North Staffordshire Railway
The
North Staffordshire Railway was a
British railway company which had its roots in an early scheme to build a small
plateway from the base of the
Cauldon Canal up to Cauldon Quarries. Both of the two aforementioned things are still in use, with the Cauldon Canal joining up with the
Trent and Mersey Canal at
Etruria.
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The North Staffordshire Railway coat of arms |
As well as the canals, other schemes were being promoted. The
Staffordshire Potteries Railway promoted a route from
Macclesfield to the mainline at Colwich plus a spur to
Crewe and The
Churnet valley scheme promoted a line from
Macclesfield to
Derby. After these two companies applied for the necessary powers to build the lines, Parliament suggested a pause of a year 'to afford time for consideration and for maturing some more complete scheme for the accommodation of that important district'.
This was advantageous to the SPR who formed the North
Staffordshire Railway company.
The North Staffordshire Railway Company was incorporated in April 1845 with a share capital of £2,350,000 in £20 shares (117,500 shares) and issued its first prospectus on
April 30,
1845 from offices at 1 Old Palace Yard,
Westminster,
London.
The SPR was absorbed into the new company so as to avoid 'powerful opposition or ruinous competition if both lines had been passed'. The prospectus promoted the NSR's three main lines 'giving the most ample accommodation to the towns of
Tunstall,
Burslem,
Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Hanley,
Stoke,
Fenton,
Longton and
Stone'.
Owing to the obvious competition that the railway would provide for the
Trent and Mersey Canal, the NSR and the T&M came into agreement that the NSR should pay £30 a share for all the T&M shares, and from the
January 15,
1846, the whole canal including the Cauldon branch, Cauldon Quarries, and the plateway, was leased to the NSR.
On
November 25,
1845 the
Derby and
Crewe Railway was absorbed giving the NSR the basis on which to submit plans for construction. On
June 26,
1846, the three NSR acts were passed with the total of £2,900,000 in share capital being shared amongst the three lines as shown, with seven years allowed for the completion of each line:
*
Pottery Line Act (
Macclesfield to
Colwich and
Norton Bridge, and
Harecastle to
Crewe) £1,500,000 of capital.
*
Harecastle and Sandbach Act (from
Harecastle to
Sandbach) £200,000 of capital.
*
Churnet Valley Line Act (from North Rode to
Burton,
Tutbury to Willington Junction near
Derby and
Uttoxeter to
Stoke) £1,200,000 of capital.
To start the construction work, there was an official 'cutting of the first sod' ceremony. The site chosen for the ceremony was a field in
Etruria. There was a roped - off enclosure for directors and the remainder of the field was reserved for invited guests. There was a mile long procession headed by John Lewis Ricardo, Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent and chairman of the NSR Company. On his arrival, the crowds broke through the roped off area and Ricardo was pushed and shoved. During the actual cutting he buckled the silver spade and had difficulty removing the sod. Finally, his hat blew away.
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Cutting of the first sod at Etruria |
By February 1847 there were 1,318 men and 60 horses working between
Macclesfield and Colwich and they had removed 80,000 cubic yards of earth, driven 843 yards of tunnel heading and erected 12,000 yards of fencing.
Work continued apace and by
April 3,
1848 the first goods trains were run. Passenger service started on
April 17,
1848 and the first passenger train left the temporary station at Wheildon Road, Stoke hauled by locomotive No. 1 'Dragon' heading for Norton Bridge. Profits for the first two months were £1,668 'exceeding expectations'.
From this point onwards the remaining lines under the original Acts were opened in stages and many other lines were constructed up to 1911.
In common with most other British railway companies, the NSR early decided that it was advantageous to carry out its own maintenance work in all departments and also to undertake much of its own new construction work. To this end, in 1864 the
Stoke railway works were opened producing everything for the NSR from
locomotives to
carriages,
wagons and such items as prefabricated steel sections for
bridges.
A few months after the opening of the first line, the imposing permanent station in Winton Square, Stoke was opened on
October 9,
1848.
Stoke station then became the headquarters of the NSR.
Later branches included lines from Stoke-on-Trent to
Congleton via
Biddulph; Stoke-on-Trent to
Leek; Newcastle to
Silverdale,
Keele and
Market Drayton (junction with the
Great Western Railway);
Alsager to
Audley, Leycett and Keele, and
Rocester to
Ashbourne.
The famous Loop Line from
Etruria via Hanley, Cobridge, Burslem, Tunstall, Pitts Hill, Newchapel and Goldenhill to
Kidsgrove Liverpool Rd. and a junction with the Manchester line was the last of the NSR's major undertakings.
Twentieth century construction included a branch from Leek to Cauldon Lowe via Waterhouses from where the independent narrow gauge
Leek and Manifold Light Railway was constructed through the Hamps and Manifold river valleys to Hulme End near
Hartington.
Finally in 1910, a very short line was built from Stoke-on-Trent to Trentham Park. It was authorised as part of an alternative line to Newcastle-under-Lyme but construction work beyond Trentham was quickly abandoned owing to rising costs.
The Company prospered throughout its seventy-five years of independent ownership and operation, paid its shareholders good dividends (latterly a notable 5%), and successfully resisted repeated take-over bids by the London and North Western Railway Company.
Under the
Railways Act 1921, the NSR was one of the eight major companies designated to form the LMS Group.
The NSR was absorbed into the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway on
July 1,
1923.
In 1867, an independent local company built the
Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway, later incorporated into the
Great Northern Railway which had built a line from
Nottingham and
Derby Friargate via
Mickleover to
Egginton Junction with running powers over the NSR from Etwall, through
Uttoxeter, to Bromshall junction.
A Joint Committee was formed with the
Great Central Railway to construct the
Macclesfield, Bollington & Marple Railway which was authorised on
July 14,
1864, opening for passengers August 2, 1869. This gave the NSR access to an alternative routes to East Coast ports for its freight traffic and for passenger trains to Manchester London road (circuitous route) and to the fashionable spa resort of
Buxton.
The
Cheadle Railway, a small local company with NSR's (very reluctant) backing, built at great cost over a period of twelve years a short line from
Cresswell to
Cheadle. This line, only four miles long, included a very difficult tunnel. The line was opened from Cresswell to Totmonslow November 7, 1892 and to Cheadle, January 1, 1901. In 1933, the Cheadle tunnel experienced a catastrophic collapse resulting in the LMS constructing a deviation without a tunnel.
From the start, a significant proportion of NSR route mileage lay in the neighbouring counties of
Cheshire and
Derbyshire and, with through running rights, NSR. passenger trains ran to
Manchester,
Stafford,
Crewe and Derby and later to
Buxton,
Nottingham and
Llandudno.
The
London and North Western Railway also exercised running rights over the NSR, particularly for its express services between London and Manchester. These Manchester to London Euston restaurant car expresses were unique in often being hauled by NSR tank engines from Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent where the LNWR express engines took over for the run via Stone, Sandon, Colwich, and the main line to London Euston. The NSR. received a payment for every through passenger on these trains and employed a small army of ticket inspectors to examine and clip (with its distinctive 'P' clip) every ticket during the Stoke-on-Trent station stop.
Other through running powers included LNWR rights between
Ashbourne and Burton which were used by through coaches from Buxton to Euston and
Great Western Railway rights between Market Drayton and Stoke-on-Trent which were used by a single daily goods train in each direction. The NSR possessed running powers over the GWR line from Market Drayton to
Hodnet, which it used on market days.
see also:
Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway.
One North Staffordshire Railway director described the network as being like "an octopus, stretching out into far away districts"; but not one NSR station was more than 30 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. Dates of authorisation and opening are given in the following table.
| Section of Line | Date ConstructionAuthorised | Passenger Service Started | GoodsService Started | | Stoke-on-Trent - Norton Bridge | 26 June 1846 | 17 Apr 1848 | 3 Apr 1848 |
| Stoke-on-Trent - Uttoxeter | 26 June 1846 | 7 Aug 1848 | 7 Aug 1848 |
| Uttoxeter - Burton-on-Trent | 26 June 1846 | 11 Sept 1848 | 11 Sept 1848 |
| Stoke-on-Trent - Crewe and Congleton | 26 June 1846 | 9 Oct 1848 | 9 Oct 1848 |
| Stone - Colwich | 26 June 1846 | 1 May 1849 | 1 May 1849 |
| Congleton - Macclesfield | 26 June 1846 | 18 June 1849 | 18 June 1849 |
| Churnet Valley Line | 26 June 1846 | 13 July 1849 | 13 July 1849 |
| Tutbury - Derby | 26 June 1846 | 13 July 1849 | 13 July 1849 |
| Harecastle - Sandbach | 26 June 1846 | 3 July 1893 | 21 Jan 1852 |
| Stoke-on-Trent - Newcastle-under-Lyme | 26 June 1846 | 6 Sept 1852 | 6 Sept 1852 |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme - Knutton | 2 July 1847 | May 1863 | 6 Sept 1852 |
| Knutton - Silverdale | 13 Aug 1859 | May 1863 | see footnote |
| Silverdale - Market Drayton | 29 July 1864 | 1 Feb 1870 | 1 Feb 1870 |
| Etruria - Shelton | 2 July 1847 | January 1862 | ? |
| Shelton - Hanley | 13 Aug 1859 | 13 July 1864 | 20 Dec 1861 |
| Hanley - Burslem | 5 July 1865 | 1 Nov 1873 | 1 Nov 1873 |
| Burslem - Tunstall | 5 July 1865 | 1 Dec 1873 | 1 Dec 1873 |
| Tunstall - Goldenhill | 5 July 1865 | 1 Oct 1874 | 1 Oct 1874 |
| Goldenhill - Kidsgrove | 5 July 1865 | 15 Nov 1875 | 15 Nov 1875 |
| Rocester - Ashbourne | 22 July 1848 | 31 May 1852 | 31 May 1852 |
| Biddulph Valley Line | 24 July 1854 | 1 June 1864 | 28 Aug 1860 |
| Milton - Leekbrook | 13 July 1863 | 1 Nov 1867 | 1 Nov 1867 |
| Audley Line | 29 July 1864 | 28 June 1880 | 24 July 1870 |
| Cresswell â€" Tean (Cheadle Railway) | 7 Aug 1888 | 7 Nov 1892 | 7 Nov 1892 |
| Tean â€" Cheadle | 7 Aug 1888 | 1 Jan 1901 | 1 Jan 1901 |
| Waterhouses - Hulme End (L&MVLR) | 6 Mar 1899 | ? | ? |
| Leekbrook - Ipstones | 6 Mar 1899 | 5 June 1905 | 5 June 1905 |
| Ipstones - Waterhouses | 6 Mar 1899 | 1 July 1905 | 1 July 1905 |
| Trentham Park Branch | 21 Aug 1907 | 1 June 1864 | 1 Apr 1910 |
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Note: Goods traffic between Knutton and Silverdale started in 1850, even though it was not authorised until nine years later. Ralph Sneyd owned collieries and ironworks in the Silverdale area. In 1849 he began construction of his own private goods line which was about 2 miles long - this was not authorised by parliament. When the NSR came to build its lines in this area they took a 999 year lease of Mr Sneyd's private line and incorporated it into the North Staffordshire Railway network.
*
North Staffordshire Railway*
The North Staffordshire Railway Study Group*
North Staffordshire Railway Passenger Services 1910-1999*
Churnet Valley Railway*
Rudyard Lake Steam Railway*
North Staffordshire Railway Photographs
