NEWSLETTER 36 Repro - Masonic Province of Yorkshire, West Riding

NEWSLETTER 36 Repro 11/5/07 11:45 AM Page 21
TRAIN TRAVEL IN
THE 19th CENTURY
Freemasons travelling from
the West Riding to London
in earlier Victorian times.
By W Bro John Goodchild, M Univ
IN the April of 1875 a new Grand Master
of the United Grand Lodge of England
was to be Installed: he was the Prince of
Wales, Queen Victoria’s eldest son,
himself to come to the throne in 1901 as
Edward Vll, holding office as Grand
Master until 1901.
To enable large numbers of Brethren
from the West Riding to travel to the
Installation, the Great Northern Railway
Company, which owned the shortest
route between the Leeds area and
London, put on what it described in a
leaflet as “a Special Fast Express” train,
at ordinary fares, the train apparently,
originating as four sets of carriages which
joined up at Wakefield (Westgate)
Station.
The first of these left Bradford at 3pm,
the second Dewsbury at 3.20, stopping
at Batley and Ossett, a third leaving
Leeds at 3.20 and the fourth from
Wakefield Kirgate, where it picked up
passengers travelling the Calder Valley
main line of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway.
The united train left Wakefield
Westgate at 3.45pm and then called at
Doncaster, Grantham and Peterborough.
The time of the train’s arrival at King’s
Cross is not stated, but the ordinary
express at 3.30 from Leeds took 4 hr 40
min to reach London, and a slow train 6
hr and 5 min – times in marked contrast
with today’s.
But in fact the times taken to reach
London from the Leeds area changed
rdaically in Victorian times.
In 1836, the year before the young
Victoria’s accession, the fastest horsedrawn
Royal Mail coaches had taken
some 20 and a half hours to travel from
Wakefield to London, at an average
speed of some 10mph, while other
through coaches averaged seven and
eight mph, taking (via Sheffield) 25 and a
half hours and (via Doncaster) 23 hours.
One could travel too from Leeds by
coach to Castleford – where the
embarkation steps are still to be seen
adjoining the river bridge there – and on
by express passenger boat to Goole,
then by paddle steamer to Hull, and on
by sea to London.
In contrast, the first railway to
connect the West Riding with London,
the Noth Midland from Derby to Leeds,
opened in 1840, provided a (sparse)
service by rail which took from Wakefield
to London between some eight and ten
hours, averaging between 19 and
24mph.
These speeds were soon increased,
and by 1850 the fastest train between
London and Wakefield took seven hours,
averaging some 30mph, but it had only
first and second class accommodation;
the stopping trains, with third class
passenger accommodation too, took 13
hours to London and averaged less than
17mph.
Fares by rail were decreasing too: a
single fare to London had come down
from 52s to 35s.8d for the first class and
from 25s to 16s.9d third, but when a
working man was well paid at £1 a week,
these were still heavy sums.
When the Great Northern Railway
offered an (earlier) excursion to view the
lying in state and funeral of the Duke of
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North East Office & Works: Wagonway Road,
Hebburn on Tyne, Tyne & Wear NE31 1SP
Telephone: (0191) 428 5111 Fax: (0191) 428 5333
e-mail: hebburn@dentsteel.demon.co.uk
Scottish Office: Unit 77 Fountain Business Centre,
Ellis Street, Coatbridge ML5 3AA
Telephone: (01236) 710977 Fax: (01236) 710908
e-mail: scot@dentsteel.demon.co.uk
suppliers of
dent steel services
(Yorkshire) Ltd. strength
Wellington, the Military hero and
sometime Prime Minister, in 1852, third
class returns were down to 18s.6d, a
sum which still represented for many the
best part of a week’s wage.
We can only hope that our Masonic
Brethren duly reached London on their
way to the Installation in 1875 of the new
Grand Master.
• Editor’s note:
Earlier this year GNER provided an extra
12 services between Leeds and London,
giving West Yorkshire its best-ever
service to the capital.
It is now possible, for example, to
travel from Wakefield, Westgate to
London King’s Cross in a little over two
hours.
North West Office: 1 Reynard Street, Hyde,
Cheshire SK14 2HW
Telephone: (0161) 366 7070 Fax: (0161) 366 9375
e-mail: hyde@dentsteel.demon.co.uk
Approval
No. 860362
19