Accrington on Rails - The Tramways: A Complete History - Robert Kenyon

• Opposite the old Conservative Club and beyond to the railway arch passing place, requires attention. • Outside the Imperial Hotel in a couple of places the paving is loose. • At the top of Ellison Street the curve around to go down to the tram depot with its associated points and crossings requires work. Some of the rails and filling-in pieces are too high. • Between the tops of Portland Street and Hartmann Street some of the rails, crossings

and filling-in pieces are in an imperfect state and some are broken. • In front of the Hyndburn Inn one of the rails in the crossing is broken. • In front of number 356 Blackburn Road the paving is loose. • At the foot of Leyland Street the paving is below the level of the points. • There is a broken rail in the points at the top of Hyndburn Street.

• The paving is in bad condition from number 419 Blackburn Road to Tanpits Road in Church plus several places in between. The CLAYTON-LE-MOORS Section • The portion of tramway on Peel Street requires some ‘slight’ attention. • The paving on Whalley Road in front of the Peel’s Arms Hotel ( later the Broadway ), is loose. • The passing place at the top of Castle Street and its associated points requires attention. Here at one or two places the paving is also at fault. Also a rail is broken and the filling-in piece between the crossings is above the top of the rails. • Between the railway arch and the Cottage Hospital the tramway is in poor condition. The rails are irregular and extremely worn, many being ‘snipped’ at the edges. The paving in other places is well above the rail. “This part of the tramway ought to be completely relaid.” • Opposite the Cottage Hospital the rails are completely worn down. • This also applies to the section of rail at the end of Charles Street, where the rail guard has completely disappeared. • The rails have sunk opposite Lynwood House, and there are several bad joints between the rails in front of Moss Lane. • At the Dyke Nook passing place the paving requires attention. • Between Dyke Nook and the boundary with Altham several of the rail joints are uneven. • Here a gang of workmen were repairing the paving and working their way towards Accrington, as part of this section towards Clayton showed signs of repair. • Despite this between the Borough boundary and the Clayton-le-Moors terminus, many of the rail joints are down and the lines in general are irregular. • Outside Walmersley’s confectioners shop there are bad rail joints and the paving is also in a poor state. • At the Load of Mischief tramway terminus this Committee found a ‘far from satisfactory’ state of affairs. • A gang of workmen belonging to the Clayton-le-Moors District Council were working on paving the main road. It was observed that this new paving was about one inch below the tramways margins. • We were given to understand that the District Council had been in negotiations with the Tramway Company to pave right up to the rails, but had been unable to agree terms for this work. The result was that the actual margins were left in the poor state as observed. July A letter was received from the Tramway Company asking for a meeting with the General Works Committee in order to discuss the wood paving on Piccadilly in Accrington town centre. The Town Clerk was authorised to make arrangements for this meeting to take place. The General Works Committee met a deputation from the Tramway Company with regard to the paving on Piccadilly. It was decided the Corporation would renew the wooden paving and provide the materials, providing the Tramway Company would put in new rails and points, and would relay the rails if it was found to be necessary. The

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