The Campden Tunnel, two miles south of Mickleton, has been called the site of the ‘last pitched battle between two private armies on UK soil’. The ‘battle’ was between rival railway contractors and demonstrated both the fierce, belligerent loyalty of the navvies and their taste for fighting. Navies played a vital, if not critical role in the development of Britain’s roads, canals and railways. Navvies were […]
history of British railways
The proponents of High Speed 2, the planned railway connecting London with Birmingham and the north, face considerable public opposition. This is nothing compared to the nineteenth century when angry aristocrats tried everything to put the breaks on developments on or near their estates. From their first beginnings, railways have divided the public and attracted formidable opposition. The Earl of Darlington opposed the initial plans for […]
Noblesse oblige
If you travel to south Wales by train roughly ten miles north of Bristol you will plunge into darkness and enter the Severn Tunnel. Seven kilometres later, you will emerge into the light and over the border into Wales. The tunnel was built by the Great Western Railway between 1873 and 1886 and was, for many years, the UK’s longest mainline railway tunnel. I had never […]
British Railways at war
York, Swindon, Crewe, Derby, Peterborough, Wolverton and Eastleigh are very different places, cities and towns spread across Britain. From ancient cathedral cities to metropolises that barely existed two centuries ago, they all share one thing; they are amongst Britain’s railway towns. Railway towns owed their economic success and booming populations to the arrival and patronage of the railways. To be a true railway town, it wasn’t enough […]