"_Wales is a land of mountains. Its mountains explain its isolation
and its love of independence; they explain its internal divisions;
they have determined, throughout its history, what the direction and
method of its progress were to be_."--THE LATE SIR O. M. EDWARDS.
I.
So far the lines already opened or under construction only traversed the
valley of the Severn. It was now proposed to penetrate the uplands which
lie between the banks of Sabrina and the shores of Cardigan Bay. It was
a somewhat formidable undertaking. "The mountains of Carno," wrote the
philosophic Pennant, "like the mountains of Gilboa, were celebrated for
the fall of the mighty." On their steep slopes, in 1077 Gruffydd ab
Cynan and Trahaiarn ab Caradoc had wrestled for the sovereignty of North
Wales. Across their shoulders, some four centuries later, had marched
the English troops of Henry IV. to their camp near Machynlleth, in a vain
effort to subjugate the redoubtable Welsh chieftain, Owain Glyndwr. Now
the mighty heads of the mountains were, at last, to shake and submit to
the incursion of another invader, more insistent and more powerful than
any that had gone before, and a Montgomeryshire engineer and contractor
were to conquer where an English King had failed. In one respect only
was their experience akin. Henry's army had become dissolved by the
continuance of bad weather which gave them all cold feet. The rain, that
falls alike upon the just and unjust, was to hamper Mr. David Davies's
army of navvies, but never to deter them from reaching and abiding at
Machynlleth.
In the initial stages of the new invasion all went well. So rapidly were
the Parliamentary preliminaries negotiated that, on July 27th, 1857,
while the promoters of the neighbouring Oswestry and Newtown Railway were
still wrangling over their internecine rivalries, Royal Assent was given
to the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway Bill, authorising the Company to
raise a capital of 150,000 pounds in 10 pound shares and loans to the
extent of 50,000 pounds. The total length of the proposed line was 22.5
miles and the works were to be completed within five years.
A month later the first ordinary meeting of the Company was held at
Machynlleth. Sir Watkin presided over a most harmonious gathering, in
striking contrast to some of the meetings which had assembled further
east, and the directors in their report, read by Mr. D. Howell, who was
to act as secretary until the amalgamation of the company in the Cambrian
Railways in 1864, had little to say beyond offering congratulations to
the shareholders on the speedy passing of their measure through
Parliament. The report seems to have been adopted without comment, and
the only other business was to appoint the board,--Earl Vane, Sir Watkin
Williams Wynn, Mr. R. D. Jones, Mr. C. T. Thurston, Mr. J. Foulkes,
Aberdovey, and Mr. L. Ruck. {54}
In a little over twelve months from that date the Company were in a
position to begin operations. The contract had been let to Messrs.
Davies and Savin (Mr. Benjamin Piercy again acting as engineer), and at
the end of November, 1858, the first sod of the new link in the extended
chain was turned amidst great popular rejoicings. So speedy had been the
preparations that no time availed to procure a more ornamental implement,
and the Countess Vane had to use an ordinary iron shovel for the purpose!
A contemporary record gives the following account:--
"The Cutting of the First Sod was very properly fixed to take place at
Machynlleth, not only out of compliment to the noble Earl and Countess
Vane, but also to increase the interest of the inhabitants of this
locality in the undertaking. The morning was ushered in by the bells of
the parish church ringing out most musically, the firing of cannon, and
similar demonstrations of good-will; and although in the early part of
the morning the rain fell heavily, yet towards the time fixed for the
proceedings to commence, bright Sol shone cheerfully over the beautiful
hills and valleys of Montgomeryshire, and made everything look cheerful,
as befitted the occasion. Two o'clock was the time fixed for cutting the
first sod, but previously to this time a large procession was formed at
the Town Hall, and proceeded to the ground in the following order:--
Band.
The Directors.
Flags and Banners.
The Demonstration Committee.
Flags and Banners.
The Shareholders, Visitors, and Well-wishers of the Company.
Contractors and Persons bearing the Barrow and Spade.
Flags and Banners.
The Children of the National and Vane Infant Schools.
Flags and Banners.
Band.
Miners and Quarrymen, headed by their Captains, all wearing Sashes.
Band.
First Friendly Society.
Flags and Banners.
Second Friendly Society.
Flags and Banners.
"On their arrival at the Schools the procession passed under a
well-formed archway of evergreens and flowers, very massive in structure,
over which were the mottoes,--'Success to the Newtown and Machynlleth
Railway,' and 'Commercial and Agricultural prosperity.' At the entrance
to the ground was another archway erected, over which was the
motto--'Peace and Prosperity.' On reaching the spot where the ceremony
was appointed to take place a large enclosure was railed out, at one end
of which was a pavilion for the accommodation of the ladies, which was
well filled. The parties had not long taken their allotted places before
Lady Vane came upon the ground, and was welcomed in a way that must have
been very gratifying to her, indeed it could not have been otherwise, for
it is generally admitted that a kinder-hearted lady does not exist in the
Principality, and she is most highly and deservedly popular, and well may
Earl Vane be proud of possessing such a wife. She was accompanied by
Lord Vane, and the young family, who appeared all thoroughly to enjoy the
occasion."
[Picture: The late EARL OF POWIS, a prominent supporter of some of the
earlier Montgomeryshire Railway Schemes; The late MR. DAVID HOWELL,
Secretary to the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway Co. from its
inauguration till its amalgamation in the consolidated Cambrian Railways
Co. in 1864]
After speeches by Lord and Lady Vane, her ladyship "having put on a pair
of gauntlets, which were presented by the Committee of Management,
proceeded to cut the first sod, which, having been deposited in the
barrow presented by Messrs. Davies and Savin, the contractors, was
wheeled to the end of the plank, after which Mrs. E. D. Jones, of
Trafeign, performed the same ceremony, and was followed by Lord Seaham,
and the other junior olive branches of the family. The bands played in
their best style, and the cheering was most deafening, and thus ended
this portion of the day's proceedings."
The subsequent proceedings were of a highly convivial nature, as befitted
so auspicious an occasion. There was a generous imbibing of "a bountiful
supply of Mr. Lloyd's prime port, sherry, etc.," and "a procession of
miners and quarrymen, more than 100 of whom dined at the house of Mrs.
Margaret Owen, the White Lion Inn, perhaps the most noted house in the
county for the excellence of its ale."
The work on this line was of a rather different nature to that on which
the contractors had been engaged on the Newtown and Llanidloes, and in
bringing the Oswestry and Newtown line to completion. Instead of
meandering, more or less, along river-side lowlands, the track had to be
carried uphill and down-dale over the shoulder of the Montgomeryshire
highlands, ascending to an altitude of 693 feet above sea level at
Talerddig top by a climb of 273 feet from Caersws, and running down again
by a 645 feet drop to the Dovey Valley at Machynlleth. This involved a
gradient, at one point, of as much as 1 in 52, and, just after leaving
the summit the line had to pierce through the hillside. A tunnel was
originally thought of, but abandoned in favour of a cutting through solid
rock to a depth of 120 feet. It was while excavations between the summit
and the cutting were being made that the engineers discovered a strange
geological formation, which, still observable from the train on the
left-hand side immediately after leaving Talerddig station for
Llanbrynmair, has come to be popularly known as "the natural arch." The
work of excavating the cutting was no child's play. But it proved a
profitable part of the contract, and it seems to have furnished not only
enough stone for many of the adjacent railway works, but, according to
popular rumour, the foundation of Mr. David Davies's vast fortune.
Seeking an investment for the money he made out of it, it is said, Mr.
Davies turned his thoughts to coal and in the rich mineral district of
the Rhondda Valley it was sunk, rapidly to fructify, and to form the
basis of that great industrial organisation the Ocean Collieries, famed
throughout this country and wherever coal is used for navigation.
[Picture: Talerddig Cutting. Reproduced from the "Great Western
Magazine."]
For Mr. Davies was now left to finish the Newtown and Machynlleth line
alone. While he was obtaining stone--and gold--out of Talerddig, his
former partner, Mr. Savin, had turned his attention to another link in
the chain between the Severn and the sea. In the end this arrangement,
although it seems to have led to some little feeling between the former
partners, which Mr. Whalley and others did their best to dispel, probably
expedited the completion of the through connection. At any rate, it did
not hinder progress among the hills. In this, the "long looked-for
arrival of the world-wide famed iron-horse," as an expansive journalistic
scribe put it, at Carno, was celebrated by rejoicings, and a dinner given
by Mr. David Davies to his foremen and a presentation by him of a purse
of 50 pounds to the "meritorious engine-driver, Mr. Richard Metcalfe."
Toasts were honoured, and Mr. Davies giving that of the evening,
expatiated at length on the virtues of the redoubtable "Richard." The
whole secret of the speed with which the railways he had constructed had
been accomplished rested in "Richard's" zeal and prowess. Though the sea
had covered their handiwork on the Vale of Clwyd railway half a dozen
times, "Richard" had stuck to his post, by day and night--"from two
o'clock on Monday morning till twelve o'clock on Saturday night, without
once going to bed." If they had made nineteen miles of the Oswestry and
Newtown track in thirteen months it was "in no small degree owing to
'Richard's' never-failing energy. He never grumbled, but always met me
with a pleasant smile." No wonder that Carno shouted its three times
three in "Richard's" honour and hardly less amazing that the good fellow,
on rising to reply, utterly broke down and could not complete a sentence
of his carefully prepared oration. "Never mind, 'Richard,'" exclaimed
Mr. David Howell, "that is more eloquent than a speech."
From Carno, Metcalfe and his engine were soon to proceed to make the
acquaintance of other friends and admirers further along the line.
Llanbrynmair was soon to be reached, and another writer in the local
Press is moved to compare its former remoteness, "verging close upon the
classic 'Ultima Thule' of the first Roman," with the new conditions.
"The railway," he says, "with its snorting, puffing and Vesuvian volumes
of clouds, now to a certain extent breaks upon the whilom monotony of
this valley among mountains; its aptly termed iron-horse (Mars-like, but
still in a placable mood) rolls majestically along, conveying the very
backbone of creation from the granite rock, ready trimmed, and requiring
but the cunning hand of the workman to fix the stones in their
appropriate place to span the meandering Jaen and Twymyn streams."
One of the bridges across the Twymyn, indeed, skilfully designed by Mr.
Piercy, with whom was associated Mr. George Owen, was a notable
structure. It consisted of three arches, its extreme height, 70 feet
above the rushing waters of this mountain torrent, the abutments being
large blocks of Talerddig stone and the arches turned in best Ruabon
brick. For, continues our chronicler, it was a highly satisfactory fact
for Welsh patriots to contemplate that Mr. Davies was "working his line
by means of Welsh materials, drawn from inexhaustible Welsh mountains,
his workmen are natives, the planning and workmanship is also native, and
he himself a thorough and spirited Welshman."
Less placable were some of the influences which began to exert themselves
further afield. The Board having set their hand to a proposed agreement
by which the Great Western Company undertook to work the line for 40 per
cent. of the gross earnings and an exchange of traffic arrangement, it
became the signal for raising again the old bogey of rival "interests."
An anonymous writer in the "Open Column" of the "Oswestry Advertizer,"
describing the Newtown and Machynlleth as "the worst managed railway in
the course of formation," warned Machynlleth against its impending doom.
It would mean a break of journey at Newtown, and, to avert this, the
North Western, once the personification of all unrighteousness, was now
transformed into the fairy godmother, who, by pressing forward its
co-operation with the Bishop's Castle, Mid-Wales and Manchester and
Milford undertakings, was urged to carry forward connecting links from
Llanidloes over the shoulder of Plynlimmon, as a competitive route to the
sea. The article attracted some attention at the next meeting of the
Newtown and Machynlleth shareholders, where the bargain with the Great
Western was warmly defended, both by Capt. R. D. Pryce, who presided, and
by Mr. David Davies, as the largest shareholder as well as contractor.
But the Oswestrian alarm was groundless. What looked a rosy prospect
from the Newtown and Machynlleth Company's point of view, had another
aspect, when it came to be more fully considered at Paddington, and, in
spite of repeated reminders, that Company failed to take the necessary
steps to secure its ratification by its shareholders, and the working
agreement for the new line was transferred to the Oswestry and Newtown,
who were already working the Newtown and Llanidloes Railway. The
incipient Cambrian, in fact, willy nilly, was now beginning to experience
the sensation which comes, sooner or later, to healthily expanding youth,
when it has to stand alone. Tumbles there might be ahead, but the day of
leading strings was finally left behind.
Two engines "of a powerful class" with 4ft. 6in. wheels, capable of
hauling 140 ton loads up 1/52 gradients at 15 miles an hour, accelerated
to 25 miles on the easier levels had been quoted for by Messrs. Sharp,
Stewart and Co., of the Atlas Works, Manchester, in 1861, at the cost of
2,445 pounds each, and by the end of 1862 the Company were fully equipped
to cope with the traffic of the district.
At the end of the first week of the new year (1863) the opening ceremony
took place. The engines, "Countess Vane" and "Talerddig," drew a train
of 1,500 passengers, who had marched in procession to the Machynlleth
Station, up the long incline, over the Talerddig summit and down to
Newtown and back. At the intermediate stations, Cemmes Road,
Llanbrynmair, Carno, Pontdolgoch and Caersws, it was hailed with
vociferous applause as it sped on its way, and as Newtown was approached
the travellers found themselves passing under triumphal arches, to the
clang of church bells and the blare of bands. On the leading engine rode
the young Marquis of Blandford playing "See the Conquering Here Comes" on
the cornet-a-piston, Mr. George Owen, Mr. Davies and Mr. Webb. Earl Vane
was in the train and received a public welcome at the station. Then the
inevitable speeches. The return train was still longer and took two
hours to reach Machynlleth, where the jubilations were renewed, and
Countess Vane, to whom Mr. Davies presented a silver spade in honour of
the previous ceremony of sod cutting, declared the line open. More
speeches, luncheon, toasts and processioning _ab lib_ and "so home."
The time, however, had come for a memorable parting. From the
consummation of this project Mr. David Davies's connection with the
Cambrian, as one of its contractors, was to cease. He had saved it from
early death, and guided the infant through its difficult teething time,
while at the same time he was employed in building other railways, which,
later, were to become closely linked with its fuller life. Among these
was the Mid-Wales, to become amalgamated with the Cambrian in 1904, the
Brecon and Merthyr, over four miles of whose metals, from Talyllyn
Junction to Brecon, Cambrian trains were from that date to run, and the
Manchester and Milford, which formed a junction with the Cambrian at
Aberystwyth. But so far as the Cambrian itself is concerned Mr. Davies's
future association was to be that of a director, an office, in its turn,
dramatically terminated amidst fresh thunder clouds which had not yet
appeared above the horizon.
II.
Mr. Savin, as we have seen, had, during these later stages of progress
with the making of the line from Newtown, been busily engaged still
nearer the coast. A company with an ambitious name and a not less
ambitious aim had been formed to build a railway from Aberystwyth to
Machynlleth and along the shores of Merionethshire to Portmadoc, the port
of shipment of the Festiniog slate traffic, and eventually to continue,
through Pwllheli to that wonderful prospective harbour, upon which the
eyes of railway promoters had already been turned without avail,
Porthdynlleyn, near Nevin. {63} Its close connection with the other
local undertakings is shown by the agreement under which the Oswestry and
Newtown was to subscribe 75,000 pounds, and the Newtown and Llanidloes
25,000 pounds by the creation of 5 per cent. preference stock, a sum
ultimately increased in the case of the former Company by another 100,000
pounds.
Borne on the wings of Mr. Whalley's eloquence, Aberystwyth, assembled in
public meeting, led by the Mayor, Mr. Robert Edwards, gave its
enthusiastic support to the scheme. This was followed by another
meeting, at which Mr. Piercy, as engineer, outlined the plan and bade the
inhabitants look forward to the day when the railway was to enable them
to compete with successful rivals on the North Wales Coast, and once more
justify for them the proud name of "the Brighton of Wales." Other
railway companies were inclined to be obstructive, but their opposition
was not altogether formidable, and when Mr. Abraham Howell appeared in
the role of mediator between conflicting interests, the way was soon
prepared for proceeding apace with the scheme. So harmonious, indeed,
had the atmosphere become that within less than two months of this
meeting the Company's Bill had received Royal Assent, almost a record,
surely, in those days of interminable controversy! Mr. Savin's project
was to begin by carrying the line, whence it linked up with the Newtown
and Machynlleth at the latter place, as far as Ynyslas. Here, at the
nearest point on the seaboard, the mists which hang over the great bogs
that stretch from the sand-dunes up to the foothills of Plynlimmon, took
fantastic shape in the eye of the ambitious contractor. He may,
perchance, have heard the story told of a man who owned a barren piece of
land bordering the seashore. A friend advised him to convert it to some
use. The owner replied that it would not grow grass, or produce corn,
was unfit for fruit trees, and could not even be converted into an
ornamental lake as the soil was too sandy to retain the water. "Then,"
said the friend, "why not make it a first-class watering place?" This,
at any rate, was the project on which Mr. Savin set his heart. But not
even first-class watering places can be built in a day, and the
contractor made a modest beginning with a row of lodging houses. Alas!
not for the last time, the parable of the man who built upon the sands
was to have its application to these Welsh coast undertakings. The
houses were no sooner finished than they began to sink, and some time
later they were pulled down and the material put to more hopeful and
profitable use.
[Picture: Latest Cambrian Passenger Express Engine]
Ynyslas remains to-day a lonely swamp, but somewhat better luck attended
the effort to carry the excursionist on to Borth. The line was pushed on
there, and an old farm house, on the outskirts of what was then nothing
but a tiny fishing village, was converted into a station. The following
July the line was open for traffic. Curiously enough, little public
interest seems to have been aroused in Borth itself by the event. The
inhabitants of the village were mainly engaged in seafaring, and the
arrival of the steam engine, in the opinion of some, boded no good. As
for English visitors--what use were they? The story, indeed, is told
that some four enterprising tourists, who had arrived ahead of the
railway, sought accommodation in vain in the village, and had perforce to
make the best of it in a contractor's railway wagon that stood on a
siding of the unfinished line. They cuddled up under a tarpaulin sheet
and settled down for the night, when someone gave the wagon a shove and
starting down an incline on the unballasted track it proceeded merrily on
its way to Ynyslas. Not so merry the affrighted and unwilling
passengers, who, when day broke, discovered themselves marooned in a
remote spot miles from anywhere productive of breakfast bacon and eggs!
But, if Borth itself looked on askance, Aberystwyth was ready enough to
acclaim the approach of the railway. The resort on the Rheidol had
already begun to attract visitors who completed the journey from
Llanidloes or Machynlleth by coach, and now there was the prospect, in
the early future, of the railway running into the town itself. So, very
early on the day when the first train was to steam into and out of Borth,
vehicles of all sorts crowded the road from Aberystwyth, the narrow
street of Borth was rapidly thronged with an excited multitude who flowed
over on the sands. At 8-30 a.m. the train left, with 100 excursionists.
It was followed by another at 1 p.m., for which 530 took tickets. There
was a great scramble for seats, and every one of the thirty coaches of
which the train was composed, was packed to the doors. Those who failed
to obtain a footing formed an avenue a mile long through which the train
moved out amidst tumultuous applause. In the carriages the passengers
shouted, talked, ate, drank and--sang hymns! The twelve miles to
Machynlleth took about twenty-five minutes to accomplish, and, arrived
there, the excursionists enjoyed themselves immensely, "as," says a
contemporary recorder, "Aberystwyth people generally manage to do when
from home at any rate."
Nor were the good folks of Aberystwyth peculiar in their joy. A
Shropshire newspaper published a leading article of a column and a half
descriptive of "six hours by the seaside for half-a-crown,"--the return
excursion fare from Shrewsbury and Oswestry, while Poolonians could
travel for a florin. The result was a mighty rush of trippers, not the
less attracted, possibly, by the additional announcement that the railway
company had thoughtfully opened a refreshment room at Borth station! So
great, indeed, was the press of traffic, that the company's servants
sometimes had considerable difficulty in coping with it. One day all the
tickets were exhausted, but the stationmaster at Carno, one Burke, an
Irishman, not to be beaten, booked some thirty or forty farm labourers
with "cattle tickets." The manager passed next day and remonstrated.
"Why, Burke," said he, "the men won't like your making beasts of them!"
"Och, yure honour," returned the stationmaster, "many of them made bastes
of themselves before they returned."
Indeed, the scenes at Borth on the arrival of these excursions were
occasionally almost indescribable. One scribe invokes the loan of the
pencil of Hogarth adequately to portray it. "From a cover of stones
close by springs an urchin lithe and swift; another and another, ten,
twelve or more, 'naked as unto earth they came,' and away in single file
across the beach into the sea. The vans move ponderously on, pushed by
mermen and mermaids, and out spring any quantity of live Hercules. Very
curious must be the sight, if one might judge by the crowds of
ladies--well women at any rate--and gentlemen around every group of
bathers. Boats are in great request and the ladies cling very lovingly
to the boatmen who, in return, hug them tightly as they embark or
disembark their fair freight. The very porpoises, gambling out there,
seem to enjoy the whole thing heartily and shake their fat sides at the
fun. Our friend with the hammer discourses learnedly about those long
ridges of hard rock which stand out over the Dovey Plain when, gracious
me! we look round and, will you believe it? There was a bevy of females
in a state of--shall I go on? No; but I will just say we saw them
waddling like ducks into the water. The porpoises were alarmed and
betook themselves off. And so did we. Had the bathers been black
instead of white we should have thought ourselves on the coast of Africa.
Such an Adam and Eve-ish state of things we never saw before. Well,
_honi soit qui mal y pense_."
Anyhow, thus did the six hours swiftly pass in those unregenerate days.
For Mr. Savin had yet to build his Borth hotel and lodging houses, which
to-day give welcome shelter to a very different throng of visitors,
summer after summer, attracted by the placid beauties and the
invigorating air of Cardigan Bay. It was, at worst, but a temporary
orgy, marking, as it were, a new epoch in the life of the Cambrian; whose
lengthening limbs now stretched from the Severn to the sea.