The History Group

Leader:  Ronald (Yogi) Godwin - history@ashbyu3a.co.uk - phone 01530 467840

Yogi is ably assisted by Jane Barnett, Barbara Ball, Colin Ellis, Jane Harris and Isobel Salt

All Ashby u3a members are welcome at our meetings.

All meetings with speakers will be held at Packington Memorial Hall on the 4th Thursday of the month.
Doors open for Packington meetings at 2.15pm. Admission £2

Due, in part, to the cancellation of the trip to Leeds, the History programme has been revised as shown below.

Thursday 27th August.

Colin Ellis and ‘The Stockton and Darlington Railway – What it was and what it wasn’t’

Colin told us of the many supposed facts about the S&D Railway each followed with a panto call of ‘Oh no it wasn’t’. One true fact is that it opened for traffic on 27th Sept 1825 and it’s bicentenary was celebrated last year.

Firstly, Colin gave his definition of a railway as being a fixed trackway for guiding wheeled vehicles across the ground from one place to another.

S&DR wasn’t the first railway in the world, not by a long way. There was reportedly a stone trackway in Greece for moving ships across the Corinth Isthmus as early as 600 BC.

In Bohemia in the 14thC there were wooden trackways for moving wagons carrying minerals. An iron pin on the wagons that engaged in the track guided the wagons.

The first public railway was Lake Lock Rail Road opened in 1796 to carry coal and passengers using horse drawn carriages.

The first industrial steam railway was in 1804. Richard Trevithick steam locomotive ran on a tramway at Penydarren Ironworks in Wales.

It is generally accepted that the Stockton and Darlington Railway was ‘The first modern steam public railway’. However passenger coaches were hauled by horse until 1833.

It was built in 3½ years with the first piece of track laid on 23rd May 1822. It was 25 miles long on opening. George Stephenson was the engineer in charge and his company also built the steam engines for it.

It connected collieries near Shildon with Darlington and Stockton, although the first part of the journey involved hauling wagons up an incline using ropes and a stationary engine, after which the steam locomotives pulled the wagons to Stockton. The line was later extended to new docks on Teesside, this area developed into what we now know as Middlesborough.

On the opening day, Sept 27th, 12 wagons of coal were drawn up the Brusselton Bank where a steam locomotive, a coach called Experiment and 21 other coal wagons fitted with seats were waiting. 300 tickets had been sold for the first trip but it is believed as many as 700 people climbed on board the wagons! The locomotive is now known as ‘Locomotion No1’ but it was first named ‘Active’ and only renamed when it was withdrawn from service and restored in 1857.

The line was slow to make a profit but soon became very successful and was the model for many of the railways that followed. The S&DR eventually became part of the North Eastern Railway in 1863 which later became the LNER.

Colin also gave us a very interesting story of the evolution of coal trains, peaking in 1913 when they carried approx 290 million tons per year, and their subsequent disappearance with the closure of coal-fired UK power stations in 2024. A fascinating history of the 19th century railway expansion and its transformation of Britain’s industry.

Yogi also reminded us of a few events which happened on or around Aug 27th amongst which were:
• 1346 The battle of Crecy. An overwhelming victory for the English over the French.
• 1682 Edmund Halley’s eponymous comet was first observed by him.
• 1875 Capt. James Webb first swam across the English Channel.
• 1883 The eruption of Krakatoa. The loudest recorded sound. Approx 315 decibels.
• 1886 The Anglo-Zanzibar war. The shortest war on record lasted just 38 minutes. Britain won.
• 1959 The debut of the BMC Mini designed by Alex Issigonis. 5.4m cars were produced in total.

Earlier history meeting