A RAILWAY TOWN.
Having now concluded our rough sketch of the workshops of the
locomotive and coach departments at Crewe,--in both of which the
Company’s artificers and workmen toil both winter and summer from
six in the morning till half-past five in the evening, except on
Saturdays, when they leave off at four,--our readers will, we hope,
feel sufficiently interested in their welfare to inquire, as we
anxiously did, a little into their domestic history and comforts.
About a hundred yards from the two establishments we have just
left there stands a plain neat building, erected by the Company,
containing baths, hot, cold, and shower, for the workmen, as well as
for their wives and daughters, the hours allotted for each sex being
stated on a board, which bluntly enough explains that the women may
wash while the men are working, and _vice versâ_. For this wholesome
luxury the charge for each person is 1½_d._; and although we do not
just at present recollect the exact price of yellow soap per bar, of
sharp white sand per bushel, of stout dowlas-towelling per yard, or
the cost of warming a few hundred gallons of water, yet, as we stood
gazing into one of these baths, we could not help thinking that if
that Hercules who works the steam-hammer can, on Saturday night after
his week’s toil, be scrubbed perfectly clean and white for three
half-pence, he can have no very great reason to complain, for surely,
except by machinery, the operation could scarcely be effected much
cheaper! To a medical man the Company gives a house and a surgery, in
addition to which he receives from every unmarried workman 1_d._ per
week; if married, but with no family, 1½_d._ per week; if married,
and with a family, 2_d._ per week; for which he undertakes to give
attendance and medicine to whatever men, women, children, or babies
of the establishment may require them. A clergyman, with an adequate
salary from the Company, superintends three large day-schools for
about three hundred boys, girls, and infants. There is also a library
and mechanic’s institute, supported by a subscription of about 10_s._
a year, at which a number of very respectable artificers, whose
education when young was neglected, attend at night to learn, _ab
initio_, reading, writing, and arithmetic. There is likewise a vocal
and instrumental class, attended by a number of workmen, with their
wives and daughters.
The town of Crewe contains 514 houses, one church, three schools,
and one town-hall, all belonging to the Company; and as the birth,
growth, and progress of a railway town is of novel interest, our
readers will, we think, be anxious to learn at what speed our railway
stations are now turning into towns, just as many of our ancient
post-houses formerly grew into post towns. Although the new houses at
Crewe were originally built solely for railway servants, yet it was
soon found necessary to construct a considerable number for the many
shopkeepers and others who were desirous to join the new settlement,
and accordingly, of the present population of 8000, about one-half
are strangers. Not only are the streets, which are well lighted
by gas, much broader than those of Wolverton, but the houses are,
generally speaking, of a superior description, and, although all are
new, yet it is curious to observe how insidiously old customs, old
fashions, old wants, and even old luxuries, have become domiciled.
Many of the shops have large windows, which eagerly attempt to look
like plate-glass. In the shoemakers’ shops, contrasted with thick
railway boots and broad railway shoes, there hang narrow-soled
Wellingtons and Bluchers, as usual scarcely half the gauge or breadth
of the human foot. The Company’s workmen began by having a cheap
stout dancing-master of their own; but the aristocracy of Crewe
very naturally requiring higher kicks, we found a superior and more
elegant artist giving lessons in the town-hall--a splendid room
capable of containing 1000 persons.
It would of course be quite irregular for 8000 persons to live
together without the luxury of being enabled occasionally to bite
and tickle each other with the sharp teeth and talons of the law, and
accordingly we observed, appropriately inscribed in large letters on
the door of a very respectable looking house,
GRIFFIN, ATTORNEY.
Mankind are so prone to draw distinctions where no real differences
exist, that among our readers there are probably many who conceive
that, although they themselves are fully competent to enjoy Fanny
Kemble’s readings from Shakspeare, such a mental luxury would be
altogether out of character at _New Crewe_! In short, that shops full
of smiths and other varieties of workmen (particularly him of the
steam-hammer, and most especially the artificer we saw squatted in
the boiler), although all exceedingly useful in their ways, could not
possibly appreciate the delicate intonations of voice or the poetical
beauties to which we have alluded. Now, without the smallest desire
to oppose this theory, we will simply state, that while, during the
men’s dinner-hour, we were strolling through the streets of Crewe, we
observed on the walls of a temporary theatre, surrounded by a crowd
of gaping mouths and eager unwashed faces, a very large placard, of
which the following is a copy:--
+-----------------------------------------------+
| BY PARTICULAR DESIRE. |
| |
| MR. JONES WILL REPEAT |
| |
| The Scene from Macbeth and Cato’s Soliloquy: |
| |
| LIKEWISE |
| |
| IMITATIONS OF CHARLES KEMBLE, EDMUND KEAN, |
| AND MR. COOPER. |
+-----------------------------------------------+
The town and shops of Crewe are well lighted by gas from the
Company’s works, which create about 30,000 cubic feet per day--the
foot-paths of the streets being of asphalt, composed of the
Company’s coal-tar mixed up with gravel and ashes from the workshops.
The town is governed by a council of fifteen members, two-thirds of
whom are nominated by the workmen and inhabitants, and one-third by
the directors. Their regulations are all duly promulgated “by order
of the council.”
Although our limits do not allow us to enter into many statistical
details, we may mention that the number of persons employed on
account of the London and North-Western Railway Company, including
those occupied in the collection and delivery of goods, is as
follows:--
2 Secretaries to the Board of Directors.
1 General Manager.
3 Superintendents.
2 Resident Engineers.
966 Clerks.
3054 Porters.
701 Police-constables.
738 Engine and Firemen.
3347 Artificers.
1452 Labourers.
------
Total number 10,266
------
The number of horses employed is 612
Ditto vans, &c. 253