The immediate parent of the railway was the wooden tram-road, which
existed at an early period in colliery districts. Mr. Beaumont, of
Newcastle, is said to have been the first to lay down wooden rails as
long ago as 1630. More than one hundred and forty years elapsed before
the invention was greatly improved. Mr. John Carr, in 1776 (although not
the first to use iron rails), was the first to lay down a cast-iron
railway, nailed to wooden sleepers, for the Duke of Newcastle’s colliery
near Sheffield. This innovation was regarded with great disfavour by the
workpeople as an interference with the vested rights of labour. Mr.
Carr’s life, as a consequence, was in much jeopardy and for four days he
had to conceal himself in a wood to avoid the violence of an indignant
and vindictive populace.