North Staffordshire Railway.html



The North Staffordshire Railway coat of arms

The North Staffordshire Railway was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries. It survived as an independent company up to 1923 when it was 'grouped' with its two larger neighbours, the Midland Railway Company and the London & North Western Railway Company and others to become part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company.

Formation of the Company

The 'Staffordshire Potteries Railway' promoted a route from Macclesfield to the Grand Junction's mainline at Norton Bridge plus a spur to Crewe. At the same time the 'Churnet Valley Railway' promoted a line from Macclesfield to Derby with a branch to Stoke. 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".

The two companies decided to join forces to make a new approach to Parliament. Also incorporated in the scheme was the section of the Trent Valley Railway into the Potteries. To do this they promoted the 'North Staffordshire or Churnet, Potteries and Trent Junction Railway'(NSR). The NSR issued its prospectus on 30 April 1845 from offices at 1 Old Palace Yard, Westminster, London. There was to be a share capital of £2,350,000 in £20 shares (117,500 shares).

The prospectus outlined the NSR's plans for two main lines. The Pottery Line was promoted as 'giving the most ample accommodation to the towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton, Longton and Stone'. The Churnet Line was to run from Macclesfield though Leek, Cheadle and Uttoxeter to join the Midland Railway's line between Burton-upon-Trent and Derby.

As a way of eliminating opposition to the Company's Bills in Parliament, and to allow it to promote a line to Liverpool, the company made an agreement to take over the Trent & Mersey Canal Company (T&M). This was achieved by T&M shares being swapped for preference shares in the NSR. These Preference Shares paid a guaranteed annual dividend.

On November 25, 1845 the 'Derby and Crewe Railway' was absorbed into the NSR Scheme. This was a line that was being supported by the Grand Junction Railway Company. It was to eliminate the opposition of the Grand Junction that the NSR agreed absorb the Derby & Crewe. Part of the deal was that the proposed line from Harecastle to Liverpool was abandoned. All that survived of this plan was the short branch to Sandbach from Harecastle.

Trent & Mersey Canal

The Trent & Mersey was already a rail operator and had built a small plateway from Froghall Wharf at the head of the Caldon Canal up to Cauldon Quarries (the canal always used this different spelling!). Both the canal and the quarries are still in use, with the Caldon Canal joining the Trent & Mersey Canal at Etruria. The routes of the extensive tramways between the canal and the quarries can still be seen and, in some cases, explored.

On January 15th 1847, the whole canal including the Caldon Branch, Cauldon Quarries, and the plateway, became the property of the NSR under the terms of the Acts of Parliament of 1846.

History

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.

Cutting of the first sod at Etruria

Construction work went ahead under the supervision of the Consulting Engineer George Parker Bidder. By February 1847 there were 1,318 men and 60 horses working between Macclesfield and Colwich and they had removed 80,000 cubic yards (61,000 m³) 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 services 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 Smallthorne and 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 Potteries 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 Valley 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. Along with the Caledonian Railway, the amalgamation into the LMS was delayed from 1 January 1923 to July 1, 1923 due to certain legal requirements not being completed by the due date.

Running rights and other companies

In 1867, an independent local company built the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway, later incorporated into the Great Northern Railway which had built its GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension from Nottingham and Derby Friargate via Mickleover to Egginton Junction with running powers over the NSR from Etwall, through Uttoxeter, to Bromshall Junction. The GNR also operated the section to Horninglow and Burton jointly with the NSR.

A Joint Committee was formed with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to construct the Macclesfield, Bollington and 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 along the Ashbourne Line to Buxton 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.

NSR main lines and branch lines - opening dates

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 (48 km) from Stoke-on-Trent. Dates of authorisation and opening are given in the following table.

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 (3.2 km) 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. Parliamentary authorisation for the line was granted retrospectively by Mr Sneyd's Railway Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict c. lxxi.)

See also

• Locomotives of the North Staffordshire Railway

External links

• 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
• Historic photographs of the NSR from Stoke-on-Trent Museums Service