly account for that change. The possibility that the Bycarrsdike was cut late in the Roman period, or immediately after it, is very remote. It is more likely to have been cut much earlier and retained at its natural level by means of a sluice gate near the Trent, which decayed with age and collapsed due to lack of maintenance.

The diversion of part of the Idle's fluvial stream directly into the Trent would not, however, account for the flooding of the Romano-British settlement at Sandtoft, and Samuels and Buckland point to its cause in their paper: . . . on the Hatfield levels . . . interpretation is complicated by the Turnbriggdyke, an artificial waterway possibly of Roman date, diverting the main channel of the Don from the Trent to the Aire. Neglect of its necessary sluices could have led to flooding. 12 it is probable that the sluices would have had guillotine gates, for reasons which have been explained by Dr Michael Lewis: . . . the Latin name was cataracta from the Greek meaning 'rushing down'; hence the application to rapids on a river and to a portcullis which 'rushes down' when closed. From this it was applied to a vertical sluice gate, normally for drainage or irrigation, but on one occasion for a navigation lock of some kind. (Pliny the Younger, Ep. x. 61. 4).13

It would be reasonable to assume that the sluice gates remained down in normal conditions, and were only raised for the passage of vessels when the tide made a level. In

525 Figure 2. Map showing contours (in metres below OD as enumerated) on the early post-glacial deeply incised channels of the Don and adjacent rivers. Natural alluvium outside these channels is shown stippled (with broken-line boundaries where con- cealed beneath flood-warp). Based on Gaunt, 1975, figures 1 and 2. high-flow conditions, or if there was some risk of flooding, the gates could have been partially raised whenever the water was lower on the tidal side, and dropped when the tide made a level. Neglect or abandonment of such a sluice at or near the outfall of the Turnbridgedike would fully account for the presence of 'flood warp' at Thorne, and the evidence of flooding at Sandtoft. In normal conditions part of the Don's fluvial stream would have been diverted away from its original course, reducing the scouring effect of the ebb tide and allowing the river's bed to rise, thus lessening its capacity to carry flood water. At the same time the volume of flood water would have been increased; the Turnbridgedike would have carried the flood waters of the Aire into the Don. Samuels and Buckland rightly described the sluices as 'necessary'. To summarise: the Turnbridgedike was almost certainly built for navigation, and the tide and flood waters of the river Aire were apparently excluded from it by means of a navigable sluice which was subsequently abandoned. The same change in the pattern of alluviation that occurred in the river Don downstream from its junction with the Turn- bridgedike, occurred in the North Idle downstream from its junction with the Bycarrsdike. Since that change can be dated to the end of the Roman occupation, or soon afterwards, it would be reasonable to conclude that the Bycarrsdike and the Turn- bridgedike were built to serve a common purpose which ceased to exist after the departure of the Romans. It therefore becomes necessary to consider whether recorded history can suggest what that purpose may have been. 526 O O

O :0 oa

6 m.

River Aire 2

River Ouse

-1

Figure 3. High-flow conditions on the river Aire coincided with spring tides between the 2nd and 6th December 1976. The mean height of high water was 2.33 metres higher than that of the next succeeding series of spring tides*. The upper profile is based on the chart drawn between noon and midnight on the 4th by a recording gauge situated (until July 1977) at Newlands bridge, near Rawcliffe. The lower profile is based on the chart drawn at the same time by the Palatine recording gauge (near Trent Falls) where the mean height of this series of spring tides (4.6 metres) was, by contrast, only 0.4 of a metre higher than the port authority's published mean figure. * Calculated by averaging the height of the highest five tides of each series.

Between the years AD 71 and AD 74 the Roman 9th Legion advanced from its base at Lincoln to a new base at York, and auxiliary forts were constructed at the river crossings. Such trackways as may have already existed could not, of course, have been rebuilt and extended overnight into the network of all-weather roads which was eventually created.14 The reliance of the Romans upon water-borne transport for their building materials, food, and other bulk supplies is now widely recognised; the Bycarrsdike and Turnbridgedike would have greatly facilitated inter-communication between the Legion- ary bases and detachments garrisoned at the auxiliary forts, assuming that the Fossdike existed at that time.15 The distance between York and Doncaster, for example, would have been reduced by over 25 miles, but by-passing the fast-flowing lower tidal reaches of the Trent and Ouse, and thereby avoiding the difficult and potentially dangerous passage around Trent Falls, was probably of greater importance. It is not known when the Roman road from Lincoln to York via Doncaster was completed, but the section north of Bawtry was apparently built early in the second century AD 16 The reliance of the Romans upon water-borne transport for their building

527 materials, food, and other bulk supplies is now widely recognised, and until recently it was generally accepted that the Fossdike had been cut to extend their supply line from the Fens to York." It now seems certain that the Fens were not the granary of Roman Britain, as was supposed, but it is possible that the Fossdike was cut to give the 9th Legion's barges access to agricultural settlements beside the Trent. It seems likely that Cerealis' fleet would have been built and/or assembled at the Legionary base at Lincoln, and irrespective of whether or not the Fossdike existed before 71 AD, it would have been needed to give Cerealis' fleet access to Winteringham, and to resupply his advancing legion with stores held at Lincoln.

The Bycarrsdike and Turnbridgedike would have greatly improved inter-communication between the Legionary bases by by-passing the fast-flowing lower tidal reaches of the Trent and Ouse, and thereby avoiding the difficult and potentially dangerous passage between the Trent and the Ouse. At that time the Humber commenced at the confluence of three rivers bow hauling across the mouth of the Don would have been fraught with difficulty—and shoal-draught inland craft would have been very much at the mercy of wind and tide. In addition the Bycarrsdike and Turnbridgedike would have permitted agricultural development of the lands through which they passed, by providing a means of transporting its produce to the Legionary bases. Aerial photographs of the area north of Bawtry revealed crop marks identified as field boundaries which apparently pre-date the second century Roman road by which they are over-laid. 18

The earliest known reference to the river Idle is in the writings of the Venerable Bede, circa 730 AD.19 If the name is of Old English origin which is probable but not certain—it would mean the 'slow' river, which would have been an apt description. It may well be its name was intended to distinguish it from the nearby navigational alternative, but very different river, the Trent, which was known to the Romans by its Celtic name Trisantona. Roman navigation at Sandtoft appears to be inferred by the great variety of Roman period pottery revealed by excavation there: . . . lying close to the confluence of the Don and (North) Idle, the Sandtoft site is ideally situated to draw pottery from both principal source areas (South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire) and may well have functioned as something of a market centre for the numerous lesser settlements in its hinterland . . .

Excavation also revealed what may have been a fort, or perhaps a base for boatmen: . . a (double-ditched) enclosure 120 m across the interior, resembles the late Roman fort at Scaftworth (near Bawtry) and is strategically well situated for controlling navigation on both the Don and Idle . . . 20

Its little tributary the Tome may well have been the main route by which the products of the Rossington Bridge potteries reached their military markets; Roman navigation at Scaftworth may be inferred by the presence of a timber-surfaced trackway across the marshy ground between the river and the fort. 2' The present bed level of the river Idle there is 0.3 of a metre above OD;22 assuming it was not very different in Roman times, and that high tide in the Trent was no more than 2 metres lower than at present, the Bycarrsdike could certainly have been retained at a level which would have permitted navigation by vessels drawing up to 1 metre.

The extract from de la Pryme's letter quoted in the second paragraph of this paper provides supporting albeit circumstantial evidence of Roman activity beside the Turnbridgedike during or soon after the time of Vespasian, AD 69-79. It must be appreciated that de la Pryme was writing about events which had occurred some 70 years earlier; it is unlikely that his informant had personally witnessed what was described. Clearly de la Pryme believed it related to the river between Newbridge and

528 Goole, but there is now good reason to believe that is not so. A recently rediscovered 1633 map shows that Vermuyden had doubled much of the Turnbridgedike's course downstream from Hangman Hill, and it was is last straightened mile or so which first became known as the 'Duch' river." It was this 'old' Dutch River which was 100 yards wide between embankments no doubt the washland between its old and new channels often covered in high-flow conditions. Annotation on the 1633 map indicates that the `new' Dutch River (between Newbridge and Goole) was fed by Dikesmarsh Sluice, which had eight `thoroughs' each eight feet wide. There would have been no need for the river's channel to be as much as 100 feet wide. Moreover the 'Great Sluice' was situated near the end of Turnbridgedike, beside Turnbridge Sasse.24 It would seem the evidence of Roman activity was uncovered beside the course of Turnbridge dike, rather than in the bed of what we now call the Dutch River. York was an ideal situation for a Legionary base in many respects, but there is no suitable building stone in the immediate vicinity, and material for its permanent buildings had to be transported for a considerable distance. Much of Roman York—including the fortress wall—was built with Lower Magnesian Limestone, which is believed to have been quarried near Bramham, from where there was access by water via the Wharfe. The fortress wall alone contained some 14,000 cubic metres or 30,500 tonnes, and some slabs were quite large; one from the south-east gate of the fortress weighed approximately 1.25 tonnes and contained an inscription datable to AD 108.25 The great volume of stone required to construct the city, and the massive size of some of the blocks used some blocks of Millstone Grit weighed in excess of 3.5 tonnes—suggests that the Romans used substantial craft on their inland waterways. Barges capable of carrying 20 tonnes perhaps, rather than open boats with a tonnage restricted to single figures. They may have been similar to the craft trading on the river Idle in the eighteenth century, which were . . . 48 feet long, and from 13 to 15 feet wide upon the beam, and when loaded draw from 27 to 30 inches of water, and carry from 12 to 24 tons. They [were] rigged with a mast and square sail, and [could] safely navigate in the Trent'.26 The probable need to negotiate guillotine-gated navigable-sluices suggests that Roman inland craft were not masted; they would have been controlled by sweeps or poles where the tides served, and bow-hauled elsewhere. Assuming that each barge carried 20 tonnes, then 1,525 journeys would have been necessary for the fortress wall alone. If two round trips occupied a week give or take a day depending upon tide-times and the hours of daylight then 15 barges could have been continuously employed for a year. It would also have been necessary to bring lime for mortar from Tadcaster (its Roman name Calcaria may be translated from the Latin as either 'lime quarries' or limeworks') and to receive and distribute considerable quantities of food and other supplies. What- ever the precise details may have been, it is evident that the 9th Legion's fleet of barges must have been quite large. But it must be admitted that there is no direct evidence of inland navigation by the 9th Legion.

REFERENCES 1 Abraham de la Pryme, letter Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Vol.22 (1701) pp. 980-992. The Roman plough lacked the ability to produce the 'rig and furrow' effect, which is usually associated with medieval strip cultivation, although its essential purpose was drainage. Since de la Pryme does not claim Roman artefacts were found at the same place as the 'rig and furrow', it is possible that the artefacts were stratigraphically lower. It seems likely that Romano-British cultivation ceased in the 5th century, and that rising sea levels deposited warp over the Roman levels. 'Rig and furrow' ploughing probably first occurred during the

529 Danish period, when falling sea levels could well have released low-lying land for agricultural use. Rising sea levels would have caused agriculture to be abandoned during the 12th or 13th centuries, and deposited warp over previously cultivated land. 2 P. C. Buckland and J. Sadler, 'The Nature of Late Flandrian Alluviation in the Humberhead Levels', East Midland Geographer. Vol. 8 (1986) pp. 239-51. 3 Buckland and Sadler 1986, p. 247. 4 J. Samuels and P. C. Buckland 'A Romano-British settlement at Sandtoft, South Humberside'. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. 50, (1978) pp. 65-76. 5 G. D. Gaunt and M. J. Tooley, 'Evidence for Flandrian Sea-Level Changes in the Humber Estuary and adjacent areas', Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Vol 48 (1974) pp. 24-41. 6 B. B. Simmons, 'Iron Age and Roman Coasts around the Wash' in 'Archaeology and Coastal Change' Ed. F. H. Thompson, Society of Antiquaries Occasional Paper (New Series) 1 (1980), p. 67. 7 G. D. Gaunt, 'The Artificial Nature of the river Don north of Thorne, Yorkshire', Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. 47, 1975, p. 15-21. 8 G. D. Gaunt, 'Quaternary history of the southern part of the Vale of York', in J. Neale and J. Henley (Eds.) The Quaternary in Britain. Pergamon Press, 1981, pp. 82-97. 9 G. D. Gaunt, 'The Geology and Landscape Development of the area around Thorne Moors', in M. Limbert (Ed.) Thorne Moors Papers. Doncaster Naturalists Soci- ety, 1987, pp. 6-30. 10 Pat Jones, `Vermuyden's Navigation Works on the river Don' Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Sociey, Vol. 31, Pt. 5, No. 157, March 1994, pp. 248-258. 11 Samuels and Buckland, 1978, p. 72. 12 Samuels and Buckland, 1978, p. 74. 13 M. J. T. Lewis, 'Roman Navigation in Northern England?' A review article. Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society, Vol.XXVIII (1983-4) pp. 118-24. 14 During 1983 a number of new roads were constructed on the Falkland Islands by the Royal Engineers. Their dimensions and composition differed little from those built in Britain by Roman Army engineers nearly 2,000 years previously. A shallow trench created by scraping aside the topsoil was filled with stone rubble, on which the road surface was formed by compacting crushed stone aggregate with heavy vibrating rollers. The finished thickness averaged 600 mm, so that single lane (6 metre wide) road consumed 3,600 cubic metres or 5,760 tonnes, and two lane (10 metre wide) road consumed 6,000 cubic metres or 9,600 cubic metres or 9,600 tonnes per kilometre. The rate of progress was determined by the rate at which stone could be quarried and delivered; a kilometre of single lane width typically required about 21 days, and the same length of two lane road was completed in about 35 days. The load carried by one of the British Army's `Haulomatic' 6 wheeled dump-trucks approximately equalled that of 16 Roman ox-wagons, which were, of course, very considerably slower. It is not known when the Roman roads between Lincoln and York were completed; a route passable by troops and pack-animals could have been surveyed and staked-out within a few days, but clearly, it would have been quite impossible to deliver bulk supplies to the advancing 9th Legion with wheeled transport. 15 J. Creighton, 'The Humber frontier in the first century AD' in S. Ellis (Ed.) Humber Perspectives, a region through the ages, Hull University Press, 1990. pp. 182-198. 16 T. Unwin, 'Townships and early fields in north Nottinghamshire' Journal of Historical Geography, IX pt 4 (1983), pp. 342-4. 17 Lincoln's natural harbour, Brayford Pool, had been formed at the confluence of the river Till with the river Witham, which was ponded-back near Washingborough by Witham Peat Fen. The Fossdike leaves Brayford Pool along the improved course of 530 the river Till, and continues to the Trent at Torksey as an artificial channel. Traces of what was believed to have been a Roman wharf were found in Brayford Pool, and it was generally accepted that the Fossdike had been cut to enable Roman supply barges to gain access to the river Trent. Doubt has recently been cast on the Roman origin of the Fossdike, despite the discovery during the nineteenth century of a Roman statuette in its bed near Torksey. Jeffrey May in 'Iron Age Lincoln? The Topographical and Settlement Evidence Reviewed', in 'Early Settlement in Lincoln', Britannia, Vol. XIX (1988) p. 52, referred to the supposition that the documented digging of Foss Dyke in AD 1121 merely revived a waterway already of great antiquity, and noted that the medieval canal remained viable for no more than about 170 years following the 1121 digging. He suggested that the rate of silting might indicate the previous digging, and perhaps construction, was around the tenth century AD. Prior to the construction of Torksey lock the Fossdike was a very imperfect tidal navigation; the rate at which a non-tidal waterway would have become silted would have been very different. Since the silt-laden waters of the flood tide were apparently excluded from the Roman Turnbridgedike and Bycarrsdike by means of navigable sluices, it is equally probably that a similar sluice guarded and maintained the level of the Roman Fossdike, and that it too was abandoned after the departure of the Romans. D. H. Tew in 'Roman Waterways in the Fens' Transactions of the Newcomen Society Vol. 52 (1980-1) p. 144, recognised the need for a barrier, and suggested that a stop lock would have been needed at each end. It is reasonable to assume that the level of the river Trent at Torksey was subject to tidal influence in the first century AD, but it is by no means certain that the flood tide carried silt so far upstream at that time. Excavation of part of the site of the first century Roman Trentside settlement at Littleborough showed that freshwater flooding and alluvial deposition did not begin there until the late second or early third century, when river levels were about half a metre higher. 18 D. N. Riley, Early landscapes from the air, Sheffield, 1980, p. 93. 19 Eilert Ekwall, English River Names, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1928, p. 207. 20 Samuels and Buckland 1978, p. 73. 21 Information kindly provided in a letter from Bob Sydes, Survey and Excavation Officer, South Yorkshire Archaeology Unit. 22 Data kindly provided by the National Rivers Authority. 23 Report of John Grundy, Engineer, respecting the proposed navigation from Chesterfield to the River Trent. Spalding, Aug. 22nd 1770. (Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock. Strott Library, reference A 66). 24 Jones 1994, p. 252. 25 P. C. Buckland, 'The Stones of York: Building Materials in Roman Yorkshire', in `Recent Research in Roman Yorkshire', British Archaeological Report, British Series 193, (1988) pp. 237-87. 26 Report of, John Grundy, Engineer, respecting the proposed navigation from Chesterfield to the River Trent. Spalding, Aug. 22d 1770.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer is grateful to Drs P. C. Buckland, G. D. Gaunt, and M. J. T. Lewis, who read the draft of this paper and contributed valuable comments.

The writer is grateful to Graham Leighton, Project Engineer, National Rivers Authority Doncaster, who helpfully identified and provided copies of suitable recorder charts. And to Captain K. P. Mellor, Dock Master, Associated British Ports Goole, who kindly provided copies of his charts covering the same period.

531 Wither Cairnie Junction? BY P. M. BRAME Presumably Michael Keef had his tongue in cheek when asking, in the November 1994 issue, if anyone knew where Cairnie Junction was. His plea reminded me of Barclay- Harvey's comment 'it was something of a phantom station, for, being used only for exchange purposes, its name did not appear in the time tables, which must have been a cause of much bewilderment to strangers' (M. Barclay-Harvey, A History of the Great North of Scotland Railway, 2nd Edition, The Locomotive Publishing Co, London 1949). Barclay-Harvey was not strictly correct in that, although Cairnie Junction was never shown in the Great North of Scotland Railway's public timetables, it was referred to in the footnotes, e.g., 'Via Exchange Platform, Cairnie Junction'. But it was not until LMS days that Cairnie Junction actually appeared in the main body of the tables. It then continued to be listed until the closure in 1968 of both the former GNof S Craigellachie and Coast lines to Elgin.

My own experience of the area goes back to 1959 when I actually used the Cairnie platform to change trains. By then of course Cairnie Junction had been shown in the public time tables for decades. The use of the words 'exchange platform' always seemed to be misleading as the main function of Cairnie Junction was to replace Huntley as the point where the Down trains divided and the Up trains joined on the GNof S Aberdeen Elgin service using either the Coast or the Craigellachie routes. But presumably the GNofS also saw the possibilities for improving the connections through Keith to the Coast by opening an exchange platform. This however was never made clear in the GNofS timetables and for the uninitiated the layout of the tables must have been one of the most difficult to understand.

What appears most interesting is the way the earliest nineteenth century services continued to exert their influence on the layout of a twentieth century timetable long after those services ceased to be the dominant ones. The earliest timetable I have Bradshaw November 1856—sets the pattern when Keith was the terminus of the GNof S when its line from Aberdeen was opened on 10 October 1856. The first conti- nuation of a line from Keith to Elgin was not the GNofS but the former constituents of the Highland, the line via Mulben which was opened 18 August 1858. The next line to open from Keith was not however onwards and westwards to Elgin but north eastwards to the coast the Banff, Portsoy & Strathisla Rly which opened 2 August 1859 (this company changed its name to the Banffshire Rly in 1863 and amalgamated with the GNof S from 1867). The BPS branched from the GNof S at Grange. For a quarter of a century the GNofS services eastwards from Keith through Grange were the Up main line to Aberdeen and the Up branch to Portsoy and Banff; thus Keith was in- itiated as the terminus for the GNof S down trains from both the coast branch and the main line from Aberdeen, and for the Highland line from Inverness. This concentration on Keith was to focus a timetable layout which fundamentally was not to alter from GNof S days, through the LMS era and into BR times. Complicating matters for the GNof S was the fact that the shortest most direct line from Keith to Elgin was the Highland's. Westwards from Keith the GNof S was not opened for passengers to Elgin via Craigellachie until 1 June 1862. This created the precedent of the Highland main- taining that Keith not Elgin should be the exchange station for transfer of traffic for Inverness. With its own line open to Elgin the Great North of course not only wanted Elgin as the transfer point but also began its long fought battle for running powers to Inverness.

532 Returning to the Portsoy and Banff branch it was not until 1884 that the line was extended along the coast to Portessie and Garmouth and through to Elgin. This then gave the GNofS its two routes between Aberdeen and Elgin but with the Coast route needing a change at Keith or reversal at Grange. The obvious improvement was to open a loop at Grange enabling through running directly by the Coast line. The `Grange Loop', completing a triangle of lines to the east of Grange, was opened on 3 May 1886. Although it was not obvious from the public timetable, the point where through trains were split and joined then became Huntley. Duplicated train running between Huntley and Grange South Junction could be avoided if the trains were divided or joined at the south end of the Grange triangle. But inexplicably it was to be over ten years before Grange South Junction became the Cairnie Junction exchange platform which opened on 1 June 1997. Even then an analysis of training running in the pre-grouping days of the twentieth century still showed a mixture of both through running via Cairnie Junction and services for the Coast from Keith Junction (as the old Keith had become).

Allies. a.m. a.m, a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. Aberdeen ... dep. 3.30 6.45 7.5 8.5 9.45 11.50 1.20 2.20 3.45 5.45 6.45 48 Cairnie Jn. ... arr. 7.55 9.23 10.58 3.20 3.31 7.48 7.59 Cairnie Jo. ... dep. 7.59 9.27 11.2 I 3.37 5.19/ I 8,5 531 Keith ... ... arr. 5.15 8.135 9.8 9.405 11.155 2.20 3.51t 5.35 8.215 805 Elgin via Craigellachie arr. 8.40 9.0 10.18 10.25 12.5 3.40 4.40 6.50 9.5 Keith H.R. ... dep. 5.45 9.50 9.60 2.30 - 5.45 108 Inverness via Mulben H.R. arr. 7.55 - 12.0 12.0 - 4.50 - 7.35 Cairnie Jo. ... dep. 8.57 9.25 11.0 2.101 3.33 5.275 8.1 878 Elgin via Coast arr. 9.22 9.0 11.10 12.5 3.47 4.40 7.10 9.5 Elgin H.R. ... dep. 9.10 10.32 12.15 4.50 9.15 1238 Inverness H.R. arr. 10.15 12.0 1.25 6.0 10.15 Inverness H.R. dep. 9.20 1.90 6.0 Elgin H.R. ... arr. 10.22 2.40 7.16 Elgin via Coast dep. 6.30 10.32 10.55 2.50 3.10. 7.26 Cairnie Jo. ... an. 8.225 11.44 12.401 3.53 5.55 8.35 Elgin via Craigellachie dep. 7.0 10.32 11.40 2.46 3.50 Inverness via Mulben H.R. dep. 6.0 - 10.10 - 3.0 4.15 Keith H.R. ... arr. 8.15 - 12.0 - 4.30 6.35 Keith ... ... dep. 6.15 8.25 8.35 11.271 12.10 12.55 3.375 4.40 5.0 6.95 8.16t Cairnie Jn. ... an. 11.40 3.50 8.30 Cairnie Jn. ... dep. 8.348 11.48 1.51 3.55 5.111 8.38 Aberdeen ... arr. 8.30 9.55 10.55 12.55 2.0 9.0 5.10 6.5 7.10 8.50 10.0 t Earlsmill (Keith Town). Grange.

Summary of Main Passenger Services Aberdeen-Inverness 1898 Source: M. Barclay-Harvey 'History of the Great North of Scotland Rly'

Timetables on these lines of the GNof S were never simple, for example see the Working Time Tables of 1 June 1914 (reprinted for the Great North of Scotland Railway Association in 1966) in particular the section on the working 'of all Trains between Keith and Cairnie Junction'. The Down trains listed also cover the Up from Elgin via the Coast to Keith, and neither the Up nor the Down listings show the depar- tures from Cairnie Junction. Perhaps the best way to show main passenger services just after the opening of Cairnie Junction is to refer again to Barclay-Harvey and I can do no better than show a copy of his summary of the Aberdeen, Elgin and Inverness services. My use of Cairnie Junction, in the summer of 1959, was with a L5 freedom of Scotland ticket. In the BR public timetable for that year Keith was still the focal point of the layout. The layout could be said to be even more bizarre in that both route

533 DIAGRAMMATIC MAP OF FORMER GN of S RAILWAYS AROUND CAIRNIE JUNCTION 1959

534 mileages were shown as starting from Keith Town (originally Earlsmill and actually on the Craigellachie route!) but not one train was shown as departing from Keith Town for the Coast, and only one from Keith Junction for the Coast (I believe by 1960 the line connecting Grange to the Coast route was closed). For the record my journey through Cairnie Junction had started with the diesel railbus from Aviemore to Elgin via Boat of Garten and Craigellachie. I left the diesel at Craigellachie where I watched it go forward to reverse on to the Elgin line across the river while I waited an hour for my connection a four coach train from Elgin to Aberdeen. This train took me to Cairnie Junction where I was one of only a handful of passengers who changed trains for the Coast. We watched while the ex-Elgin locomotive uncoupled and drew clear of our four coaches to let the six coach train from the Coast pull in across the scissors in front of our coaches. The ex-Coast train then backed on to the ex-Craigellachie coaches and pulled away as the combined train for Aberdeen. The few of us making the journey to the Coast were then left alone on the isolated island platform. But it was only a brief moment before our train from Aberdeen arrived; this comprised five coaches for Elgin, three via Craigellachie and two via the Coast. Unlike the train we had just left the main portion continued with its locomotive as the Craigellachie route train. I waited until our locomotive (strangely not the same one that had just come off our ex-Elgin train) backed down on to our two coaches for the Coast run to Elgin. Finally I would be interested to know if the GNof S Railway Association or others have any more details on this subject, in particular the actual opening and first use of the Cairnie platform. Why for example, after opening the Grange loop in 1886 did the GNof S apparently wait over ten years before opening Cairnie Junction? I notice that R. A. Cook (in the society's Great North of Scotland Railway and Highland Railway Historical Maps, 1977) gives the opening of the platform as broadly 1898. Vallance also gives the opening as the summer of 1898 (H. A. Valiance, The Great North of Scotland Railway, David & Charles, Dawlish). The specific date I have quoted is from Barclay- Harvey and from The Journal of the Stephenson Locomotive Society (Sept 1954 GNof S centenary issue).

The Waleswood Accident: Spectacular Demise of a Goods Wagon BY J. C. CUTLER On Tuesday, 16 July 1907, the 11 pm passenger train from Sheffield to Retford left the Great Central Railway's Victoria Station with about 25 passengers on board. The train consisted of a 4-4-0 tender engine hauling five six-wheeled carriages and a four-wheeled brake van. The early part of the journey was uneventful but shortly after leaving Waleswood l at 11.45 pm, the train, which had travelled about three quarters of a mile towards Kiveton Park and which by this time was on an embankment about 30 feet high, hit an obstruction. The engine was derailed and rolled down the side of the embankment, taking its tender and the two leading coaches with it. The third and fourth coaches were derailed but stayed on top of the embankment. On the following day, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported that the train had run into the back of an up goods train, which had come off the track and which was blocking the down line. However, later investigations were to show that this was not precisely what had occurred. 535 Whatever the cause of the accident, the engine of the passenger train 'completely turned turtle'2 but did not roll to the foot of the embankment because its fall was hindered partly by the soft soil and ash which made up the side of the embankment but mostly by a 'tall and unusually stout telegraph pole'3 set deeply into the soil of the embankment. This was fortunate for the engine crew, who escaped with a few bruises and a shaking. The passengers also escaped injury. As has been said, there were very few people on the train, although one of them was in the front coach which went down the embankment. He, apparently, was thrown out of the open window of his compartment but suf- fered only what was first reported as a 'badly sprained ankle'4 but which, by the following day, was simply 'bruised'.5 Also on the train were two Great Central employees, an engine driver and a fireman, who had finished duty and were going home to Retford. The carriage in which they were travelling fell on to its side so that they had to get out by climbing through the uppermost door. They both complained of scratches but shortly afterwards were allowed to go home. The rest of the passengers were bruised and shaken but did not require medics treatment, although two were later to complain to the Company about slight injuries. A graphic account of the accident was given to a Telegraph reporter by a passenger, Mr Isaac Ayres of number 23 Hut, Dinnington Main Colliery, who had been travelling alone in a compartment when he was thrown violently forward by the collision. After he had collected himself he got out of the train and went forward to the engine where he found the fireman in a dazed state. The fireman had no idea where the driver was but he was found after a further search. He had been thrown clear of his cab and then almost buried by coals from the tender. He was shaken but unhurt, apart from bruises.

A postcard produced shortly after the accident by an unknown printer, shows the engine's tender about to be hauled up the side of the embankment by two cranes. The engine itself can also be seen, wheels uppermost. 536 Other passengers besides Mr Ayres must have got out of the train because the Telegraph reported that there was considerable confusion at the scene, with passengers in a state of panic and suffering from shock. Luckily the last few coaches of the train, where most of the passengers had been, had stayed on the rails. Before long, an engine was obtained and attached to these carriages, the passengers got back into them and they returned to Sheffield. Most of the passengers were able to continue their journey although they had to travel via Doncaster because both lines to Retfort were blocked as a result of the accident. However, several people were travelling the south of England since the Great Central train from Sheffield connected at Retford with a Great Northern train going to London. Obviously they were unable to make the connection and had to spend the night at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Sheffield.

With both lines blocked, all traffic on the line, which linked Manchester and Grimsby, was suspended. A further complication was that the derailed engine, in rolling down the embankment had, as has been said, hit a telegraph pole and pushed it down the slope. Not surprisingly, this had caused the wires to snap, so that telegraphic communication was impossible beyond Waleswood. Details of the accident were sent to Sheffield from Waleswood and immediately a break-down gang was sent out, to be followed later by a telegraph repair team. Since nothing could be disturbed until the Board of Trade Inspector of Railways had visited the scene, all that could then be done was to prevent the engine slipping further down the embankment. This was done by changing its wheels to the track of a railway siding belonging to the Waleswood Colliery Company whose premises flanked Great Central line at this point.

Once the inspection had been completed, over 100 men were brought from Sheffield in the breakdown train and set to work to clear the line as quickly as possible. The end of the goods train which had been derailed had been dragged along for 200 yards or so before the collision, with the result that a considerable length of track was damaged, with broken chairs and torn up, twisted and snapped rails. To speed up the process of clearing the way, some of the track from the colliery siding was taken up and relayed as part of the main line so that, once traffic had been got moving again, the colliery siding could be replaced later. The engine and coaches were hauled up the side of the embankment, rerailed and towed away for repair. The broken telegraph wires were also replaced. When the sun rose the following morning, they 'glistened in the sunlight ... like lengths of burnished gold' according to a local reporter's poetic description. 7 Traffic was resumed on the line at 7 am on the 18th of July.

The Board of Trade enquiry was carried out by Lieutenant Colonel PG von Donop,8 who visited the scene, inspected the track and vehicles involved and questioned the staff concerned. His report was published on 4 September 1907. Apparently, the 10.20 pm goods train from Retford to Liverpool, which consisted of an 0-6-0 tender engine, 31 wagons and a brake van, was approaching Waleswood station when the 11th and 12th trucks were derailed. The couplings between the 10th and llth wagons then broke and the locomotive and ten wagons ran forward leaving the remainder of the train behind. The rear portion of the train stopped because the leading pair of wheels of the 11th wagon became completely separated from it, and this pair of wheels eventually came to rest in a position where it fouled the up line.

Almost immediately after this, the 11 pm passenger train from Sheffield to Retford arrived on the up line, hit the pair of wheels and was derailed. By good fortune, because of a speed restriction which was then in force on this section of the line, its speed was no more than 20 mph. An inspection of both locomotives, the coaches and brake van of the passenger train, and the brake van of the goods train, showed all the brakes to be in good working order.

537

latiTtl.enlitlititliallitliMMIMIMmi

Liiii4A11alltEnumull

026

•

93160.1,

" .. "::......

.....

994

320

ligaiiiiliiiii311

11111111

53o Q

•

236

L .667

Collieries

Waleswood

down which the locomotive rolled and the colliery sidings alongside the main line can clearly be seen.

Map showing Waleswood station and the Great Central Railway main line between Sheffield and Worksop. The embankment Colonel von Donop reported that there could be no doubt that the derailment of the passenger train was caused by its engine hitting the wagon wheels which were obstruct- ing the track. Since the accident happened at night, the driver and fireman could not have been expected to see the obstruction. The passenger train had passed Waleswood signal box just before the goods train did so. When the goods train passed the signal box, the signalman realised that the rear portion of the train was missing but he could not have known this until it was too late to stop the passenger train. Hence, no blame could attach to anyone for the derailment of the passenger train.

As regards the goods train, the trouble clearly originated in the eleventh wagon, no 2995, owned by the North Staffordshire Railway Company. About six and a half miles from Waleswood, the spring from the right-hand leading wheel of this wagon fell off and about four and a quarter miles further on, the axle box and brass belonging to the same wheel also fell off, all these parts being found between the up and down lines. However, the wagon did not leave the rails until it was 740 yards from Waleswood station but from marks found on the line it was evident that one or more pairs of wheels were derailed at this point. Probably wagon number 2995 was the first to be derailed, thus causing the derailment of the wagon immediately behind it, these being the only two vehicles in the train which left the rails.

The derailed wagons were pushed a distance of 630 yards by the vehicles behind them and then, at a point 110 yards from the station, the axle-box, spring and axle-guard of the left leading wheel apparently collapsed so that the leading axle, now free from the wagon, broke away from the down line and came to rest fouling the up line. Immediately after this, the couplings between truck 2995, which was empty, and the one in front of it, must have broken so that the portion of the train ran on whilst the rear part came to a rapid halt.

Hence, the derailment of the goods train, which led to the derailment of the passenger train, was caused by the leading wheel and axle of wagon number 2995, since that was the only part of the goods train to foul the up line. In turn, the collapse of 2995's `underpinning' had been caused by the loss of the spring from the right-hand leading wheel. The problem was then to find out what had caused the loss of the spring.

Number 2995 was a 4-wheeled open wagon of six tons capacity, weighing four tons eight hundredweight and fitted with rubber, rather than spring, buffers. It was old, having been built in 1864 by the Metropolitan Carriage and Waggon Company of Saltley. Over the years it had undergone numerous overhauls and replacements of worn parts. It had been examined by the Great Central Railway's carriage examiner at Worksop on the day of the accident and he thought that although it was old, it was still quite fit for use.

The Inspector's report pointed out that the wagon was of obsolete construction. In building wagons it was current practice to bolt the ends of the springs to shoes which were, in turn, fastened to the sole-bar. In the case of number 2995, the shoes were merely rested in the ends of the springs without being secured in any way, so that the shoes and springs were only held together by the weight of the truck body. Should the sole-bar of the wagon be lifted if, for example, the wagon became buffer-locked, there was nothing to hold the springs in position and they would be liable to fall out.

Nobody could say for certain what had caused the loss of the spring but Colonel von Donop thought, from marks on the buffers of the wrecked wagon, that buffer-locking had occurred. His report concluded that there was probably a large number of similar wagons on the country's railways and that it was desirable that they should be altered to bring them into line with modern methods of construction.

539 It may seem surprising that such an old and potentially hazardous vehicle was still in use, but goods wagons tended to have long lives and, moreover, their design changed little until they disappeared from the railway system in the second half of the 20th century.° About the only change that took place was that by the beginning of this century they were a little larger eight to ten tons capacity instead of five or six tons. This slow rate of change can partly be explained by the fact that British railways tended to transport small quantities of goods over short distances at comparatively high speeds. Another reason for the long, unchanged life of goods wagons was the large number of privately owned vehicles on all railways. Although railway companies had the power to refuse to convey wagons that were unsuitable because they were badly constructed or repaired, in the face of competition they often had to turn a blind eye to some faults. Certainly the private wagons were partly the reason why, after continuous brakes became compulsory on the passenger trains in 1889, the legislation was not extended to cover goods trains. However, in the episode just related, the antique specimen that caused all the trouble, though a 'foreigner' on Great Central metals, was owned by a railway company—the North Staffordshire and not an outside organisation. The accident at Waleswood is interesting since it shows a coming-together of circum- stances which gave rise to the accident in the first place but which also prevented it being more serious. The ancient goods truck which, by chance, shed a spring and dis- integrated, sending an axle and wheels to foul the passage of another train; the passenger train arriving too soon to be stopped by signals or other means but under a speed restriction. Had the passenger train not been travelling slowly, the accident would have been much worse despite the presence of the telegraph pole of which the newspapers made so much. One thing that seems to be missing is human error, unless one counts the decision to send the truck out on to the road in the first place.

NOTES 1 Waleswood station was then new, having been opened on 1 July 1907. 2 Sheffield Daily Telegraph 17 July 1907. 3 Sheffield Daily Telegraph 18 July 1907. 4 Sheffield Daily Telegraph 17 July 1907. 5 Sheffield Daily Telegraph 18 July 1907. 6 Railway Inspector's Report 4 September 1907. 7 Sheffield Daily Independent 18 July 1907. 8 Colonel PG von Donop became an Inspecting Officer in 1899 and was also a notable footballer who played in two FA Cup Finals in 1874 and 1875, in the latter year being in the winning Royal Engineers' team. He was godfather to PG Wodehouse, the writer, after whom the latter was named Pelham Grenville. 9 J Simmons The Railway in England and Wales, 1830-1914 p. 203-213.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Sheffield Daily Telegraph Sheffield Daily Independent Railway Accident Reports for 1907 O S Nock Historic Railway Disasters (1970) Jack Simmons The Railway in England and Wales, 1830-1914 (1978)

540 Overnight Travel in 1845 on the Manchester and Leeds Railway BY ALLAN BRACKENBURY `Bradshaw' for July 1845, recently reprinted by Peter Kay, contains this footnote to the M&LR table: Very superior accommodation is afforded at the Normanton Hotel, for those Passengers or Families wishing to go to London, Hull, Newcastle, &c. by the earliest trains. The 9th and 10th trains from Manchester, by remaining all night at Normanton, are peculiarly adapted for this purpose. Really I think it stands on its own without comment; readers can try working out for themselves what it really means.

The Railways: Challenges to Science and Technology BY S. L. BRAGG The Royal Society, in collaboration with British Rail and the Royal Academy of Engineering, sponsored a one day conference in London on 26 April 1995 with the ob- jectives of highlighting market opportunities in rail transport and establishing associated research and development needs. Although primarily concerned with the future of railways rather than their history, some of the contributions to the debates might be of general interest to the Society. The first consideration, argued forcibly by Sir Hugh Ford of Imperial College and Professor R. A. Smith of Sheffield University's Advanced Railway Research Centre, was that our present choice of modes of transport, with motor cars accounting for 75% of all passenger journeys, is completely unsustainable. Their arguments were based on energy consumption rates in comparison with finite fuel reserves, road congestion, land use and environmental damage. Many of the supporting figures came from the 18th Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. An interesting figure taken from the HMSO publication 'Transport Statistics Great Britain', was that the true cost of road accidents in the UK was over £8 billion a year. The second major factor, emphasised in the paper by B. Marklund, Senior Vice- President of SwedeRail AB, was the importance of total journey quality. Certainly a train must be fast, comfortable, reliable and safe, but these qualities will not attract those who now travel all the way by car if the non-rail part of their journey was slow, uncomfortable and hazardous. The whole journey must be integrated into what John Welsby, Chairman of the British Rail Board, referred to as 'a commonwealth of transport'. The need for an overall transport policy is evidently paramount; however it was interesting to hear John Ellis, Director of ScotRail, defending privatisation plans in Scotland on the grounds that the commercial pressures on Railtrack as a result its con- tracts with the train operators would be more effective than the pressures exerted by the traffic divisions on their engineering departments in the same company!

541 Improvement in total journey quality is tied up with the application of modern information technology. As Mr Welsby pointed out, the major truck operators in the USA can now pinpoint the position of any vehicle of their fleet to within 10 yards at any time using satellite tracking; whereas BR still relies on track circuits. Furthermore the trucking company can respond immediately to a customer by giving him an exact time when his goods will be picked up or delivered. The sophisticated traveller of the next century will expect to have his own personal journey information continuously updated and not rely on occasional and inadequate loudspeaker announcements. This led to an examination of how the railways had reacted to technological progress in the past. It was suggested by Colin Russell, Research Professor in the History of Science at the Open University, that railways have never been real pioneers. Their technology was derivative—for example taking civil engineering skills from the canals and incremen- tal—as witness the gradual migration of cylinders from the centre of the boiler on Trevithick's locomotive, via the vertical, semi-exposed position on Puffing Billy, to the final horizontal position. The cost of development was always one barrier to imple- menting existing technology, while the continuity of employment in big organisations led to an inward-looking attitude. Furthermore, railways in the 19th century were not much given to scientific investigation. The first in-house laboratory of any sort was established at Crewe in 1864 to continue the analysis of boiler corrosion which had been started independently by Frankland in Manchester 13 years earlier. Only the experiments of Deeley on lubrication and, more recently, by Chapelon on thermodynamic efficiency were recognisably scientific investigations. These attitudes do seem to be changing: certainly the application of computer power to the solution of the problems of the dynamics of bogies that led to the HST was an undoubted success. The establishment of the Advanced Railway Research Centre at Sheffield University, working in close collaboration with Derby, is another sign of the times. The paper that came closest to detailing the opportunities for technical improvements in the near future was that by Roger Kemp, Sales and Marketing Director of GEC Alsthom Traction Ltd. On the electronic side, enhanced computer power offers improvements in the optimum control of numbers of trains. However there is a major problem of proving reliability before a new system is brought into service—passengers do not want to be involuntarily involved in commissioning trials! There is still much to be done on improving the reliability of components such as bogies which are exposed to the harsh operating conditions associated with wheel on rail contact. But perhaps we should be thinking laterally about other possible vehicle support systems, from Maglev onwards. As Kemp says, 'The challenge to Universities is to rethink the basic principles and geometry of guided transport systems'. The conference left your correspondent with two firm ideas. The first was that railways, or some derivative form of guided transport, will be an essential element of any sustain- able future transport system. The second was the imperative need for the establishment of a think-tank, research institute or centre for policy studies, to look at transport of goods and people as a whole, independently of the multitude of pressure groups and vested interests that characterise our present fragmented system.

542 Gauging Registers Grand Junction Canal BY HUGH J. COMPTON The early canal companies from inception had a need to establish the weight of cargoes conveyed so that the appropriate charges could be raised, but for most canals/ navigations little is known as to whereabouts of any registers that may have survived the passage of time.

The registers for the Grand Junction Canal (GJC) prior to 1806 generally showed where the boat was built, by whom, its measurements, and when last overhauled, together with the points between which it normally traded plus the type of cargo conveyed. Prior to establishing its unladen weight, a list was made of all fixtures and fittings so that these could be taken into account when arriving at its displacement tonnage. Fittings could comprise a fire, a stove, the towing mast, a pump, planks, plus pieces of deal to place under cargo to keep it dry as well as a set of tarpaulins.

Having established the amount of dry side when the boat was empty, ton weights were added by a crane up to full capacity, the resultant dry side being measured at each ton of loading and duly recorded in the register. These registers were kept at each toll office and at the company's head office.

To establish the tonnage the clerk gauged the boat by measuring the free board or 'dry inches' at each side near the stern and at each side near the bow. The tonnage was then determined by calculating the average dry inches and comparing the results with the register. Thus the clerk was able to ascertain the correct weight of cargo and to see that this agreed with the boat's invoice(s) and as a check against previous toll office calcula- tions to prevent fraud. By this means he could raise charges which either had to be paid immediately by the boatman or alternatively in the case of account holders sent to the canal company's office for eventual billing.

The appendix sets out details of builder and operator of boats and barges found in Volumes I and III of the Register.

The boat builder at Banbury was Thomas Cotton who occupied the premises now known as Tooley's boat dock. Over the years many of his boats were worked down the Thames from Oxford to the GJC at Brentford. Once on the canal they traded between Paddington and Stoke Bruerne prior to the opening of Blisworth tunnel in 1805. Alas, although he survived to the age of 73, he spent his last years in Banbury workhouse before his demise on 15 February 1837.

The earliest recorded date of construction goes to a boat built by Bird & Co of Stourport for Pickfords in 1781. Incidendy this well-known carrier also operated a barge on the section south-east of Blisworth tunnel. Surprisingly most of the boats had no name, only that of the owner and the number in his fleet plus the GJC gauging number which presumably had to appear on both sides of the boat.

The author is greatly indebted to George Freeston of Blisworth for his help and encour- agement with the Registers and to Alan Faulkner for his helpful observations. Volume III is now in the Public Record Office at Kew under reference RAIL830/103.

543 ANALYSIS OF BOATS IN VOL I (1802) & III (1805) OF THE GRAND JUNC- TION CANAL REGISTERS Narrow Boats Location Built Owned Location Built Owned Volume I III I III I III I III Atherstone 1 Marylebone 2 Banbury 10 4 Meaford 1 Barlaston (Stoke) 4 2 Morton Bacot (Studley) 1 Bilston 8 2 Newbold (Rugby) Birmingham 11 21 11 10 Newport Pagnall 2 Blisworth 10 5 Oldbury 3 Braunston 11 5 2 Oxford — 2 7 Church Lawton 2 Paddington 11 14 Coventry 5 4 Ranscliff (Burslem) 1 Coxhead 1 Runcorn 1 Cropredy 1 Sow (Rugby) Dudley 1 2 Stoke 3 14 6 Dunton (Curworth) 1 Stone 4 Exhall (Coventry) 2 Stourport 3 3 1 Fazeley 1 Tipton 5 9 Fenny Stratford 9 1 Warwick 4 Harefield 1 Weedon 1 Hassall Green 1 1 Wendover 2 Kingswinford 1 Wheelock (Sandbach) 4 2 Leighton Buzzard 1 Worsley 1 Longford 4 Not Known 11 10 Manchester 1 4 Barges Location Built Owned Location Built Owned Volume I III I III I III I III Brentford 2 — Nine Elms 1 — Hammersmith 4 Paddington 1 1 Hertford 1 1 Reading 1 Marylebone 2 Uxbridge Newbury 1

What was Paddington thinking of?: The Henley-Marlow Scheme of 1897-8 BY MICHAEL ROBBINS Some people in Henley-on-Thames still recall that there was once a scheme to extend the Great Western Railway branch from Twyford by running the line parallel to the River Thames to Marlow, where the branch from Bourne End terminated. I was told of this when visiting the town the other day. It struck me as a strange idea. Particulars of the scheme are set out by Paul Karau in The Henley-on-Thames Branch (Wild Swan Publications [1982]), pages 29-31. From this it appears that the GWR board decided on 23 July 1987 to seek Parliamentary powers to double the Marlow branch (The Great Marlow Railway, formally incorporated in the GWR in that year), and the line from Bourne End to Maidenhead, and to connect it with Henley branch 544 by a new line, some nine miles in length, along the Thames valley, 'thus enabling through trains to run from High Wycombe to Henley via Marlow'. (Paddington trains would still have had to reverse at Bourne End, unless it was also meant to build a new curve there.) The scheme was included in the GWR Bill deposited in 1897, and it was at first welcomed by Henley council. It involved crossing the river by a new bridge, re- placing Henley station by a new one on an embarkment at Thamesfield over the river, and then running alongside the Thames past Remenham. When these prospects became known, there was a great uproar from the local people who feared their beautiful countryside would be ruined, from landowners affected, and from the Thames Conservancy Commission and the rowing fraternity who were alarmed by the consequences they apprehended for their regatta. A public meeting on 11 February 1898 showed itself hostile to the scheme as it was presented, because of its impact on the scenery and also because of the removal of Henley station 'into another county'. In subsequent revised proposals the railway conceded a tunnel through White Hill instead of open cutting and a station on the Henley side of the river. Petitions against the Bill were deposited (not by the town, which was now satisfied); these were strongly enough supported to make the GWR decide to 'defer' its application. It was never heard of again. This is not in itself a particularly interesting little story—there must be dozens of similar cases of railways proposed but not built. But it does arouse the question why the railway went as far as it did. It seems--and this is only guesswork—that the GWR had decided to turn its attention to the possibilities of development of its traffic in the Thames Valley area which for the previous thirty years or so it had not done much about, apart from four-tracking the main line. MacDermot calls this period in GWR history 'The Great Awakening'. Powers for the Acton and Wycombe line had been secured in 1897, and the Henley-Marlow scheme was probably seen in conjunction with that. The mayor of Henley, briefed by the GWR, told a public meeting that 'this scheme of theirs is part of a much larger scheme which is to connect the direct line through High Wycombe to London'. (It may or may not have been part of the grant scheme that the GWR took over the unexercised powers of the Windsor & Ascot Railway in 1901; that may simply have been due to its continuing wish to be nasty to the London & South Western.) But what sense can one make of the promotion, by the railway itself, apparently without any local prompting, of such an expensive and provactive scheme? Potential local traffic between Henley and Marlow cannot have been large enough to justify it; operating problems on the newly-doubled Twyford-Henley branch, though a little tricky in regatta week, were never really severe. It looks as though it must have been part of some grant stategic design. But what can it have been? What was Paddington thinking of?

Railway Hooligans in the 1840s BY PHILLIP L. SCOWCROFT We hear a great deal nowadays about vandalism and hooliganism on the railways but this is no new thing. Here are three examples from the files of one provincial news- paper separated by a mere five years at a time when the iron road was a comparative novelty. First we quote the Doncaster Chronicle of 12 January 1844: On Saturday morning last (6 January), a heavy bar of iron was placed across the rails on the North Midland Railway near to the Castleford station; it was fortunately observed in that most dangerous position about seven o'clock and in time to prevent the evil design of the villain who placed it there.

545 The NMR had been open for just 3 1/2 years. Next, from the Chronicle of 19 June 1846: On Monday last (15 June) two boys named George and Samuel Blamires were charged before the magistrates at the Court House, Wakefield with throwing stones at an engine driver in charge of a luggage train on the Manchester and Leeds Railway on Friday last ... The Magistrates, after commenting on the serious nature of the offence, ordered the boys (with the consent of their parents) to be whipped and discharged ... Finally, from the Chronicle of 30 November 1849: We observe, by a handbill posted in various parts of the town, that last week some miscreant placed a railway chair on the South Yorkshire line near Doncaster in such a manner as to throw an engine off the line. A reward of £20 has been offered for the discovery of the offender. The South Yorkshire line to Doncaster had been open for less than three weeks; £20 was a large sum in those days.

Book Reviews JAMES BRINDLEY AT TURNHURST HALL: AN ARCHAELOGICAL AND HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION, William D. Klemperer and Paul J. Sillitoe, 44pp, 260 mm x 200 mm, 10 Figs, 16 Plates, card covers. City Museum & Art Gallery, Bethesda Street, Hanley, Stroke-on-Trent, ST1 3DE, 1995. ISBN 1 874414 07 6, £4.99 plus £1 p&p. Turnhurst Hall, once home of James Brindley, had a water feature in the grounds, filled in when the house was demolished in 1929. Tradition since 1880 has maintained that this was a 'model canal', and after 1952 'model locks', with the implication that Brindley carried out experiments here. The present report outlines Brindley's career and speculates on the desirability of trials to optimise lock design, prior to 1768 when his earliest was completed. Documentary studies have established ownership succession of Turnhurst, but the status of Brindley's tenancy remains uncertain; he never owned or had a full lease of the property which was apparently in multiple occupation. Smiles says he moved there on marriage in December 1765 but canal company references in 1767-8 give Newchapel as his address (which could relate to Turnhurst or The Bent, his wife's home). He certainly died at Turnhurst in 1772. A Brindley letter of April 1769 from Turnhurst (journal November 1984 p 100) seems to have escaped notice. No documentary evidence for trial locks has been traced, but a rectangular pool is shown on the Wolstanton Tithe Map of 1841 and subsequently in OS Maps. Excavations in October 1993 uncovered a stone lined channel 156 ft long, 12-14 ft wide and 4 ft deep with remains of sluice gear in one corner and the conclusion reached is that this was a garden 'canal' fashionable around 1700. No structural elements of a lock chamber or gates were found but the site has been preserved under a concrete raft, permitting redevelopment above. National Trust's Westbury Court Garden canals, Gloucestershire, might be adduced as rare survivors of contemporary date. A well produced and illustrated report, much to be commended. EDWIN SHEARING

INNOCENT ESPIONAGE: THE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD BROTHERS TOUR OF ENGLAND IN 1785, Norman Scarfe, 270 pp, 63 b and w illus, boards. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1995. ISBN 0-85115-596-0, £25. The duc de Liancourt, a liberal-minded aristocrat, in 1784 despatched his two teenaged sons and their tutor on an extended visit to England. The majority of the journals kept by all three have survived to form the basis of the current work. A year was passed in the neighbourhood of Bury St Edmunds, where their doings were much influenced by 546 the agriculturalist Arthur Young. Mr Scarfe, well known as a writer on East Anglian subjects, has already published an account of that period. Not until mid-February 1785 did the visitors commence their tour through the rest of England, which was com- pressed into less than three, often wintry, months. Fluently translated passages of all three journals are introduced and linked with the minimum of dissonance. Explanatory footnotes abound, there are a few reproductions of journal pages, near-contemporary illustrations of places visited, and a comprehensive index. The tourists were shown manufacturing processes at Derby and Sheffield, travelled by the underground canals at Worsley, were given a comprehensive tour of Ironbridge and were entertained on board a warship at Plymouth. They also commented on the super- iority of some English roads and the majority of English inns over their counterparts in France, and made many percipient observations on agricultural practices. They were shown far more industrial secrets than English visitors might have seen for, mistakenly, it seems to have been assumed that young foreigners would not appreciate the techni- calities of manufacture. Despite the tantalising briefness of some descriptions, none of which relates to railways and only a few to canals, the book can be recommended for providing a vivid first- hand depiction of a country undergoing simultaneous developments in transport, agriculture and industry. DENNIS HADLEY

THE INDUSTRIAL RAILWAYS OF BOLTON, BURY AND THE MANCHESTER COALFIELD PART I BOLTON AND BURY, C. H. A. Townley, C. A. Appleton, E D. Smith, J. A. Peden; 206 pages 250 x 175 mm, 46 black & white photographs, 31 maps and plans, boards. Runpast Publishing, 10 Kingscote Grove, Cheltenham, GL51 6JX. ISBN 1-870754-30-1 £25.00 This book is a monumental piece of research by the four authors. It is almost as much industrial archaelogy as railway history in that it deals with the histories of numerous collieries in and around Bolton and Bury, the railways which served them and other industries in the area including power stations, and also the locomotives that worked on the railways. The book is most suitably dedicated to the memory of Frank Smith who, as the reviewer knew well, was a tireless and thorough researcher into the lives and works of railway and other contractors and engineers and industrial railway systems. As is stated, without his work the book could hardly have been written. It must be admitted that some background knowledge is helpful in reading this book. The reviewer lived in Bolton for 22 years and explored the district thoroughly and with the knowledge thus gained was able to derive much of value from the book. Anyone without this local knowledge would possibly find it less interesting, though it is well written and the maps and plans are clear and full of detail. After an introductory chapter, the second chapter deals briefly with the history of the canals in the area and the main-line railways that subsequently became parts of the LNWR and LYR. It also includes an excellent railway chronology, with source references, filling 12 pages. The remaining four chapters are concerned with the local collieries and industries. For those who wish to pursue any matters further there are full source references. As many details as can be discovered are given of numberous locomotives, mostly small 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 saddle tanks. Little mention is made of the textile industry. This made its impact mostly in the form of passenger traffic and transport of raw materials on the main-line systems. A second volume, Part II, is to be published later in 1995 dealing with the Manchester coalfield, Clifton, Pendlebury, Agecroft, Pendleton, Eccles, Atherton, Leigh, Tyldesley, Little Hulton and the Bridgewater Collieries, and also locomotives overhauled and dis- 547 posed of at Walkden, 1947-86. It will also contain indexes to the two parts. The two volumes will certainly form an important reference work. JOHN MARSHALL

PORTRAIT OF THE CENTRAL WALES LINE, Martin Smith, 128pp, 152 photos, boards. Ian Allan, 1995, ISBN 0 7110 2346 8, £12.99. The Central Wales Line from Craven Arms to Llanelli/Swansea is part of a link between Shrewsbury and southwest Wales. It provides public transport for rural com- munities in Mid Wales, thus fulfilling a social need, and is consequently heavily subsi- dised to the tune of some £2,500,000 per annum. This book describes the line in pictures and text, and explains how it has survived. There are six sections which cover: the basic history, showing how the route was built up in piece-meal fashion; the stations and geographical features; the services in LNWR and LMSR days; the motive power over the years; the post-nationalisation period and various closure attempts; and the line in more recent times, telling how economies were made, a Travellers' Association (HOWLTA) was formed and even steam specials have been run. This is by no means just a picture album, the captions are detailed and the text is full of facts, figures and comment—the author acknowledges assistance from many sources. There are 19 extracts from OS maps and several timetables are illustrated. It is notice- able that there is a certain amount of repetition in the text and captions, and some readers will find the author's rather 'chatty' style a little irritating. Nevertheless, the book achieves its object, and is good value. MICHAEL HALE

Shorter Reviews BROAD STREET TO POPLAR: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY, J. E. Connor, 52pp, profusely illustrated, card covers. Connor & Butler, 1995. Available from the publisher at 69, Guildford Road, Colchester CO1 2RZ, £7.25 + £1 p&p. This is a completely revised and up-dated version of a book published under the title of All Stations to Poplar' in 1980. Although of the same page size the slightly smaller print has enabled much more information to be included in the same number of pages. It is not an 'album' but contains considerable text, all stations on the route are illustrated and described. The recent incorporation of part of the old line into the Docklands Light Railway is included. Nearly all the photographs are new to this work, which is produced to a high standard, a great improvement on the earlier book but in- evitably at a substantially higher price.

INDUSTRIAL LOCOMOTIVES OF DYFED AND POWYS, J. De Havilland, 342 pp + 80 photo illus (2 per page on art paper), 1994. Available from S. Geeson, IRS Publications 28, Tennyson Way, Melton Mowbray, LE13 1 LJ, k19.95 hardback, L16.95 softback inc p&p in both cases. In accordance with the long established practice of the Industrial Railway Society this new publication covers in great detail the industrial locomotives (in the broadest sense of the term) which were used in the counties named. These cover very largely the old counties of Cardigan, Brecknock, Montgomery, Radnor, Pembroke and Carmarthen. As is usual in this series all railways known to have used locos (except miniature lines) are included. The book is divided into five sections: Independent Public Railways, Industrial and Internal Railways, National Coal Board/British Coal, Indexes and photographs. No fewer than 31 maps are included and information is given concerning the railway and industrial undertakings themselves. As usual it is extremely well re- 548 searched and produced. One looks forward to the forthcoming Handbook(s) relating to the rest of South Wales.

HARROGATE GAS WORKS, M. P. F. Hallows & D. H. Smith, profusely illustrated, card covers. Narrow Gauge Railway Society 1995. Obtainable from 22, Peverill Road, Peterborough PEI 3PY, £6.95 inc. p&p. Issued as no 146 of 'The Narrow Gauge', Journal of the NGRS the book contains a full description of the transport systems of Harrogate Gas Works, its 2' gauge railway and its steam road locomotives. Being built on a site well away from the NER coal had to be brought in, first hauled by road traction engines and later over the narrow gauge railway built by the company. This lasted for almost 50 years and its description fills most of the book.

THE HEYDAY OF STEAM AROUND MANCHESTER, Tom Heavyside, 80 pp, profusely illustrated in colour, boards. Ian Allan 1995, £10.99. Following a couple of pages of introductory text the rest of the book consists of numerous illustrations of locomotives, trains, etc in the Manchester area, of numerous illustrations of locomotives, trains, etc in the Manchester area, taken in the 1950s and 1960s by a variety of photographers. Each of them has a full caption, often containing brief historical notes. They are well reproduced bearing in mind weather conditions in a few cases.

RAILWAYS RESTORED 1995, A. C. Butcher (ed), 128pp, numerous illus card covers. Ian Allan 1995, £8.99. Railways Restored has been produced for almost 20 years and the fully revised 1995 edition presented up to date information on the railway preservation movement. It contains the necessary information regarding location, locomotives, services, addresses and much else concerning each undertaking. It is still the classic guide to the subject of railway preservation.

FESTINIOG IN COLOUR, P. Johnson & M. Whitehouse, 64pp, profusely illustrated, card covers. Ian Allan 1995, £8.99. Two pages of introduction are followed by 61 pages of colour photographs of the line, mostly one to a page. They show locomotives and trains in various settings, scenic shots, scenes at stations, Boston Lodge, etc. The last section illustrates various non FR locos, including some privately owned and visiting engines. The photos cover the period of restoration from 1955 to 1994 and have reproduced well.

ON LONDON & SOUTH WESTERN LINES, A. C. Butcher, 80 pp, 81 photo illus (colour), Boards. Ian Allan 1995, £10.99. An album of photographs taken on the L&SW section between the mid '50s and the mid 60's, with full captions. They are all of steam locos. Mostly on trains and some showing sheds, stations etc. A page of introduction gives a brief account of the opening and where appropriate closing of the L&SWR lines. 549 BRITISH RAILWAYS ATLAS, M. G. Ball, 55pp maps plus 24 pp index, card covers, 183 mm x 120 mm. Ian Allan 1995, £5.99. An atlas of the railways of Great Britain and Ireland with a full gazetteer of stations. In effect a pocket sized edition of 'British Isles Railway Atlas' by the same compiler in the publisher's European Railway Atlas series. A most useful publication, also showing proposed new lines.

Correspondence Conder's 'Personal Recollections . . In a note (no. 4) to the article by the late John E. C. Palmer, 'Authority, Idiosyncracy [sic], and Corruption in the Early Railway Press, 1823-1844', Journal vol. 31, 442-57, it is stated that the 1983 reprint (entitled The Men who built Railways) of E R. Conder's anonymously-published Personal Recollections of the English Engineers . .. (1868) 'is abridged and omits the chapter dealing with the Eastern Counties Railway'. This is not so. Professor Jack Simmons, who was responsible for the reprint, contribut- ing an introduction and useful side-notes, stated (introduction, p. ix): 'This reprint follows the edition of 1868 exactly, with the correction of a few printing mistakes'. He has confirmed to me that there were no cuts in the text, adding that it was set into type direct from a copy of the original. The chapter on the Eastern Counties Railway which Palmer alleged to be missing appears on pp. 41-47 (1983), and it corresponds exactly with pp. 75-90 of 1868. Because of the very wide spacing of the original typesetting its text ran to 432 pages; with the much more compact setting of the reprint, only 202 pages are filled, which may possibly have led to the notion that there had been cuts. But the 1983 reprint text is complete and faithful to the original, and it is only justice to our leading scholar of British Railway history to rebut the misleading statement. MICHAEL ROBBINS.

Stations without Road Access Further to Michael Cobb's letter in the July Journal concerning stations without road access, I can provide some further information about the location and the characteris- tics of Kirriemuir Junction based on field evidence. This was the original exchange station for the Kirriemuir branch from its opening in 1854, but it was closed in 1864 when that function was transferred to Forfar. In June 1991 I visited the site of the junction between the branch and the Strathmore main line at NO416508. Although it is accessible by dirt roads, I approached along the track bed of the branch. I found an overgrown V-shaped platform in the angle of the two lines, with some evidence of the foundations of a substantial station building. The platform is particularly interesting because enough of it remains to show that it was a low level structure, surviving in this original form as a consequence of early closure. South of the main line was a modern concrete platelayers hut and what appeared to be a loading dock of later date than the passenger station. Perhaps this was used for engineering or operational purposes. On a more general note, I would welcome further contributions from members to add to the body of information on roadless stations that I am now holding on behalf of the Society. TIM EDMONDS Stations without Road Access—Kirriemuir junction I should have written earlier on the above subject but I assumed that some of our more erudite members would have sorted the matter out ere now.

550 I have visited the site of the above station a number of times, the most recent one being about three years ago; and can state that considerable remains of the station do defi- nitely exist. The only caveat is that local farmers may have 'landscaped' the site for their own purposes in the interim, as is common in that area of very fertile soil. The station lay at the site of the junction of the Kirrie branch with the main line at OS Grid Ref NO 415508. It consisted of a V platform in the junction itself: one face on the down main line, the other on the branch. There was a staggered up main platform lying to the east of the junction. On this was the junction signalbox. To the east of this is an overbridge, from which the station was, presumably, accessed. This is now purely a farm access road from Upper Drumgley Farm to its fields north of the erst- while main line; and is reached by a very roundabout road through the farm. However, I suspect that in the 1860s it may have continued about 300 yards north- wards or eastwards to meet minor public roads to the Biblically named village of Padanaram, a good mile away. The platforms were short, and their surface little more than a foot above rail level. They are still in existence, though in recent years the copings have become displaced. The buildings on the V platform seem to have been demolished in the 1960s, when the main line was closed to passengers and the Kirrie branch to freight i.e. all traffic. There is an excellent photograph, by G. H. Robin, of the station in pristine condition in 1953 in the Angus Railway Group's 'Steam Album' Vol. 2. The remains are also shown on the 1985 printing of the OS 1:25,000 map No. 312 (Forfar). DUNCAN M. LEISH

Beckenham Road and Wimbledon (W&CR) Stations Two things have changed since this article was completed in the autumn of 1992. Firstly, and most obviously, the new light railway (Tramlink) is not going to be open in 1996; the latest forecast is the beginning of 1998. Secondly, it seems it may now be possible after all for the new service to use a platform in Wimbledon station, in which case only one corpse will be revived. ALAN A.JACKSON Bugsworth Canal Basin The article of mine that you included in the last issue of the Journal contained (to me) one glaring error; the narrow boat depicted on the plan of Bugsworth Upper Basin was twice as long as it should have been. The error was solely mine. When compiling the original sketch map, I had not paid enough attention to the scale yards, which I had assumed were feet and hence my very long narrow boat, My apologies for the misrepresentation. BRIAN LAMB Cars on Railways Regarding Mr Kidner's observations (Journal, vol 31. Pt 9, p. 517), the late Mr Borley wrote in a letter of 30 March 1986, as follows: The GE generally used the word 'cars' to indicate a train of empty carriages; but the L&NW usually said 'Empty Coaches' or 'E.G.'. The North London frequently used the word 'light' to indicate a train of empty carriages. ... 'After arrival at Kew Bridge to return light to Acton Sidings'. There was some American influence in GER locomotive design, probably following a visit to the U.S.A. by Massey Bromley who followed William Adams as Locomotive Superintendent in 1878 (G.E. Journal No. 83, July 1995). The use of the word 'cars' may have been a by-product of this influence. HARRY PAAR Memorials to Railway and Canal Individuals Two minor corrections to the article in the last issue of the Journal on Memorials to Railway and Canal Individuals, Part 2: 551 William Praed. Tyringham is in Buckinghamshire; the nearest part of Bedfordshire would be either Turvey or Cranfield, at least ten miles away. Before the Inner Circle stations were renamed, you used Praed Street as the station for Paddington and Bishop's Road for Ealing trains. M. E KEEF

Memorials to Railway and Canal Individuals I think some might quibble over Stanley Tyson's dividing line between a memorial and a works plate or trademark, but he is surely right to include these—at least when they are they are or may be the only surviving physical record of a person or his firm. There are however four distinct classes of memorial formal memorials, accidental memorials (e.g. works plates), tombstones and road/pub/industrial estate names each of which is probably a subject in its own right and I suspect that some members may be able to add considerably to the initial list. Let me therefore contribute one or two of each type to set the ball rolling.

1. Formal memorials. ABERGELE: Besides the memorial in the churchyard, there is a memorial cross on the Up side of the line at the point of collision. CREWE: Victoria Park was presented to the town by the L&NWR and the entrance lodges carry an appropriate inscription. The prime movers being Sir Richard Moon and Francis Webb the gables decorated with devices that need no words of explanation, possibly designed by Webb himself. Just inside the entrance is an obelisk bearing on its four faces the likenesses of Moon, Webb, the Duke of Somerset and Queen Victoria. Elsewhere in the park a memorial shelter was erected to Charles Dick, formerly signal engineer and latterly works manager, but whether this is still there I do not know. LEAMINGTON SPA: St Mary's church contains a memorial tablet to Massey Bromley, formerly CME of the Great Eastern Railway, who was killed in the Penistone accident of 16/7/1884. Bromley's father was rector of St Mary's.

2. Accidental memorials. BEVERLEY: The bases of a few lamp standards outside the Minster were until a few years ago the only tangible memorial to the remarkable William Crosskill, a pioneer of mass-production (carts and cart wheels, 1838) who introduced the first system of porta- ble railway equipment. The new MAFF building on the site of his works has been named Crosskill House. BURY, EDWARD: As far as I know there is at present no memorial to Edward Bury FRS whose contribution to the development of the steam locomotive and of railway management practices was comparable with that of any of his contemporaries. But the NRM has in store a Bury, Curtis & Kennedy water column which survived almost to the end of steam traction on the platform of Coventry station.

3. Tombstones McCONNELL, James: His memorial in Great Missenden churchyard must be one of the most flamboyant ever erected to a railway employee, but quite in keeping with what we now know about him. MOON, Sir RICHARD: Is buried in St Bartholomew's churchyard, Binley, Coventry: in 1899 you could have stood there and seen his last home, the London & Birmingham main line and, I think, caught a glimpse of trains on the Trent Valley line. 552 4. Road names, etc. BROMSGROVE: Besides the well-known tombstones of Rutherford and Scaife, which do indeed show a Norris engine rather than Dr Church's ECLIPSE which was the cause of their deaths, a new housing estate on the site of the former wagon works adjacent to Bromsgrove station has its roads named after Moorsom (chairman of the Birmingham & Gloucester), Rutherford, Scaife, McConnell (who designed the first Lickey banker) and Clayton (who did the preliminary design of the last one). E W. WEBB: Frank Webb Road should remind us of how he was known in his life- time, even when Mayor of Crewe. Besides the road at Horwich mentioned by Stanley Tyson, there is a Webb Place (not to mention the adjacent Crewe Place) off Old Oak Lane midway between the entrances to Willesdon Junction and Old Oak Common depot. While on the subject of the new estate at Horwich, what a strange and largely irrele- vant selection: only Ramsbottom and Hawkshaw had any connection with the L&Y. RODNEY WEAVER

Memorials to Railway and Canal Individuals I had not noticed Stanley Tyson's earlier appeal in the Bulletin for information about memorials to railway and canal individuals, and was interested to see the lists of such discoveries that were published in the issues of the Journal for March and July 1995. It seems that to some extent he and I have been looking for inland waterways memorials and I have not been conducting my searches for anything like his 50 years. Nevertheless, I seem to have found a few important memorials that he and three other members apparently missed, depending, however, on how you define a memorial. I would certainly include statues, monuments and sculpture, etc erected to commemorate an individual, but would have reservations about a plate merely indicating the name of a manufacturing firm, even if a person's name was included. I would also expect the list to give some information about the memorial. Under 'Banks', for instance, we find 'A partner in Messrs Jollife And Banks, railway contractor, is buried in Chipstead churchyard' but the lack of further details makes one wonder whether anything like a memorial is to be seen. The placing of some items is also a little puzzling, e.g. entering Joseph Priestly (sic) under Bradford Cathedral where the memorial spells his name PRIESTLEY and the title of his office as SUPERINTENDANT. I append a list of my additional discoveries, along with a few comments and amendments. STANLEY A. HOLLAND

Memorials to Railway and Canal Individuals Baker, Sir Benjamin. There is a commemorative window to this engineer in Westminster Abbey. Bridgewater, 3rd Duke of. In addition to a marble tablet in Little Gaddesden Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Herts, where the Duke was buried (not at Ashridge, as stated), there is a tall column near to Ashridge House which was erected in his memory. A long spiral staircase winds to the top, from which extensive views can be obtained. A tablet just inside the entrance gives details about the dedication. Brindley, James. The plaque 'recently' added to B's gravestone in Newchapel was put there in 1956. The following might also be noted: 1. A statute of B was erected in 1990 at the junction of the Caldon and Trent & Mersey Canals. 2. A carved head of B appears on a stone plaque on the Energy Centre that serves the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. 553 Clowes, Josiah. Buried in the graveyard of St Bartholomew's Church in Norton-le- Moors, Staffs. He is described on the gravestone as an engineer. Gilbert, John. G was the Duke of Bridgewater's Agent and deserves much of the credit for the Bridgewater Canal. He died in 1795 and was laid to rest in the Egerton family vault (the Duke was an Egerton) in the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin in Eccles. Until 1994 the location of the vault was unknown but it was then discovered in the course of building work, and the sealed lead coffins of G and his wife were found. (The Guardian, 20 August 1994). The ornate coffin lids are to go on permanent display in the church but were undergoing restoration in July 1995. The lid of G's coffin will then form an unusual memorial.

Huskisson, William. Stanley Tyson's note says, 'It will be remembered that he was killed on the opening day of the Rainhill trials on September 15th 1830'. Although in no sense a railway historian, I beg leave to question this feat of memory. According to my information, the Rainhill Trials took place in October 1829, whereas H died at Parkside during the official opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The date of his death is correctly stated. Jessop, William. In view of the mention of portraits of J, it seems worth noting that in 1989, as part of a series of postage stamps commemorating railway pioneers, the Maldives Republic issued a Rf 10 stamp showing J's head, a horse-drawn waggon on rails, and the legend, 'William Jessop, first to use edge rails on his Surrey horse-drawn line, 1770'. Railway historians will doubtless know better than I whether this statement is correct. Jones, Richard. Jones was a brick-layer who worked on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. He was killed in a road accident in 1840 and was buried in the graveyard of St Godwald's Church in Finstall, near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. His workmates erected a headstone, now flaking badly, which bears an oval panel depicting the tools of the brick-layer's trade. Rennie, John. 1. Strangely, no mention is made of Rennie's last resting place, which is in no less a church than St Paul's Cathedral in London. His marble tombstone is in the crypt. 2. The 'badly deteriorated' inscription on the south face of the Lune Aqueduct to which reference is made was in good condition when I photographed it in 1986, although somewhat difficult to read owing to weathering and the growth of some kind of lichen. When deciphered, the Latin inscription appears to be an elegiac couplet (dactylic hexameter followed by a pentameter) as follows: QUAE DEERANT ADEUNT; SOCIANTUR DISSITA; MERLES FLUMINA CONVENIUNT ARTE DATURA NOVAS. A.D. MDCCXCVII. ING. I. RENNIE. EXTRUX, A. STEVENS (followed by letters that look like P.E.I.E.) These lines appear to have been specially written, and may be roughly translated as follows: Things which were missing are coming; things far apart are joined; Rivers come together, by skill, to bring new merchandise, A.D. 1797. Engineer J. Rennie. Built by A. Stevens. Alexander Stevens and Son were contractors for the building of the aqueduct and came from Edinburgh, where they did a great deal of work, so the indistinct letters may refer to membership possibly Presidency of some body like the Edinburgh Institute of Engineers. A Stevens senior died before the work was completed and his son finished it. (See Waterways News, Aug/Sept 1987) 554 3. A commemorative plaque was installed on the Lune Aqueduct more recently recording its vital statistics and historical significance. (See Waterways News, Feb 1987) 4. Commemorative medals bearing R's head on the obverse were issued in 1821 (marking his death) and 1823 (marking the opening of Sheerness Docks, which he designed). (See Canal Coins, by Stanley Holland) de Sails, H. R. S. T. indicates where he lived but gives no information about a memorial. Is there one?

Smeaton, John. The memorial in the Parish Church of St Mary to which S. T. refers appears to have been erected by S's daughters and not by the Institution of Civil Engineers as stated. The following might also be noted: 1. In November 1994 a memorial slab was placed in the floor of the nave of Westminster Abbey. 2. In July 1992 a plaque was placed on the section of the Eddystone Lighthouse that was rebuilt on Plymouth Ho. The plaque joined the bust of S that was already there. 3. A small stone tablet bearing S's head is to be found on the building housing the Energy Centre of the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.

Telford, Thomas. As indicated, there is a small memorial slab in the floor of the nave of Westminster Abbey. The following might also be noted: I . There is a large marble statue of T in the chapel of St Andrew in Westminster Abbey 2. A roadside monument with T's head in relief can be found at Bentpath in Scotland, near his birthplace. It was erected in 1928 on the centenary of the charter granted to the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which he was the first President. 3. In 1988 a monument consisting of T's name in large cast-iron letters, on one of which a bronze statue of T himself is leaning, was erected in the new Shropshire town named after him. 4. T's head appears on a medal awarded periodically by the Institution of Civil Engineers. (See Canal Coins) 5. T's head appears on a stone plaque on the Energy Centre of the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. 6. The Institution of Civil Engineers has various artefacts that might be described as memorials to T.

Wilkinson, John. The celebrated ironmaster (1728-1808) merits inclusion as the builder of possibly the first iron boat to be used on the inland waterways. He was described as 'a great promoter of public improvements, friendly to canals and to agriculture ... Memorials exist as follows: 1. A cast-iron obelisk bearing a plaque showing W's head stands by the roadside in Cartmel, where he had a residence and was ultimately buried. 2. Subject to the forbearance of vandals, a concrete block with iron plaque can be found alongside the road in Bradley near the spot where W had his first Black Country furnace. 3. A plaque was erected on the site of the Willey ironworks where W's iron boat was made and then launched alongside the Severn. 4. Copper tokens bearing W's head were issued in large quantities starting in 1787. Some bear on the reverse a brigantine, symbolising the iron boat he made. (See Canal Coins) STANLEY A. HOLLAND

The Rennies I must comment on the entry on page 498 of the Journal No. 161 RENNIE, Sir John. (1794-1874) which is then followed by a paragraph on Rennie senior. (1761-1821)

555 At the opening of his Waterloo Bridge (18 June 1817) Rennie is reputed to have had 'a hard business to escape' the Prince Regent's offer of a knighthood, whilst when the younger John accepted the knighthood his father had been at pains to reject, members of the Rennie family were disgusted. As his aunt Lorna Macintosh wrote to a friend: `Whereas his father was interested in the building of memorable constructions, John it would seem is more interested in proffering the shoulder for accolades'. The National Portrait Gallery has the bust of Rennie by Sir Francis Chantrey, whilst the portait by Sir Henry Raeburn was presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers by his son, Sir John Rennie in 1849. Most of the above information appears in Bridge Across The Atlantic 1972, Wallace Reyburn, but ironically when discussing the eccentricity of Rennie's contemporary James Brindley, the author states 'When confronted with a problem in his work, as so often happened in the building of his masterpiece, the Manchester Ship Canal, he would furnish himself with a good supply of water and bread and go to bed, ...'! Stanley Tyson is amongst many canal historians and writers who have confused the two John Rennies; one that springs to mind being Alan Faulkner, The Grand Junction Canal 1993 edition which perpetuates the error some twenty-odd years after the first publication. Rennie has more than three aqueducts to his credit; the Lancaster Canal also crosses the rivers Brock, Calder, Wyre, Cocker, Conder, Keer, none as large as the Lune, but each with its individual elegantly designed aqueduct. BILL BLEASDALE

Tory Tears On' Marjorie Searson's letter on the above subject in the March Journal was interesting and thought-provoking. Perhaps we could also be treated to the thoughts of Neil Cossons himself (having received only hints of his 'serious warning') in the Journal, or an article based on Harry Paar's talk? Certainly some aspects of railway history have led into the proverbial siding. The obses- sion with locomotives, timetables and branch-line histories must now be almost ex- hausted; are there any branch-lines yet to be written about? Several branch-lines have been the subject of more than one densely detailed history, but the books tend to be very similar as they rely on a predictable range of resources such as minute books and old timetables. Mrs Searson argues that it is at the level of people that railway history still has a future. Many of these branch-line books lack people for the stories are so hard to uncover in the traditional 'railway history' sources. What is necessary is the trawling through of local newspapers to uncover the details of everyday life on the railway, such as the min- or accidents, criminal offences and heartfelt 'Letters to the Editor' about late trains. Such work, though, takes an inordinate amount of time. When Harry Paar and I wrote our book on The Life & Times of the Great Eastern Railway we aimed to write a book which focussed on the people and the life that flowed through this railway. It took a long time to find a publisher as the book did not fit into the standard categories of railway publishing, though the non-specialist firm that eventually produced it made a magnificent job. However, there were virtually no reviews in the railway press. Perhaps the ordinary customer still wants branch-lines and picture books? However, all is not gloomy. The best articles in Backtrack are now the ones that fol- low topics and issues rather than lines and locomotives. That seems a good direction to take. ADRIAN GRAY 556

[Pages 557-596 see Bibliography]

[Pages 597-607 see Index] RAILWAY & CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY A company (No 922300) limited by guarantee and registered in England as a charity (No 256047)

Local Group Secretaries London N. A. Howell, `Croftside', 109 Epsom Road, Guildford, Surrey GU1 2LE North West E. R. LI. Davies, Tron Fawnog', Hafod Road, Gwernymynydd, Mold, Clwyd CH7 5JS North East D. B. Slater, 8 Granger Avenue, Acomb, York YO2 5LF West Midlands R. Still, 100 Frederick Road, Stechford, Birmingham B33 8AE East Midlands P. Stevenson, 16 Rigley Avenue, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 5LU South West (acting) A. Richardson, 25 Boscombe Crescent, Downend, Bristol BS16 6GR

Co-ordinators of Special Interest Groups Tramroads P. R. Reynolds, 87 Gabalfa Road, Sketty, Swansea SA2 8ND Road Transport P. L. Scowcroft, 8 Rowan Mount, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN2 5PJ Docks & Coastal Shipping A. D. Nicholson, 77A Main Street, Lowick, Berwick-upon- Tweed TD15 2UD Railway Chronology (acting) A. R. Warren, 8 Kestrel Close, Sittingbourne, Kent ME 10 4PX

All copy for the March 1996 Journal should be with the Editor by 10 November 1995 and must conform to the Society's style-sheet. The Editor will supply potential contributors with a copy on receipt of a 81/2" x 6" stamped and addressed envelope. Original typescripts and other 'copy', maps, diagrams and photos, of published articles will not be returned unless requested by Contributors. Whilst copyright in the journal as a whole is vested in the Railway & Canal Historical Society, copyright in the individual articles belongs to their respective authors, and no article may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission in writing of both author and publisher. Views expressed in any article, review, or item of correspondence in the Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Society. Published by the Railway & Canal Historical Society (Registered Office: Fron Fawnog, Hafod Road, Gwernymynydd, Mold, Clwyd CH7 5JS), and printed by Hobbs the Printers of Southampton. The Society is registered as a charity (no 256047)

608