"_But a child_,
_Yet in a go-cart. Patience; give it time_
_There is a hand that guides_.
--BENNETT COLL.
It is easy to-day to smile at the optimism of our grand-fathers. We know
now that railway dividends are not as readily earned in real life as they
sometimes are in dreams which follow gorgeous banquets; but, in one
respect, at any rate, the future of the Oswestry and Newtown undertaking
appeared to justify jubilation. Axes had been, at any rate, temporarily
buried; the advocates of rival routes had composed their differences and
everything pointed to a rapid consummation of the scheme. As a matter of
fact, little delay was experienced in getting to work with the actual
construction. Before October opened gangs of labourers were busy on the
track between Pant and Llandysilio. The original idea of a broad gauge
line, similar to that adopted by Brunel on the Great Western's southern
arm, had been abandoned in favour of what has since become the standard
one for this country of 4ft. 8.5 ins. {40}
Nevertheless, it was no small undertaking. The Vyrnwy had to be crossed
at Llanymynech and the Severn at Pool Quay and again near Buttington.
The rest of the line was comparatively free from serious engineering
problems, but fresh Parliamentary powers had to be obtained to construct
a branch from Llynclys to the Porthywaen lime quarries, and even a little
addition of this sort involved endless correspondence over details and
other wearing worries. Difficulties of another sort, more formidable,
began to appear. The Earl of Powis, whose influence counted for so much,
expressing regret for certain differences which had arisen in relation to
the policy of the Board, wrote to Sir Watkin resigning his seat, adding
the warning note, "I think you should for your own sake watch somewhat
jealously the proceedings with regard to the contract." Sir Watkin
hastened to assure his lordship of the "grief and astonishment" which his
withdrawal had occasioned his colleagues and to deprecate divisions at
critical hours.
And it certainly was a critical hour. Money was urgently wanted,
borrowing was barred until provisions of the Act were complied with, and
though an attempt by Mr. Barlow to seek an injunction in Chancery failed
after a hard struggle, the contract had to be dissolved in order to
substitute an arrangement by which payment could be made by shares and
debentures in lieu of cash. It was on this account that Messrs. Davidson
and Oughterson, who had earlier succeeded Messrs. Thornton and McCormick,
in turn gave place to the men who had already come to the rescue of the
Newtown and Llanidloes undertaking.
The arrangements by which these early undertakings were "leased" to the
contractors has been the subject of controversy among railway financial
experts, but they were stoutly defended in a letter to the "Times"
shortly after the completion of most of them by Mr. David Davies himself,
who claimed that by this means "Wales had the benefit of something like
700 miles of railway which would not have been made for at least another
century if we had waited for the localities to subscribe the necessary
funds." In the present case, at any rate, Mr. Savin's efforts at
financial re-establishment were the outcome of the suggestion of the
North Western, warmly supported by the Great Western party, including the
Chairman himself, who had become practically liable for 75,000 pounds, if
the railway was not made and the company set upon a sound footing. To
set free the powers of the Company no less than 45,000 pounds had to be
paid down, no small task with subscriptions to the share list not easy to
obtain. Yet, that Mr. Savin accomplished--and more. He bought up the
existing contract, compromised and settled all existing claims and got
rid of all liabilities. The rearrangement, however, took a great deal of
time, and was later complicated by the dissolution of partnership between
him and Mr. Davies, while the works were proceeding between Welshpool and
Newtown. Not until July 26th, 1861, was it finally arranged that Mr.
Savin should relinquish the lease, and work the line on an amended basis,
under which he was to take the earnings, pay 4.75 per cent. to the
Company, supplementing the earnings of the line by a draft upon the North
Western, who granted rebates. {42}
[Picture: From left to right: The late MR. JOHN WARD, Mr. T. Savin's
partner in the construction of several of the Cambrian Railways; The late
MR. JOHN SAVIN, who assisted his brother in the construction of the Welsh
Coast and other Railways]
Still, it considerably expedited construction. The works came into the
new hands in October 1859, and so far as the chief portions of the
undertaking went, progress became quite satisfactory. As is so often the
case, in these affairs, it was an unexpected development over a detail
that caused the greatest perturbation. Another difference arising on the
board, this time regarding certain engagements entered into about the
site of the station at Oswestry, Sir Watkin, who appears to have had
certain misgivings as to the conduct of the business, being out-voted at
a meeting of the directors, just before Mr. Savin came into possession of
the works, in his turn left the room and a few days later sent in his
resignation. He was replaced in the chair by Mr. David Pugh, M.P., of
Llanerchyddol Hall, Welshpool, who continued to act in that capacity
till, on his death in 1861, he was succeeded by Mr. Whalley.
On the line, however, the navvies went doggedly digging on, despite
atrocious weather. By May 1st, 1860, the track was sufficiently complete
from Oswestry to Pool Quay to be opened for traffic to that point, and
advertisements began to appear announcing "cheap trains" for
excursionists to the "far-famed and commanding heights of Llanymynech
Hills." In the middle of the month a more venturesome journey was
attempted and, by the grace of God, safely accomplished. The last link
in the iron road had just been laid, a mile or two from Welshpool, and
one fine evening, "shortly after six o'clock" (as a local journalist
records) "the 'Montgomery' was attached to a number of trucks, with rough
seats placed on them for the occasion. Every available space was filled
by a number of Poolonians who were in waiting. The train then slowly
proceeded along the beautiful valley of the Severn to the Cefn Junction
{43} (that is to be) with the Shrewsbury and Welshpool line, where more
trucks were attached, and a considerable addition to the passengers made.
Soon Welshpool was reached, and the shrill whistle of the engine--for the
first time heard in that beautiful locality--was all but overpowered by
the cheers of the assembled people. The train was brought to a
standstill on the very spot where, some years ago (we are afraid to say
how many) the first sod was cut. Congratulations were passed, and crowds
of the very old, and the very young, to whom an Engine heretofore had
been a figment of imagination, gazed with wonder at 'The Montgomery'
while their more travelled neighbours adjourned to the Bowling Green,
where Mr. R. Owen made a short pithy speech. He very properly
acknowledged the business-like activity of Messrs. Davies and Savin, to
whom the public were so largely indebted for the arrival of a locomotive
at Welshpool. Mr. Webb, on behalf of the contractors, suitably
responded; and the proceedings were cut short by a warning whistle from
the engine, on which sat Campbell, the locomotive superintendent, who
very prudently wished to get back over the rough road before the shades
of evening overtook them. The train then went off for Pool Quay at a
smart pace, considering that the rails were unballasted, and with the
trucks loaded with juveniles, many of whom perhaps had this day their
first trip by railway. In Welshpool the bells rang out merry peals, and
cannons were fired, and everything betokened the hilarity of the
inhabitants."
What the Board of Trade would say nowadays to a heavily-ladened train of
passengers being run at a "smart pace," or any other, over an
"unballasted" road, can be left to the reader's imagination!
Anyhow, the line being finally finished off to the last nut and bolt, was
soon approved of by the Government Inspector, Colonel Yolland; and
everything was ready for the formal opening on Tuesday, August 14th.
"The day (says a contemporary account) proved most auspicious. Early in
the morning the weather was very dull, but before the middle of the day
it cleared up, and turned out most bright and cheerful. At about a
quarter to eleven o'clock the Mayor and Corporation of Welshpool met at
the Town Hall, and from thence proceeded (headed by the Montgomeryshire
Yeomanry Band) to the Railway Station by eleven, in time for the train
that was to convey them, together with the directors, shareholders, and
general public to Oswestry.
"As may be readily supposed, a monster train was required for this
purpose, and an immense number of carriages were in readiness. After
some delay, the passengers took their seats, and the train started for
Oswestry. The Corporation were followed by the Montgomeryshire Militia
Band, and the 2nd Montgomeryshire Rifle Volunteers, who proceeded to
Oswestry by the same train.
"As the train proceeded on its course, and arrived at the various
stations, it was hailed with the most enthusiastic greetings from those
who assembled along the line as spectators on this occasion.
"The arrival of the train at Oswestry was made the signal for a general
discharge of artillery, such as is customarily used on these occasions,
and added to this was the discharge of a great number of fog-signals.
The bells of the Old Church, too, rang out their merriest peals. At the
Station an immense concourse of people had assembled, and the Welshpool
Corporation was received by the Mayor and Corporation of Oswestry, who
had been escorted to the Station by the Rifle Corps, headed by their
band. The Pool Corporation received a hearty greeting from their civic
brethren in Oswestry, and the Montgomeryshire Rifles formed in column
opposite the Oswestry Corps, and each presented arms, when the Oswestry
Band struck up "God save the Queen." They all then proceeded, in the
following order, to the Powis Hall:--
Banner. Banner.
Band and Members of the Oswestry Rifle Corps.
Band and Members of the 2nd Montgomeryshire Rifle Corps.
Band of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry.
The Mayor and Corporation of Welshpool.
The Mayor and Corporation of Oswestry.
Tradesmen, Shareholders, etc.
Drum and Fife Band.
Navvies, etc.
"At the Town Hall the Corporation had most hospitably provided for their
refreshment. Punch and wine of the choicest and best descriptions were
abundantly supplied, under the management of Mr. Atkins, and Mrs.
Edwards, of the Queen's Head Hotel, Oswestry. The company present
included the Oswestry Corporation, the Welshpool Corporation, the
directors of the railway, the Second Montgomeryshire Volunteers, and the
Oswestry Volunteers."
The special train then returned to Welshpool, where Mrs. Owen of
Glansevern declared the line opened. Then the inevitable procession, and
the not less inevitable "cold collation" and speech making, and dancing.
Only one untoward incident marked the day. Owing to the crush to board
the returning train from Oswestry, the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry and
Montgomeryshire Militia bands got left behind, and the Oswestry Rifle
Corps musicians, who had been more successful in the scramble, had to do
all the blowing for their stranded comrades. But, it is recorded, they
blew with triple vigour, as well they might!
Oswestry was now, at long last, connected with Montgomeryshire, but there
were those who felt in no mood for rejoicing in that event. Among the
residents of the Severn Valley were those who, like the redoubtable Mr.
Weller "considered that the rail is unconstitootional and an inwader o'
privileges." They solemnly shook their heads and deplored the doom of
the mail-coach. What, they asked, was to become of Tustin? Tustin had
driven the mail coach from Shrewsbury every morning, summer and winter,
starting from the Post Office at 4 a.m., and covering the score of miles
to Welshpool in about two hours. To see him and his fine horses arrive
at the Royal Oak was a source of daily pride to Welshpolonians. "In the
summer mornings," says a writer in the "Licensing Victualler's Gazette"
in 1878, looking back upon those days, "there was always a number of
people up to see the mail arrive, and the cordial and cheery welcome
given to those passengers who alighted to partake of breakfast at the
hotel, by the buxom and genial landlady, Mrs. Whitehall, was a thing to
be remembered and talked about. She was the pink of what such a woman
should be, and the fame of her cuisine reached very far beyond the county
in which she lived." Later in the morning, the thirteen miles between
Welshpool and Newtown were done in little more than an hour. But "the
days of coaching were drawing to a close even in Wales; the iron horse
was slowly to elbow one coach and then another off the road, putting them
back as it were, nearer and nearer to the coast; until even Tustin and
his famous Aberystwyth mail had to succumb. But they made a gallant
fight of it, and died what we may call gamely." In recent years the
coach, or its modern counterpart, the charabanc and motor bus, have come
into something of their own again, and are providing, in turn, a new form
of competition with the railways.
In 1860, long distance highway traffic did seem doomed, for the "iron
horse" could cover the ground in what then appeared a prodigious pace.
Six trains ran each way between Oswestry and Welshpool on week-days and
two each way on Sundays, while excursion fares advertised in connection
with a Sunday School trip from Oswestry to Welshpool held out the
alluring advantage of "covered carriages, 1s.; first-class, 2s." for the
double journey--a figure to make the mouth of the present day passenger
water! It was hardly so necessary then, as it has proved to be on recent
occasions, to the writer's personal knowledge, for groups of mourners
travelling to a funeral to contrive to save a few pence by taking
"pleasure party" tickets!
But, as yet, no "pleasure" or any other party could proceed by rail
beyond Welshpool. Work on the remaining link, had begun; but at the
Newtown end, where arrangements had been entered into for a working
alliance with the Newtown and Llanidloes Railway. At the Welshpool end
circumstances were not so propitious. The original surveys had been made
by way of Berriew, but this necessitated carrying the line through part
of the Glansevern domain, and, as the late Earl of Powis had jocularly
remarked, in connection with the planning of a neighbouring line, the
_beau ideal_ of a railway is one that comes about a mile from one's own
house and passes through a neighbour's land.
[Picture: Kilkewydd Bridge, near Welshpool, as recently re-built.
Reproduced from the "Great Western Magazine."]
So it was to the other side of the valley that Mr. Piercy had, at length,
to carry his measuring instruments, and, crossing the Severn at
Kilkewydd, climb the long incline to Forden. Before this was finally
accomplished the dissolution of partnership between the contractors had
taken place, and while Mr. Davies transferred his attention to some
adjacent railway schemes, Mr. Savin took into partnership Mr. Ward of the
Donnett, Whittington, near Oswestry, and the name of "Savin and Ward"
was, for some years, to become as familiar in the railway world as had
previously been that of "Davies and Savin." The four mile stretch
between Newtown and Abermule was in working order and trains were running
over this isolated section of the Oswestry and Newtown system, but the
remaining gap between Abermule and Welshpool had still to receive its
finishing touches, when the term set in the agreement for completion
expired.
Mr. Savin was able to cite not only the "worst weather that anyone can
remember," but the procrastination over the arrangement and transfer of
the lease as ample justification for the delay in fulfilling the
engagement. Moreover, other matters were arising which tended to
distract the attention of the directors from any passing squabble as to
dates. The "overbearing leviathians" might have been quelled some years
earlier, but they had not been killed, and at the beginning of 1861,
movements were again afoot in North-Western circles to secure an
extension of the Minsterley branch to Montgomery, while under the
Bishop's Castle Railway Bill, which was going through the Committee of
the House of Lords, the London and North Western Railway, apparently
trading on the payment made to the Oswestry and Newtown Company for
access to Welshpool by way of Buttington, sought a further reciprocal
arrangement by which, if the Oswestry and Newtown availed themselves of
the powers to subscribe to, lease, or work the Bishop's Castle line, the
North Western was to obtain the right to run over the Oswestry and
Newtown metals into Newtown, the latter Company being given a _quid pro
quo_ in the shape of similar advantage over the Shrewsbury and Welshpool
line. It seemed an innocent enough proposal on the surface, but it did
not blind the astute Mr. Whalley to the danger of certain developments
favourable to North Western interests. The clause, as it happened, had
been inserted in the absence of any representatives of the Oswestry and
Newtown Company, and this objection was carried into the committee room.
For hours the arguments swayed to and fro. Numbers of witnesses,
including officials of the Oswestry and Newtown, gave evidence; and, in
the end, the anticipated compromise was affected, by withdrawals all
round. The Bishop's Castle Railway lost the support of the Oswestry and
Newtown, but the sinister designs of the North Western upon Newtown were
finally scotched, and the local Company, of which Mr. Robert B. Elwin was
now General Manager, and Mr. B. Tanner, who had not long succeeded Mr.
Hayward, on his resignation, in that capacity on the Llanidloes and
Newtown, secretary, could go forward with greater confidence.
On Monday, May 27th, the first train, drawn by the engine "Leighton," and
conveying a party of invited guests and the engineers, passed safely over
Kilkewydd bridge, amidst a fusillade of fog signals, and thus the last
and most formidable of the engineering exploits on the new length of line
was accomplished. The bridge had been constructed in remarkably short
time, and a contemporary record of this auspicious incident duly mentions
that "the speedy completion of so complicated and troublesome a task is
mainly due to the indefatigable exertions of Mr. John Ward, one of the
contractors, and Mr. James Marshall, the resident superintendent." Early
the next month Colonel Yolland inspected the whole length from Welshpool
to Newtown, pausing to express his special approbation of the Kilkewydd
bridge {51} as "the best constructed on the line," and it was now open to
the Company publicly to announce that from June 10th a through service of
trains would run from Oswestry to Newtown and on to Llanidloes.
No further formal opening seems to have been arranged, but, though the
day was, like so many that had so proceeded it, very wet, rapidly
organised celebrations took place at some spots. Montgomery had already
taken its share in the opening to Welshpool, but it was now to have a
festival of its own, as was only fitting, since that ancient borough may,
in no small sense, be regarded as one of the ancestral homes of the
"Cambrian." It was here, as we have seen, that Mr. Piercy had largely
acquired his interest and skill in railway engineering, while at the
office of Mr. Charles Mickleburgh. A committee, with Mr. W. Mickleburgh
as hon. secretary, and treasurer, had little difficulty in getting
together some 150 pounds as a celebration fund. A programme was as
quickly organised, including, of course, a procession and a dinner, but
to this was added another little ceremony,--the presentation by Mrs. Owen
of Glansevern, now a familiar central figure on these occasions, of a
silver bugle to Captain Johns and his gallant men of the Railway
Volunteers. The instrument bore the inscription,--"Presented by Anne
Warburton Owen, of Glansevern, to the Third Montgomeryshire (Railway)
Rifles, 1861." Above was an appropriate design, on the dexter side a
representation of the locomotive engine "Glansevern," and on the sinister
a railway viaduct with a train passing over.
The occasion was singularly appropriate, for no small part in the
initiation and maintenance of the Corps belongs to the little group of
railway men who were associated with Montgomery, the Mickleburghs, Mr.
George Owen, Mr. Piercy and others. In after years it was the habit of
their children to ask these gallant men whether they had "ever really
killed anyone" with their formidable swords, and some of them were wont
to answer that, perhaps not, but they had taken their part in the "battle
of Aberystwyth," a somewhat mysterious affair among the plum stalls in
the market-place, possibly still remembered by men well advanced in
years. In any case, we may be quite sure they would have acquitted
themselves worthily if called upon, and they did indeed provide an
inspiring note to all such ceremonial festivities. On this auspicious
day of the opening of the line, to Mr. Ashford, the trumpeter of the
Corps, fell the honour of sounding the first blast, and amidst the cheers
of the countryside, some 600 ladies and gentlemen fell to dancing "to the
music of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry and Militia Bands, and the capital
band of the Welshpool Cadet Corps, composed of the young gentlemen of Mr.
Browne's academy."
And so, at long last, trains were to run through from Oswestry to
Llanidloes. Six left Oswestry every weekday, the first timed to depart
at 7 a.m., passing all the intermediate stations (including Arddleen, now
added to the original five) to Welshpool without a stop, though this
"express" was taken off the daily list some months later, and only ran on
fair days. Four trains made the reverse journey from Llanidloes to
Oswestry; while two trains ran each way on Sundays--a more generous
service even than that afforded to-day! The Cambrian, as someone said,
might still be a child, but it was a rapidly growing child. The guiding
hand was at work, and additional limbs were shaping themselves, both at
the Newtown and Oswestry end of the system, with such rapidity that we
can best deal with them one by one.
[Picture: The late MR. WILLIAM MICKLEBURGH, in the uniform of the
Montgomeryshire Railway Volunteers; The late CAPT. R. G. JEBB, of
Ellesmere, a prominent promoter of the Oswestry and Whitchurch Railway
and one of the first passengers to travel on the line]