to Gloucester and the west of England; South Welsh system (through route from London via Wootton Bassett or via Bristol, and the Severn tunnel), Newport, Cardiff, Swansea, Milford. Steamship services to the Channel Islands from Weymouth to Waterford, Ireland from Milford, and to Rosslare, Ireland, from Fishguard, the route last named being opened in 1906. The line constructed jointly with the Great Central company (as detailed in the description above) was extended in 1910 from Ashendon to Aynho, to form a short route to the great centres north of Oxford.
London & South-Western (1839, incorporating the London & Southampton railway of 1835).—Terminus and offices, Waterloo. Main line—Woking, Basingstoke, Salisbury, Yeovil, Exeter, Plymouth; Woking, Guildford and Portsmouth; Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, &c. Extensive connexions in Surrey, Hampshire and the south-west, as far as North Cornwall. This company owns the great docks at Southampton, and maintains passenger services from that port to the Channel Islands, Havre, St Malo and Cherbourg.
(d) Southern.
London, Brighton & South Coast (1846).—Termini, Victoria and London Bridge. Serving all the coast stations from Hastings to Portsmouth, with various lines in eastern Surrey and in Sussex. Maintains a service of passenger steamers between Newhaven and Dieppe.
South Eastern & Chatham (under a managing committee, 1899, of the South-Eastern company, 1836, and the London, Chatham & Dover company, 1853).—Termini—Victoria, Charing Cross, Holborn Viaduct, Cannon Street. Offices, London Bridge Station. Various lines chiefly in Kent. Steamship services between Folkestone and Boulogne, Dover and Calais, &c.
2. Provincial Railways.
The two most important railway companies not possessing lines to London are the North-Eastern and the Lancashire & Yorkshire.
North Eastern (1854, amalgamating a number of systems).—Offices, York. Main line—Leeds, Normanton and York to Darlington, Durham, Newcastle and Berwick-on-Tweed. Connecting with the Great Northern between Doncaster and York, and with the North British at Berwick, it forms part of the “East Coast” route to Scotland. Serving all ports and coast stations from Hull to Berwick, also Carlisle, &c. Owning extensive docks at Hull, Middlesbrough, South Shields, the Hartlepools, Blyth, &c.
Lancashire & Yorkshire (1847, an amalgamation of a number of local systems).—Offices, Manchester. Main line—Manchester, Rochdale, Tormorden, Wakefield and Normanton, with branches to Halifax, Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield and other centres of the West Riding. Extensive system in south Lancashire, connecting Manchester with Preston and Fleetwood (where the docks and steamship services to Ireland are worked jointly with the London & Northwestern company), Southport, Liverpool, &c.
Among further provincial systems there should be mentioned:—
Cambrian.—Offices, Oswestry. Whitchurch, Oswestry, Welshpool to Barmouth and Pwllheli, Aberystwyth, &c.
Cheshire Lines, worked by a committee representative of the Great Central, Great Northern and Midland Companies, and affording important connexions between the lines of these systems and south Lancashire and Cheshire (Godley, Stockport, Warrington, Liverpool; Manchester and Liverpool; Manchester and Liverpool to Southport; Godley and Manchester to Northwich and Chester, &c.).
Furness.—Offices, Barrow-in-Furness. Carnforth, Barrow, Whitehaven, with branches to Coniston, Windermere (Lakeside), &c. Docks at Barrow.
North Staffordshire.—Offices, Stoke-upon-Trent. Crewe and the Potteries, Macclesfield, &c., to Uttoxeter and Derby.
Cross-Country Connexions.—While London is naturally the principal focal point of the English railway system, the development of through connexions between the chief lines by way of the metropolis is very small. Some through trains are provided between the North-Western and the London, Brighton & South Coast lines via Willesden Junction, Addison Road and Clapham Junction; and a through connexion by way of Ludgate Hill has been arranged between main line trains of the South-Western and the Great Northern railways, but otherwise passengers travelling through London have generally to make their own way from one terminus to another. Certain cross-country routes, however, are provided to connect the systems of some of the companies, among which the following may be noticed.
(1) Through connexions with the continental services from Harwich, and with Yarmouth and other towns of the East coast, are provided from Yorkshire, Lancashire, &c., by way of the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint line from Doncaster and Lincoln to March.
(2) Through connexions between the systems of the South-Eastern & Chatham and the Great Western companies are provided via Reading.
(3) Through connexions between the systems of the Great Central and the Great Western companies are provided by the line connecting Woodford and Banbury.
(4) Through connexions between the Midland and the South-Western systems are provided (a) by the Midland and South-Western Junction line connecting Cheltenham on the north-and-west line of the Midland with Andover Junction on the South-Western line; and (b) by the Somerset & Dorset line, connecting the same lines between Bath, Templecombe and Bournemouth.
(5) The line from Shrewsbury to Craven Arms and Hereford, giving connexion between the north and the south-west, and Wales, is worked by the North-Western and Great Western companies.
Inland Navigation.—The English system of inland navigation is confined principally to the following districts: South Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Midlands, especially about Birmingham, the Fen district and the Thames basin (especially the lower part). All these districts are Canals and rivers. interconnected. The condition of inland navigation, as a whole, is not satisfactory. The Fossdyke in Lincolnshire, connecting the river Trent at Torksey with the Witham near Lincoln, and now belonging to the Great Northern and Great Eastern joint railways, is usually indicated as the earliest extant canal in England, inasmuch as it was constructed by the Romans for the purpose of drainage or water-supply, and must have been used for navigation at an early period. But the history of canal-building in England is usually dated from about 1760, and from the construction, at the instance of Francis, Duke of Bridgewater, of the Bridgewater canal in South Lancashire, now belonging to the Manchester Ship Canal Company. The activity in canal-building which prevailed during the later years of the 18th century was, in a measure, an earlier counterpart of the first period of railway development, which, proceeding subsequently along systematized lines not applied to canal-construction, and providing obvious advantages in respect of speed, caused railways to withdraw much traffic from canals. Some canals and river navigations have consequently become derelict, or are only maintained with difficulty and in imperfect condition. The inland navigation system suffers from a want of uniformity in the size of locks, depth of water, width of channels and other arrangements, so that direct intercommunication between one canal and another is often impossible in consequence; moreover, although the canals, like railways, are owned by many separate bodies, hardly any provision has been made, as it has in the case of railways, for such facilities as the working of through traffic over various systems at an inclusive charge. Lastly, the railway companies themselves have acquired control of about 30% of the total mileage of canals in England and Wales, and in many cases this has had a prejudicial effect on the prosperity of canals. Notwithstanding these disabilities, there has been in modern times a new development in the trade of some canals, born of a realization that for certain classes of goods water-transport is cheaper than the swifter rail-transport. Various proposals have been made for the establishment of a single control over all inland waterways.
The lower or estuarine courses of some of the English rivers as the Thames, Tyne, Humber, Mersey and Bristol Avon, are among the most important waterways in the world, as giving access for seaborne traffic to great ports. From the Mersey the Manchester Ship Canal runs to Manchester. The manufacturing districts of South Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire are traversed and connected by several canals following transverse valleys of the Pennine Chain. The main line of the Aire and Calder navigation runs from Goole by Castleford to Leeds, whence the Leeds and Liverpool canal, running by Burnley and Blackburn, completes the connexion between the Humber and the Mersey. Other canals are numerous, among which may be mentioned the Sheffield and South Yorkshire, connecting Sheffield with the Trent. The Trent itself affords an extensive navigation, from which, at Derwent mouth, the Trent and Mersey Canal runs near Burton and Stafford, and through the Potteries, to the Bridgewater Canal and so to the Mersey. This canal is owned by the North Staffordshire railway company. The river Weaver, a tributary of the Mersey, affords a waterway of importance to the salt-producing towns of Cheshire. The system of the Shropshire Union railways and canal company, which is connected by lease with the London & North-Western railway company, carries considerable traffic, especially in the neighbourhood of Ellesmere Port. In the Black Country and neighbourhood the numerous ramifications of the Birmingham Canal navigations bear a large mineral traffic. This system is connected with the rivers Severn and Trent and the canal system of the country at large, and is controlled by the London & North-Western company. The principal line of navigation from the Thames northward to the midlands is that of the Grand Junction, which runs from Brentford, is connected through London with the port of London by the Regent’s Canal, and follows closely the main line of the North-Western railway. It connects with the Oxford Canal at Braunston in Northamptonshire, and through this with canals to Birmingham and the midlands, and continues to Leicester. Both the Severn up to Stourport and the Thames up to Oxford have a fair traffic, but the Thames and Severn Canal is not much used. There is some traffic on the navigable drainage cuts and rivers of the Fens, but beyond these, in a broad consideration of the waterways of England from the point of view of their commercial importance, it is unnecessary to go.
See H. R. De Salis, Bradshaw’s Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales (London, 1904); Report of Royal Commission on Canals (London, 1909).
