Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

CHAPTER 1

THE EARLY YEARS The seeds for the first railways for Accrington were sown at a meeting held in Blackburn during December, 1840, at which Robert Hargreaves and Frederick Steiner were representing the interests of the town. Both were businessmen of considerable influence due to their calico printing works, the former at Broad Oak, the latter in Church. The origin of the railway in Accrington is linked to events that occurred during 1844. The first was the Blackburn & Preston Railway which was authorised for construction on June 6 th , whilst the second and completely separate company, the Manchester, Bury & Rossendale Railway was given the go ahead a month later on July 4 th . The third piece of the railway came as a result of a meeting held in the Hargreaves Hotel on Manchester Road in Accrington, during August, 1844, when authorisation was given for the construction of the Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington & Colne Extension Railway, which was incorporated on June 30 th , 1845. Various parties from East Lancashire totalling twenty-six leading citizens were present at this meeting, including Robert and Reginald Hargreaves of Broad Oak, Benjamin Walmsley and George Pickup, of Spring Hill all from Accrington, along with James Haworth and Joseph Baines from Church and Thomas Simpson of Foxhill Bank, in Oswaldtwistle. In 1843 the Manchester, Bury & Rossendale Railway had formed and was authorised in an Act of Parliament during October, 1844, with its headquarters at Bolton Street Railway Station in Bury. The Manchester, Bury & Rossendale Railway and the Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington & Colne Extension Railway, although they were theoretically separate companies were associated in the same 1843 venture. They joined together on the 21 st of July, 1845 to form the new company changing its name to the East Lancashire Railway on July 25 th . The Blackburn, Burnley, Accrington & Colne Extension Railway of 1844, was amalgamated in an Act of Parliament on July 24 th , 1845, into the East Lancashire Railway. This allowed the new Company to absorb the Blackburn & Preston Railway. ( Incidentally the same group of entrepreneurs had proposed both these railways .) The Act of Parliament sanctioning the building of the railway was not passed until 1846. Later in that year on April 4 th , the first sod was cut by Charles Townley Esquire. The railways were developed as three separate sections, Blackburn to Accrington, Accrington to Burnley Barracks, and Stubbins Junction to Accrington. On the 13 th of October, 1845, John Brogden, submitted his estimate for the construction of the Stubbins Junction to Accrington section at £105,000. On February 28 th , 1846, the consortium of Brogden, Smith & Pearce submitted a tender of £110,000 for the section of lines between Blackburn and Hapton, whilst the overall cost of construction of the East Lancashire Railway was estimated to be £20,000 per mile. The Blackburn & Preston Railway was opened on the 1 st of June, 1846, whilst the Manchester, Bury & Rossendale Railway was opened between Rawtenstall and Clifton Junction in the suburbs of Manchester on September 25 th , 1846, under its new name. The major change came on the 21 st of July, 1845 when, in an Act of Parliament, the Blackburn & Preston Railway along with the Manchester, Bury & Rossendale Railway were also incorporated into the East Lancashire Railway. There were substantial hurdles on the section from Blackburn which ran through what we now recognise as Hyndburn. Coming from the west the first of these was Rishton Reservoir, which was then owned by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Company. The water in this reservoir was used to top up the canal when the water level fell below navigable levels. This problem was resolved by constructing an eighteen section wooden trestle viaduct, each with a span of twelve feet. Four decades later this was filled in to form an embankment. When the Acts of Parliament were passed for the construction of this line they had stipulated that obstacles of the nature of Rishton Reservoir should be crossed on embankments, not viaducts. Without the required authority the East Lancashire Railway Company had, more than likely on the grounds of economies, decided to construct wooden viaducts. There were numerous other obstacles to be overcome by the builders, one of which was the Aspen Valley, which was constructed on land described as “treacherous” sub soil. This was made up of a mixture of layers of soft blue-ish clay and sand. It was spanned by a 275 yards long wooden trestle viaduct which at its highest point was 88 feet high. This consisted of 33 sections each of 25 feet in length which also

2