The Railway comes to Tring on Wednesday 20th September

Ian Petticrew is a local historian and joint author, with Wendy Austin, of several books, including one on this subject. On Wednesday, 20th September, he will be giving a talk to the Tring Local History Society at the High Street Methodist Church, Tring.

Tring Station is at the summit of the London to Birmingham Railway (the world's first mainline route) and his talk will cover the engineers, selection of the route, the Act of Parliament, construction contracts, illustrations of the line under construction, stations, locomotives and early timetables.

Further information on the Railways of Hertfordshire

Information on the railways of Hertfordshire

1895 Map showing the railways of Hertfordshire

RAILWAYS

Railways played and important role in the expansion of many Hertfordshire towns form the late 19th into the 20tth century, and some years ago it was decided to have at least a page on this site for every main and branch line - and in some case for individual stations. As a result there is a RAILWAYS page with a menu which includes links to the above map and a long list of books but the original plan has not been completed.

In the current review of "unfinished work" it is noted that because of the large number of books on the subject, and the amount of online information about railways available, the Railway pages would  be used to link to information on the railways held on this site under other headings, and the original comprehensive plan would be put on hold - unless there was a volunteer interested in preparing the material.

However links to new sites - such as the Rail Map Online - will be added when I discover them.

Rail Map Online

Railway Towns Views by Picture PostCard Co. Ltd

St Albans

Photographers

Railways

This is one of the earliest post card, of the standard size introduced in 1899,showing St Albans Abbey. As soon as the new format was allowed the short lived Picture Postcard Co. Ltd, produced a number of cards, to be sold in railway stations, showing places on the route served by the railway. This view also appears on post cards produced by Photochrom but the relationship between the two companies is unclear.

The Picture Postcard Co. Ltd. produced earlier railway advertising cards but I have not been able to find out if any were of St Albans, or whether any of their cards featured other Hertfordshire towns.

What a silly place to build a row of posh semi-detached villas in about 1835?

Help Desk

Railways

At Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, there are a row of early 19th century semi-detached Georgian style villas in what was originally open countryside, although they are now surrounded by a 20th century housing estate. One might expect such a row in a town area - but not in such a rural situation. A row of modest cottages built by a farmer for his labourers might be expected but surely if anyone was building a house with perhaps a dozen rooms in open countryside it would be a detached house on its own plot.

Hemel Hempste

Jeff wanted to know why - and the answer is linked with the London to Birmingham Railway, that opened in 1837.

See the full report

The London to Birmingham Railway comes to Tring 1835-1846

by Ian Petticrew & Wendy Austin

Books

This online book, which has just been published, is the kind of well-written local history I have come to expect from Ian Petticrew and Wendy Austin. It is a very detailed account of the building of the London and Birmingham Railway from Euston to Tring, with an emphasis of the Tring area. In addition to making extensive use of the readily accessible sources it also reprints the text written in about 1890 by Arthur MacDonald Brown (1861-1951, son of the Tring estate agent William Brown) for a book on the history of Tring which was never published. As a result it contains some useful detail of the building of the Harcourt Arms (later the Royal Hotel) at Tring Station by the Brown family.

The Great Northern London Cemetery

The End of the Line by Martin C Dawes

I have posted a "draft" review page for this book and will add a contents list and review on request. This will allow me to include more books - only reviewing those that are of proven interest to visitors to this site. If you have a copy why not help others by sending me a review.

Herts Past and Present - Contents of Issue No 17

Herts Past & Present

Spring 2011

No 17

Contents

Brief Guide to Sources: Hearth Tax Returns

The grain crisis of the 1630s and malting in Hertfordshire

The Radcliffes in the Levant: An examination of the Delmé-Radcliffe Business Papers ( 1706-1767)

Admiral Henry Killigrew - Politics, Marriage and Family Life

Hertfordshire Rail Excursions in the Nineteenth Century

More Information

Protecting the Railways in the First World War

During the First World War John's great grandfather, Hebert Halsey, was involved in guarding the railway at Berkhamsted. He has provided a photograph of the 43rd Protection Company, possibly taken at Berkhamsted railway station.

43rd Protection Company at Berkhamsted

Most of these men probably came from the Berkhamsted area. Tell me if you can identify any of them. [Larger picture]

Information on Protection Companies elsewhere in Hertfordshire will also be of interest.

The London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) at Tring

 In 1923 the railway through Tring (actually in the parish of Aldbury) became part of the new London, Midland and Scottish Railway and in 1948 it became part of the nationalised British Rail. To record that fact I have added this parcel stamp to the Tring Railway Station page, and also added links to the relevant Wikipedia pages for the railway companies that ran the line through Tring.

If your ancestor worked on the railways, and you want to collect small items which remind you of his workplace this is the kind of ephemera (along with railway tickets) which sometimes survive.

Tring Railway Station and the Maori Wars

One of the railway workers at Tring Station. Aldbury in 1851, was Michael Meredith who later emigrated to New Zealand - and whose murder appears to have occurred at the start of one of the Maori wars.  Two years ago I answered a question from Carlene about his Hertfordshire family but failed to link the answer to the indexes, etc., on this web site. This fault has now been corrected.

In connection with this query it is interesting to revisit the pages on railway workers associated with Tring Railway Station and with the village of Aldbury  (see pages based on the 1851 and 1881 census) and the information they contain throws light on the role of the railways in moving their employees around the country.

The London-Birmingham Railway in 1862

Building the Railway Embankment at Boxmoor in 1837

I have updated the menu on the draft Railway page to provide a link to the previously hard to find page which contains pictures of construction work in 1837. I have also added a reproduction of the relevant Black's Guide description of the line in 1862.

An Accident on the Railway in 1841

The Reformer reports on a railway accident 
near Broxbourne in 1841.

Many workers got injured in building the railways and it is probably impossible to identify James Thompson/Green, assuming either was his real name.

Grissell & Peto were major building contractors - but do you know of any other work they did in Hertfordshire?

A celebration dinner, the very rich, carts and the railway

The Spring 2012  issue of Herts Past & Present contains four interesting articles. The abstracts and main heading are given here - and the purpose of this review (below the fold) is to explain how reading the articles can help give you ideas for doing local and family history research.

St Stephens Brickworks, Bricket Wood

T. Pearson
St Stephens Brickworks
nr St Albans

Some years ago I spent a lot of time researching the Brickmakers of St Albans so I was very surprised when Peter drew my attention to a picture of a railway wagon he had found on the web. The picture accompanied an advert by the St Albans Signal Box Preservation Trust which was selling '00' gauge models of wagons related to St Albans.

    I contacted the Trust and Keith supplied me with a better picture, which had come from a book, which said nothing about the location of the brickworks or the identity of T. Pearson. I checked the trade directories for the Victorian period for the whole of Hertfordshire and there was no sign of the brickworks in the listings. There was also no sign of a brickworks owner called Pearson in the Hertfordshire census returns. The hunt was on ... I had to find it ...