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Stations, Junctions, etc
Engine Sheds
Other
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Edge Hill Light Railway
A Short History of the Edge Hill Light Railway
The Edge Hill Light Railway was formed to exploit the large
ironstone reserves which lay just under the surface on the Northamptonshire /
Oxfordshire border at a time when the enormous demands of Word War 1 were
really making themselves felt. Initially promoted as the Edge Hill District
Minerals Light Railways, the driving force behind the proposal seems to have
been the proprietors of the Stratford on Avon and Midland Junction Railway who
saw it as a means of increasing traffic on their railway. These proprietors
were well connected City operators who specialised in increasing the value of
railways before selling them on.
The initial directors of the light railway were also the
directors of two related Black Country iron companies, T & I Bradley Ltd.
of Bilston and T & I Bradley & Son of Darlaston. Harry Willmott, the
SMJR Chairman, later became chairman and Arthur E Diggings of the SMJR was its
secretary and subsequent traffic manager. The promoters acquired mineral rights
to over 600 acres around Edge Hill. Unusually, instead of going for a simple
mineral railway they opted for a public light railway and appointed Holman F
Stephens, recently released from his army commitments, as engineer. This use of
light railway powers for an essentially mineral railway has echoes of the still
far from completed East Kent Light for which Stephens had been responsible
since 1910. Stephens had previously been briefly connected with the Willmotts
and Herbert on the Isle of Wight Central before being ousted as engineer by
Willmott's son Russell, a portent of things to come.
Stephens's office in Tonbridge proceeded to draw up plans
and initially it seemed that he wished to tackle the principal problem of
building the railway, that of surmounting the 300 foot high scarp, by starting
at Fenny Compton and proceeding diagonally up the slope to lessen the
gradients, a proceeding planned for several of his projects notably the
Headcorn – Maidstone line. However this was soon scotched on the grounds
of cost, and probably more importantly that the railway could connect directly
not only with the SMJ but also the main GWR line. With hindsight this decision
was the Achilles heal of the enterprise for it increased operating costs by
imposing an incline that was to prove a literally disastrous engineering
error.
The resulting proposal was a most unlikely railway for
Stephens; 11¼ miles of railway, including a triangular junction with the
SMJR at Burton Dassett and after two miles a rope-worked incline followed by
three branches serving different parts of the ore field. These branches
stretched well south into the ironstone field into an area later successfully
exploited by a more conventional mineral line, the Oxfordshire Ironstone
Quarries at Wroxton, stretching westward from the GWR near Banbury and promoted
at the same time but built quickly in 1917/18.
In August 1917 an application for a Light Railway Order was
submitted. Stephens gave evidence at a public enquiry by the Light Railway
Commissioners, held at Banbury town hall on 8 and 16 November 1917. In view of
objections from landowners and the local authorities, the proposals were scaled
down to a total of 5 ½ miles, and it was agreed to construct bridges
instead of a number of level crossings, again very unlike Stephens but not
unprofitable as the excavations were through exploitable ironstone.
The SMJR would have running powers from Burton Dassett to
the foot of a cable-worked incline (just over two miles) and passengers might
be carried over this portion. A high-level line from the summit of the incline
to the quarries would be for mineral traffic only. The maximum permitted speed
was 12mph on both parts of the line. The Light Railway Order was finally
approved on 17 July 1918.
Once the Light Railway Order had been obtained and probably
early in 1919, Colonel Stephens seems to have stood down as engineer in favour
of Russell Willmott and apparently ceased all connections. Perhaps the
promoters were merely using his skills with the procedures of obtaining an LRO
rather than wishing to take advantage of his management expertise, although
many see his influence in the acquisition of the two Terrier engines (which
arrived in 1919 and 1920) and the only other mainline rolling stock, two ex GER
ex Army brake vans.
The two Brighton 'Terriers' were purchased from the
LB&SCR to work the low-level line, No 1 (an A1X, No 673, formerly named
Deptford), in April 1919, and No 2 (an un-rebuilt Al class, No 674, formerly
named Shadwell) in July 1920. The Edge Hill had no engine shed, though
strangely there was a turntable at the junction, and the engines were serviced
and largely kept at the SMJR's Stratford-upon-Avon locomotive shed, under a
'gentlemen's agreement', facilitated by the two companies' shared chief
officers. As a quid pro quo, the SMJR is said to have used one of the
'Terriers' for its Stratford to Broom Junction trains at times when it was
short of locomotives.
Construction of the Edge Hill Light Railway (which had by
now become a subsidiary of the Banbury Ironstone Co. Ltd.) began sometime in
1919, with the expectation that that it would be feeding traffic to the SMJR by
the end of the year. However construction work was very slow and may have been
suspended for a while. This was no doubt because the railway had been started
at the time of a post war industrial boom which ended in 1920 resulting in poor
economic prospects for a line dependent on iron ore. Further the SMJ, still
government controlled, was soon to be nationalised or grouped and the
proprietors could now see their investment being compulsorily matured somewhat
sooner than expected.
Russell Willmot died prematurely from cancer at his home at
Newport, Isle of Wight in June 1920. He was replaced by another engineer on a
consulting basis, 74 year old Edgar Ferguson. He had more or less retired from
largely mainline line railway appointments, but also had experience of
engineering light railways, including the Derwent Valley Light. It is unclear
however how much of the physical engineering of the railway was down to him
except perhaps the incline mechanisms and the limited upper line works.
During construction some limited traffic had developed when
the incline was finished in summer 1922, as the ground through which
construction was taking place at the top of the ridge was usable ironstone
under a light overburden. This traffic was assessed in later years by a former
engine driver, Mr H Green, to have been about 180 tons, or three 60 ton trains,
a day. A siding agreement for the junction had been concluded with the SMJ on
1st March and ore was dispatched to Midlands and Staffordshire ironmasters.
The 'self acting' or gravity worked incline was still only
partially completed but plant could now reach the top and a small Manning
Wardle 0-4-0ST (1088/1888), named Sankey from its original employment on the
building of the Manchester Ship Canal, was obtained from Topham Jones and Co
(who had built the Oxfordshire Ironstone line) in June 1922. The railway
started from a small yard (that had previously been used for other ironstone
workings) adjacent to the SMJ's Burton Dassett platform (a station that was
never recorded in public timetables) , on the Banbury to Warwick Road ( the
B4100 ) It then proceeded on slight gradients for some 2½ miles to a fan
of sorting sidings at the foot of the 1 in 6 cable worked incline. At the top
of the incline the line extended some yards to finish at an uncompleted cutting
near the road to Ratley village; near the incline top there was a back shunt
and a few yards of track towards Nadbury.
These small beginnings soon came to an abrupt halt. On
Tuesday 10 October 1922 a directors' inspection took place in connection with
the incline mechanisms. John Brenchley, an old Stephens' construction hand from
the EKR, was the ganger in charge of running a rake of wagons and this was set
going. However the rake ran away and ploughed into the sand drag at the bottom
(not into a Terrier as sometimes reported) and the wagons on the
counterbalancing rake came hurtling over the top hitting Edgar Ferguson a
glancing, but soon fatal, blow.
Twenty years later driver Green testified that the incline
was not repaired and that traffic ceased. Some small scale activity seems to
have taken place later as the Burton Dassett yard foreman's book records a load
of ore on 27th January 1925, but in effect commercial traffic ceased in 1922. A
solitary caretaker was employed from 1922 till around 1937, but undertook no
maintenance and simply kept an eye on matters. At some stage standard gauge
stock was assembled in the siding fans at the top and bottom of the incline.
Photographic evidence seems to show little change except encroaching vegetation
and rot although a few construction tipper wagons seem to have disappeared at
an early date and Brake Van No 1 was moved by persons unknown and ran away
towards the junction, coming to a halt after about a mile. Tonks records that
the Terriers were considered for purchase by the Southern Railway in 1938, but
although they were assessed as 'reasonable' later in 1942, they were rejected
due to their condition.
Resurrection of the line was considered early in WW2 but,
probably rightly, the Oxfordshire Ironstone line was considered adequate to
serve the area. Then came the coup de gras; the lower part of the line was
requisitioned in autumn for the construction of a vast ordnance depot, now
called Long Marston (As Martin Vinson has pointed out, this is an error as
the MOD site was in fact Kineton). From 2 furlongs to 1mile 7.8 furlongs
the line was taken over and the track and earthworks removed by June 1942 and
the rail was reused in the depots .The errant brake van had disappeared into
army stock many months before; something the army never admitted, though they
later admit to removing some track that they had not requisitioned and did not
pay for. There is evidence that they issued a requisition in error for the
whole line and stock but this was withdrawn on 4th March 1943. This may have
saved the locomotives from early salvage for by then they were hopelessly
isolated and the main line connection gone. In 1941 the Ministry of Supply
salvage drive was at its height and had they not been thought army property
they might have been scrapped then, but by 1943 the USA had joined the war and
war equipment was pouring in, lessening the demand for scrap metal.
As part of the process of acquiring the line a full survey
was conducted in December 1941. It describes a largely completed railway in its
bottom section, though vegetation was getting out of hand and 50% of the
sleepers needed replacement; but at the top it was a construction site complete
with workmen's huts. The condition of the Terriers at the lower level was
thought reasonable, but the hard worked constructors 'muck' wagons and Sankey
were scrap.
A set of photos was taken of the line in early 1942 and
although there are some changes since the report and rail removal had started
it is a useful record taken before most was swept away leaving only the more
familiar dumped locomotives and other stock. These were finally cleared away
with the renewed demand for scrap that swept the bankrupt nation after WW2 and
were all cut up by James Friswell and Son of Banbury over spring and summer
1946. However enough equipment and rail remained to justify its purchase by
James Simms (Leamington) Ltd for £1,250 in February 1958 which they had
removed in April-September 1957.
The company story did not quite end with WW2. The owners,
claiming they wished to take advantage of the boom in UK ironstone production
during the 1950s, sought compensation from the MoD to reinstate the bottom end
of the line via a deviation. This was probably simply a device to obtain
greater compensation and no detailed plans seem to have been submitted. The
Lands Tribunal gave the claim short shrift. The Company was finally wound up in
November 1957.
The Edge Hill had been a dead duck of a railway from
inception but its brief association with Stephens, its almost unique light
railway status and the apparently inexplicable retention of derelict ex
main-line engines through 25 years of disuse proved an irresistible draw for
railway enthusiasts and its legend lives on.
Select an image below to view the larger version with
accompanying text:
Robert Ferris transcribed the following article
The Railway Magazine’ No 406, Vol LXVIII, April
1931
by GJ Aston, JR Hollick and DS Barrie.
Of the many unfinished chapters of British railway history,
few are more fascinating than that of the Edge Hill Light Railway – a line
the construction of which was suspended with such apparent haste that after a
lapse of several years the mechanical excavator employed is still to be found
with its grab half-raised to load a bucketful of earth! On this line the
locomotives and wagons still stand on the tracks in the positions in which they
were left, apparently, when the construction work ceased, and there are many
other evidences of dereliction which seem strangely incongruous in the heart of
England.
The story of the Edge Hill Light Railway is in fact one of
the most remarkable that has ever attended railway development. The line, which
was promoted in association with the Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction
Railway (now amalgamated in the LMS) had its origin in the opening-up of the
rich ironstone deposits which have been known for many centuries to exist in
this part of the South Midlands, and which are still tapped by light railways
in the vicinity of Banbury and elsewhere. Wartime requirements intensified the
demand for British ironstone, and the EHLR was promoted to tap these deposits
which exist in the immediate vicinity of Edge Hill.
In 1919 confirmation was given of a Light Railway Order for
a line 5 miles 58 chains in length, from a junction with the SMJ ay Burton
Dassett sidings to Nadbury Camp and Sunrising on the top of Edge Hill and it
was stated that ‘great developments’ were anticipated from the
opening-up of the ironstone field. The fact that the line was not opened until
after the cessation of hostilities, when the changed economic conditions
occasioned a gradually lessening demand for British ore, may however have had a
considerable effect in bringing about the fate which ultimately overtook the
railway. The chairman of the company in 1922 was Mr Harry Willmott, chairman of
the SMJR and the chief officers of the Edge Hill Light Railway were also those
of the SMJ. Rather less than four miles of the line were actually laid for
traffic or commenced, but quarries on Edge Hill were worked until January 27,
1925, when the last load was brought down the EHLR to Burton Dassett. Since
that date the line has been disused.
The Edge Hill Light Railway, which is of standard gauge
throughout, starts from a junction with the SMJ (LMS) at Burton Dassett sidings
approximately half-way between Fenny Compton and Kineton stations on the
Stratford – Blisworth line, and adjacent to the main road between Banbury
and Warwick. The LMS company still maintains a goods depot here, and there is
also a platform which was constructed for the use of the workers at Edge Hill
quarries, but which was never brought into service. The shelter on this
platform now serves as an office for the goods depot foreman. The light railway
branch leads out of a siding on the south side of the SMJ line and quickly
curves away to the south-west. It is protected by a signal of SMJ pattern,
while 100 yards up the line there is a runaway siding. The limit of LMS
maintenance is marked by a plate on the sleepers not far from the point of
junction.
Single throughout, the branch runs over slightly rising
ground for two-and-a-quarter miles to the foot of Edge Hill, where a series of
sidings are provided. The face of the hill is ascended by a cable-worked
incline of about half–a-mile in length and set on a gradient of about 1 in
9. The first 250 yards of this incline is single track followed by a double
track loop, which in turn merges into a three-rail formation in which the
centre rail is common to trains in both directions. Working on the incline was
controlled by a small foreman's cabin located at the top. From the summit the
line runs over level ground for some three-quarters of a mile, with several
intermediate sidings, to a point at which it ends abruptly in a cutting, where
the steam excavator employed still stands as it was left. A further
quarter-mile beyond is a partly completed brick arch bridge through which the
railway was to run on its continuation to Ratley Road, but the bridge has never
been properly cleared out beneath, although the presence of a few rails leaves
no doubt as to the builders’ intention.
The greater part of the permanent way on the EHLR is flat
bottomed, spiked directly to the sleepers, a method much favoured in light and
industrial railway construction. Much of the permanent way appears to have been
bought second-hand, while in the vicinity of the junction and in the sidings,
chairs and bull-headed rails are used, the chairs being largely of Hull &
Barnsley origin, with a number from the SMJ. As regards locomotives and rolling
stock, the line between Burton Dassett Junction and the foot of the incline at
Edge Hill was worked by two ex-LBSCR 0-6-0T engines of the famous Stroudley
‘Terrier’ type, many of which are still to be found on various light
railways throughout the country. These engines were originally LBSCR Nos. 673
and 674, and although renumbered and lettered EHLR Nos. 1 and 2, the original
‘Brighton’ painting and lettering still shows through, while No 2
still retains its Brighton works plate (1882). Both these engines stand
derelict in a siding, partially covered with tarpaulins and in quite good
repair considering that they have been for five years exposed to wind and
weather.
Traffic beyond the top of the hill was worked by a
Manning-Wardle 0-4-0T which is also standing derelict. A stationary engine
operated the cable-worked incline. Two brake-vans, numbered EHLR 1 and 2,
together with a number of four-wheeled open wagons of standard type, are also
in evidence. Although the locomotives and rolling-stock are still in good
condition considering the ordeal to which they have been exposed, time and
weather have played sad havoc with the permanent way, which in several places
is almost buried under falls of earth and subsidence of the cutting walls.
Generally, however the line does not give the impression of having been left
derelict for nearly five years, and no doubt it could easily be reopened should
such a fortunate eventuality be made possible by future trade developments.
Barry Freeman GRA writes 'both locomotives stood
derelict at Kineton for 21 years, until 1946 when they were at last scrapped. I
remember, as a nine year old, seeing them there not long before they were
broken up'. To view Barry's painting of EHLR No 2 in a similar state to those
portrayed on this page see image 'bf2'.
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