 | |
 TheMidland Grand Hotel at St Pancras station, the London terminus of the Midland Railway in June 2012 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Derby |
| Locale | England and Wales |
| Dates of operation | 10 May 1844–31 December 1922 |
| Predecessor | Midland Counties Rly,North Midland Rly,Birmingham and Derby Junction Rly |
| Successor | London, Midland and Scottish Railway |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge |
| Length | 2,170 miles 22 chains (3,492.7 km) (1919)[1][note 1] |
| Track length | 6,625 miles 48 chains (10,662.9 km) (1919)[1][note 1] |
TheMidland Railway (MR) was arailway company in the United Kingdom from1844.[2] The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer inDerby, where it had its headquarters. It amalgamated with several other railways to create theLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway atgrouping in 1923.[3]
The Midland had a large network of lines emanating from Derby, stretching toLondon St Pancras,Manchester,Carlisle,Birmingham, andBristol. It expanded as much through acquisitions as by building its own lines. It also operated ships fromHeysham in Lancashire toDouglas andBelfast. A large amount of the Midland's infrastructure remains in use and visible, such as theMidland Main Line and theSettle–Carlisle line, and some of its railway hotels still bear the nameMidland Hotel.
The Midland Railway originated from 1832 inLeicestershire /Nottinghamshire, with the purpose of serving the needs of local coal owners.[4]
| Midland Railway (Consolidation) Act 1844 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Citation | 7 & 8 Vict. c. xviii |
The company was formed on 10 May 1844 by theMidland Railway (Consolidation) Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. xviii) which merged theMidland Counties Railway, theNorth Midland Railway, and theBirmingham and Derby Junction Railway,[5] theBirmingham and Gloucester Railway joined two years later.[6] These met at theTri-Junct station at Derby, where the MR established itslocomotive and later itscarriage and wagon works.
Leading it wereGeorge Hudson from the North Midland, andJohn Ellis from the Midland Counties.James Allport from theBirmingham and Derby Junction Railway found a place elsewhere in Hudson's empire with theYork, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, though he later returned.[7]
The MR was in a commanding position having its Derby headquarters at the junctions of the two main routes from London to Scotland, by its connections to theLondon and Birmingham Railway in the south, and fromYork via theYork and North Midland Railway in the north.[8]
Almost immediately it took over theSheffield and Rotherham Railway and theErewash Valley Line in 1845, the latter giving access to theNottinghamshire andDerbyshire coalfields. It absorbed theMansfield and Pinxton Railway in 1847, extending the Erewash Valley Line from the latter betweenChesterfield andTrent Junction atLong Eaton, completed to Chesterfield in 1862, giving access to the coalfields that became its major source of income. Passengers fromSheffield continued to useRotherham Masborough until a direct route was completed in 1870.
Meanwhile, it extended its influence into theLeicestershire coalfields, by buying theLeicester and Swannington Railway in 1846,[9][page needed] and extending it to Burton in 1849.
After the merger, London trains were carried on the shorter Midland Counties route. The formerBirmingham and Derby Junction Railway was left with the traffic to Birmingham andBristol, an important seaport. The original 1839 line from Derby had run toHampton-in-Arden: theBirmingham and Derby Junction Railway had built a terminus atLawley Street in 1842, and on 1 May 1851 the MR started to run intoCurzon Street.[10]
The line south was theBirmingham and Bristol Railway, which reached Curzon Street viaCamp Hill. These two lines had been formed by the merger of thestandard gaugeBirmingham and Gloucester Railway and thebroad gaugeBristol and Gloucester Railway.[citation needed]
They met atGloucester via a short loop of theCheltenham and Great Western Union Railway. The change of gauge at Gloucester meant that everything had to be transferred between trains, creating chaos, and the C&GWU was owned by theGreat Western Railway, which wished to extend its network by taking over the Bristol to Birmingham route. While the two parties were bickering over the price, the MR's John Ellis overheard two directors of theBirmingham and Bristol Railway on a London train discussing the business, and pledged that the MR would match anything the Great Western would offer.[11][page needed]
Since it would have brought broad gauge into Curzon Street with the possibility of extending it to the Mersey, it was something that the other standard gauge lines wished to avoid, and they pledged to assist the MR with any losses it might incur.[11][page needed] In the event all that was necessary was for the laterLNWR to shareBirmingham New Street with the Midland when it was opened in 1854, andLawley Street became a goods depot.[12]
The MR controlled all the traffic to the North East and Scotland from London. The LNWR was progressing slowly through the Lake District, and there was pressure for a direct line from London to York. Permission had been gained for theNorthern and Eastern Railway to run throughPeterborough andLincoln but it had barely reachedCambridge.
Two obvious extensions of the Midland Counties line were fromNottingham to Lincoln and fromLeicester to Peterborough. They had not been proceeded with, but Hudson saw that they would make ideal "stoppers": if the cities concerned were provided with a rail service, it would make it more difficult to justify another line. They were approved while the bill for the direct line was still before Parliament, forming the present dayLincoln Branch and theSyston to Peterborough Line.
TheLeeds and Bradford Railway had been approved in 1844. By 1850 it was losing money but a number of railways offered to buy it. Hudson made an offer more or less on his own account and the line gave the MR an exit to the north, which became the start of the Settle and Carlisle line, and it gave the MR a much more convenient station atLeeds Wellington.[citation needed]
In spite of the objections of Hudson, for the MR and others, the "London and York Railway" (later theGreat Northern Railway) led byEdmund Denison persisted, and the bill passed through Parliament in 1846.[13]
In 1851 theAmbergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway completed its line fromGrantham as far asColwick, from where a branch led to the MR Nottingham station. TheGreat Northern Railway by then passed through Grantham and both railway companies paid court to the fledgling line. Meanwhile, Nottingham had woken up to its branch line status and was keen to expand. The MR made a takeover offer only to discover that a shareholder of theGN had already gathered a quantity of Ambergate shares. An attempt to amalgamate the line with theGN was foiled by Ellis, who managed to obtain anOrder in Chancery preventing the GN from running into Nottingham. However, in 1851 it opened a new service to the north that included Nottingham.[14][page needed]
In 1852 anANB&EJR train arrived in Nottingham with aGN locomotive at its head. When it uncoupled and went to run round the train, it found its way blocked by a MR engine while another blocked its retreat.[15] The engine was shepherded to a nearby shed and the tracks were lifted. This episode became known as the "Battle of Nottingham" and, with the action moved to the courtroom, it was seven months before the locomotive was released.[citation needed]
TheLondon and Birmingham Railway and its successor theLondon and North Western Railway had been under pressure from two directions. Firstly the Great Western Railway had been foiled in its attempt to enter Birmingham by the Midland, but it still had designs on Manchester. At the same time the LNWR was under threat from the GN's attempts to enter Manchester by theManchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.[citation needed]
In 1850 the MR, though much more secure, was still a provincial line. Ellis realised that if it were to fend off its competitors it must expand outwards. The first step, in 1853, was to appointJames Allport as general manager, and the next was to shake off the dependence on the LNWR toLondon.
Although a bill for a line fromHitchin intoKing's Cross jointly with theGN, was passed in 1847 it had not been proceeded with.
The bill was resubmitted in 1853 with the support of the people of Bedford, whose branch to the LNWR was slow and unreliable, and with the knowledge of the Northamptonshire iron deposits.
TheLeicester and Hitchin Railway ran fromWigston toMarket Harborough, throughDesborough,Kettering,Wellingborough andBedford, then on theBedford to Hitchin Line, joining the GN atHitchin for King's Cross. The line began its life in a proposition presented for the shareholders by George Hudson on 2 May 1842 as: "To vest £600,000 in the South Midland Railway Company in their line from Wigston to Hitchin."[citation needed] a full decade before realisation. The delay was partly due to the withdrawal of GN's interest in the competing scheme, the Bedford and Leicester Railway, after Midland purchased the Leicester and Swannington Railway and the Ashby Canal and Tramway,[16] which were to have been the feeder lines. With the competition thwarted there was less rush to have this line as well as its branch lines to Huntingdon (from Kettering) and Northampton (from Bedford) finished. Both these branches were subsequently built by independent companies.
While this took some of the pressure off the route through Rugby, the GNR insisted that passengers for London alight at Hitchin, buying tickets in the short time available, to catch a GNR train to finish their journey.James Allport arranged a seven-year deal with theGN to run into King's Cross for a guaranteed £20,000 a year (equivalent to £2,410,000 in 2023),[17]. Through services to London were introduced in February 1858.[18] The construction of the Leicester and Hitchin railway cost £1,750,000[2] (equivalent to £222,460,000 in 2023).[17]
By 1860 the MR was in a much better position and was able to approach new ventures aggressively. Its carriage of coal and iron – and beer fromBurton-on-Trent – had increased by three times and passenger numbers were rising, as they were on the GN. Since GN trains took precedence on its own lines, MR passengers were becoming more and more delayed. Finally in 1862 the decision was taken for the MR to have its own terminus in the capital, as befitted a national railway.
| Midland Railway (Extension to London) Act 1863 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act for the Construction by the Midland Railway Company of a new Line of Railway between London and Bedford, with Branches therefrom; and for other Purposes. |
| Citation | 26 & 27 Vict. c. lxxiv |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 22 June 1863 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
On 22 June 1863, theMidland Railway (Extension to London) Act 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c. lxxiv) was passed: "An Act for the Construction by the Midland Railway Company of a new Line of Railway between London and Bedford, with Branches therefrom; and for other Purposes".[19]
The new line deviated at Bedford, through a gap in theChiltern Hills atLuton, reaching London by curving aroundHampstead Heath to a point between King's Cross and Euston. The line fromBedford toMoorgate opened for passenger services on 13 July 1868[20] with services intoSt Pancras station starting on 1 October 1868.[21]
St Pancras station is a strong example ofGothic Revival architecture, in the form of theMidland Grand Hotel byGilbert Scott, which facesEuston Road, and the wrought-iron train shed designed byWilliam Barlow. Its construction was not simple, since it had to approach through the ancientSt Pancras Old Church graveyard. Below was the Fleet Sewer, while a branch from the main line ran underground with a steep gradient beneath the station to join theMetropolitan Railway, which ran parallel to what is now Euston Road.[22]
The construction of the London Extension railway cost £9 million[2] (equivalent to £1,020 million in 2023).[17]
From the 1820s proposals for lines from London and the East Midlands had been proposed, and they had considered using theCromford and High Peak Railway to reach Manchester (See Derby station).[citation needed]
Finally the MR joined with theManchester and Birmingham Railway (M&BR), which was also looking for a route to London from Manchester, in a proposal for a line fromAmbergate. TheManchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. cxcii) received royal assent in 1846, in spite of opposition from theSheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway. It was completed as far asRowsley a few miles north ofMatlock in 1849. However the M&BR had become part of the LNWR in 1846, thus instead of being a partner it had an interest in thwarting the Midland.
In 1863 the MR reached Buxton, just as the LNWR arrived from the other direction by theStockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway. In 1867 the MR began an alternative line through Wirksworth (now theEcclesbourne Valley Railway), to avoid the problem of the Ambergate line. The section from Wirksworth to Rowsley, which would have involved some tricky engineering, was not completed because the MR gained control of the original line in 1871, but access to Manchester was still blocked at Buxton. At length an agreement was made with theManchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) to share lines from a branch atMillers Dale and running almost alongside the LNWR, in what became known as theSheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee.[citation needed]
Continuing friction with the LNWR caused the MR to join the MS&LR and the GN in theCheshire Lines Committee, which also gave scope for wider expansion into Lancashire and Cheshire, and finally a new station atManchester Central.[23]
In the meantime Sheffield had at last gained a main-line station. Following representations by the council in 1867 the MR promised to build a through line within two years. To the MR's surprise, the Sheffield councillors then backed an improbable speculation called the Sheffield, Chesterfield, Bakewell, Ashbourne, Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway. This was unsurprisingly rejected by Parliament and the Midland built its "New Road" into a station at Pond Street.[citation needed]
Among the last of the major lines built by the MR was a connection between Sheffield and Manchester, by a branch atDore toChinley, opened in 1894 through theTotley andCowburn Tunnels, now theHope Valley Line.
In the 1870s a dispute with theLondon and North Western Railway (LNWR) over access rights to the LNWR line to Scotland caused the MR to construct theSettle and Carlisle line,[24] the highest main line in England, to secure access to Scotland.
The dispute with the LNWR was settled before the Settle and Carlisle was built, butParliament refused to allow the MR to withdraw from the project. The MR was also under pressure from Scottish railway companies, which were eagerly awaiting the Midland traffic reaching Carlisle as it would allow them to challenge theCaledonian Railway's dominance on the West Coast traffic to Glasgow and Edinburgh. TheGlasgow and South Western Railway had its own route from Carlisle to Glasgow via Dumfries and Kilmarnock, whilst theNorth British Railway had built theWaverley Line through the Scottish Borders from Carlisle to Edinburgh. The MR was obliged to go ahead and the Settle to Carlisle opened in 1876.[24]
| Midland Railway (Additional Powers) Act 1878 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act for conferring additional powers on the Midland Railway Company for the construction of railways and other works, the acquisition of lands, and the raising of capital, and for vesting in them the undertaking of the Stonehouse and Nailsworth Railway Company; for conferring powers on the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies Committee for the acquisition of a private railway and additional lands; and for other purposes. |
| Citation | 41 & 42 Vict. c. xcvi |
TheNottingham direct line of the Midland Railway opened for goods traffic on 1 December 1879[25] and for passenger traffic on 1 March 1880.[26]
By the middle of the decade investment had been paid for; passenger travel was increasing, with new comfortable trains; and the mainstay of the line – goods, particularly minerals – was increasing dramatically.
Allport retired in 1880, to be succeeded by John Noble and then by George Turner. By the new century the quantity of goods, particularly coal, was clogging the network. The passenger service was acquiring a reputation for lateness. Lord Farrar reorganised the expresses, but by 1905 the whole system was so overloaded that no one was able to predict when many of the trains would reach their destinations. At this point SirGuy Granet took over as general manager. He introduced a centralised traffic control system, and the locomotive power classifications that became the model for those used by British Railways.[citation needed]
.jpg)
The MR acquired other lines, including theBelfast and Northern Counties Railway in 1903 and theLondon, Tilbury and Southend Railway in 1912. It had running rights on some lines, and it developed lines in partnership with other railways, being involved in more 'Joint' lines than any other. In partnership with the GN it owned theMidland and Great Northern Joint Railway to provide connections from the Midlands to East Anglia, the UK's biggest joint railway. The MR provided motive power for theSomerset & Dorset Joint Railway, and was a one-third partner in theCheshire Lines Committee.
In 1913, the company achieved a total revenue of £15,129,136 (equivalent to £1,880,400,000 in 2023)[17] with working expenses of £9,416,981[27] (equivalent to £1,170,440,000 in 2023).[17]
With the onset of theFirst World War in 1914, unified Government control of the Midland, and all the main line railways, was imposed through the medium of the Railway Executive Committee. The Midland retained its private sector independence, being given income to match 1913 levels, but was required to undertake huge volumes of military traffic, largely freight, with little opportunity to maintain the network and rolling stock.
At the end of the war, the railways were worn out and it was obvious that resumption of pre-war business was impossible. The Government passed theRailways Act 1921 by which all the main line railways were amalgamated into one or other of four new large concerns, in a process known as the "Grouping". The Midland Railway was a constituent of the newLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) from the beginning of 1923; it was the largest joint stock company in the world.[28][29]
The MR operated ships fromHeysham toDouglas andBelfast.[40]
.jpg)
The coat of arms combines the symbols of Birmingham, Derby, Bristol, Leicester, Lincoln and Leeds. Thewyvern, a legendary bipedal dragon, was used extensively as an emblem by the Midland, having inherited it from theLeicester and Swannington Railway. The MR, which used a wyvernsans legs (legless) above its crest, asserted that the "wyvern was the standard of the Kingdom of Mercia", and that it was "a quartering in the town arms of Leicester".[41] The symbol appeared on everything from station buildings and bridges down to china, cutlery and chamber pots in its hotels, and was worn as a silver badge by all uniformed employees. However, in 1897 theRailway Magazine noted that there appeared "to be no foundation that the wyvern was associated with the Kingdom of Mercia".[42] It has been associated withLeicester since the time ofThomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (c. 1278–1322), the most powerful lord in the Midlands, who used it as his personal crest, and was recorded in a heraldic visitation of the town in 1619.[43]
