Yorkshire Almanac Entry into law of the first dedicated railway enabling act, for Richard Humble and Charles Brandling’s wagonway from Middleton Colliery to the Aire at Leeds

9 June 1758: Entry into law of the first dedicated railway enabling act, for Richard Humble and Charles Brandling’s wagonway from Middleton Colliery to the Aire at Leeds

In 1758 wagons were horse-drawn. “The collier,” by George Walker, engraved by the Havells, shows Matthew Murray’s steam locomotive Salamanca on the railway in 1814 (Walker 1814).

HMG. 1758. An Act for Establishing Agreements Made between Charles Brandling, Esquire, and Other Persons, Proprietors of Lands, for Laying Down a Waggon-way, in Order for the Better Supplying the Town and Neighbourhood of Leeds, in the County of York, With Coals. London: HMG. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

Whereas Charles Brandling, Esquire, lord of the manor of Middleton, in the county of York, is owner and proprietor of diverse coal-works, mines, veins, and seams of coals, lying and being within the said manor of Middleton, and places adjacent; and hath proposed and is willing to engage and undertake, to furnish and supply the inhabitants of the town of Leeds with coals for their necessary use and consumption, at the rate or price of four pence three farthings a corf [basket], containing in weight about two hundred and ten pounds, and in measure seven thousand six hundred and and eighty cubical inches, for the term of sixty years, to commence from the second day of January one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight, and for such further term, or longer time, as the said mines, or any of them, shall continue to be used and wrought; and, at his own charge and expense, to carry and convey, or cause to be carried and conveyed, from his said coal-works yearly, and every year … two hundred and forty thousand corfs of coals at the least; and to lay up and deposit such coals … upon a certain field or open place called Casson Close, near the Great Bridge, at Leeds, in order to be there sold and delivered, at the rate and price aforesaid, unto the inhabitants of the said town of Leeds, or to such other persons as shall purchase the same; and, as the said coal-mines and coal-works lie at the distance of two miles and upwards from the said field or place called Casson Close, intended for a coal-yard or repository for the said coals so to be sold and disposed of, and it will therefore be absolutely necessary, for carrying the said proposal into execution, that a waggon-way (such as is used for and about the coal-works and coal-mines in the counties of Durham and Northumberland) should be made, framed, laid down, and continued, between the said coal-works and the said Casson Close coal-yard and repository, in, over, and through, diverse fields, lands, and grounds, in the parish of Leeds, which belong to, and are the estate and property of, diverse persons, the several owners and occupiers whereof have consented and agreed that the said Charles Brandling, his executors, administrators and assigns, shall and may have the liberty and privilege to make, place, and lay down, such waggon-way or ways, for the carriage and conveyance of coals, in upon, and over the same, or any part or parts thereof respectively, as to him and them shall seem proper and requisite; and also to continue, and, from time to time, to repair, maintain, and support, the same waggon-way or ways during the term aforesaid, as he and they shall think necessary and expedient; and the said Charles Brandling hath agreed to pay such yearly rent, or other considerations, for the said liberty and privilege, as will not only exceed the damage to be thereby done to the said lands and grounds, but considerably increase the yearly rent and value thereof, and be manifestly for the benefit of the owners thereof for the time being:

And whereas the carrying the said proposal and agreement into execution will be a great advantage, not only to the inhabitants of the towns of Knaresborough, Ripon, Boroughbridge, Aldborough, and Ripley, in the West Riding of the said county of York, who are many of them supplied with coals from the said coal-works at Middleton, by saving the length and expense of carriage, through very bad roads, for five miles and upwards, but also the inhabitants of the town of Leeds aforesaid, where two hundred and forty thousand corfs of coals and upwards are computed to be yearly consumed, by effecting a very considerable reduction in the price of coals to the said inhabitants, which will be a great ease and relief to the persons employed in the woollen manufactory, and tend to the encouragement and improvement of trade and commerce in that country.

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Definitions and dates:

The first act authorizing the construction of railways was 26 Geo. 2, c. xxxv, the fourth amending act for the River Dee Navigation, which received the royal assent on 15 May 1753. The first act authorizing the construction of a railway separate from a river navigation was 31 Geo. 2, c. xxii, the enabling act for the Leeds (Middleton) Wagonway, which became law on 8 June 1758 (Geise 1959).

John Dyer’s Virgilian portrait of the valley of the Aire at the time:

Wide around
Hillock and valley, farm and village, smile:
And ruddy roofs and chimney-tops appear,
Of busy Leeds, up-wafting to the clouds
The incense of thanksgiving: all is joy;
And trade and business guide the living scene,
Roll the full cars, adown the winding Aire
Load the slow-sailing barges, pile the pack
On the long tinkling train of slow-paced steeds.
As when a sunny day invites abroad
The sedulous ants, they issue from their cells
In bands unnumbered, eager for their work;
O’er high, o’er low, they lift, they draw, they haste
With warm affection to each other’s aid;
Repeat their virtuous efforts, and succeed.
Thus all is here in motion, all is life:
The creaking wain brings copious store of corn:
The grazier’s sleeky kine obstruct the roads;
The neat-dressed housewives, for the festal board
Crowned with full baskets, in the field-way paths
Come tripping on; the echoing hills repeat
The stroke of axe and hammer; scaffolds rise,
And growing edifices; heaps of stone,
Beneath the chisel, beauteous shapes assume
Of frieze and column. Some, with even line,
New streets are marking in the neighbouring fields,
And sacred domes of worship. Industry,
Which dignifies the artist, lifts the swain,
And the straw cottage to a palace turns,
Over the work presides. Such was the scene
Of hurrying Carthage, when the Trojan chief
First viewed her growing turrets. So appear
The increasing walls of busy Manchester,
Sheffield, and Birmingham, whose reddening fields
Rise and enlarge their suburbs. Lo, in throngs,
For every realm, the careful factors meet,
Whispering each other. In long ranks the bales,
Like war’s bright files, beyond the sight extend.
Straight, ere the sounding bell the signal strikes,
Which ends the hour of traffic, they conclude
The speedy compact; and, well-pleased, transfer,
With mutual benefit, superior wealth
To many a kingdom’s rent, or tyrant’s hoard.
Whate’er is excellent in art proceeds
From labour and endurance: deep the oak
Must sink in stubborn earth its roots obscure,
That hopes to lift its branches to the skies:
Gold cannot gold appear, until man’s toil
Discloses wide the mountain’s hidden ribs,
And digs the dusky ore, and breaks and grinds
Its gritty parts, and laves in limpid streams,
With oft-repeated toil, and oft in fire
The metal purifies: with the fatigue,
And tedious process of its painful works,
The lusty sicken, and the feeble die.
(Dyer 1757)

The current Middleton Railway is a triumph of the human spirit, and being kippered by the smoke and white-noised by the steam on the veranda of the train as it pulls up the gradient from Moor Road Station is an experience like no other. Here’s some video:

Something to say? Get in touch

Comment

Definitions and dates:

The first act authorizing the construction of railways was 26 Geo. 2, c. xxxv, the fourth amending act for the River Dee Navigation, which received the royal assent on 15 May 1753. The first act authorizing the construction of a railway separate from a river navigation was 31 Geo. 2, c. xxii, the enabling act for the Leeds (Middleton) Wagonway, which became law on 8 June 1758 (Geise 1959).

John Dyer’s Virgilian portrait of the valley of the Aire at the time:

Wide around
Hillock and valley, farm and village, smile:
And ruddy roofs and chimney-tops appear,
Of busy Leeds, up-wafting to the clouds
The incense of thanksgiving: all is joy;
And trade and business guide the living scene,
Roll the full cars, adown the winding Aire
Load the slow-sailing barges, pile the pack
On the long tinkling train of slow-paced steeds.
As when a sunny day invites abroad
The sedulous ants, they issue from their cells
In bands unnumbered, eager for their work;
O’er high, o’er low, they lift, they draw, they haste
With warm affection to each other’s aid;
Repeat their virtuous efforts, and succeed.
Thus all is here in motion, all is life:
The creaking wain brings copious store of corn:
The grazier’s sleeky kine obstruct the roads;
The neat-dressed housewives, for the festal board
Crowned with full baskets, in the field-way paths
Come tripping on; the echoing hills repeat
The stroke of axe and hammer; scaffolds rise,
And growing edifices; heaps of stone,
Beneath the chisel, beauteous shapes assume
Of frieze and column. Some, with even line,
New streets are marking in the neighbouring fields,
And sacred domes of worship. Industry,
Which dignifies the artist, lifts the swain,
And the straw cottage to a palace turns,
Over the work presides. Such was the scene
Of hurrying Carthage, when the Trojan chief
First viewed her growing turrets. So appear
The increasing walls of busy Manchester,
Sheffield, and Birmingham, whose reddening fields
Rise and enlarge their suburbs. Lo, in throngs,
For every realm, the careful factors meet,
Whispering each other. In long ranks the bales,
Like war’s bright files, beyond the sight extend.
Straight, ere the sounding bell the signal strikes,
Which ends the hour of traffic, they conclude
The speedy compact; and, well-pleased, transfer,
With mutual benefit, superior wealth
To many a kingdom’s rent, or tyrant’s hoard.
Whate’er is excellent in art proceeds
From labour and endurance: deep the oak
Must sink in stubborn earth its roots obscure,
That hopes to lift its branches to the skies:
Gold cannot gold appear, until man’s toil
Discloses wide the mountain’s hidden ribs,
And digs the dusky ore, and breaks and grinds
Its gritty parts, and laves in limpid streams,
With oft-repeated toil, and oft in fire
The metal purifies: with the fatigue,
And tedious process of its painful works,
The lusty sicken, and the feeble die.
(Dyer 1757)

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

19 October 1816: Serenaded by the military, decorated barges leave Leeds for Liverpool to celebrate the completion, after almost 50 years, of the canal uniting east and west

27 January 1830: William Cobbett rides from Leeds to black Sheffield

1 July 1840: The opening of the Hull and Selby Railway terminates the threat to Hull’s port from Goole, Scarborough and Bridlington

25 September 1705: Daniel Defoe is amazed by Leeds’s outdoor cloth market on Briggate, shortly before the opening of the white cloth hall

20 September 1853: Ballad composed for the inauguration this day of Titus Salt’s palace for the manufacture of woollen fabrics

29 September 1830: Tory Radical Richard Oastler: “free” white workers in the Bradford mills are worse off than their enslaved black counterparts in the colonies

8 June 1561: A York official explains why textile manufacturing has left his city for the West Riding

1 July 1788: Leeds textile workers celebrate the banning of exports of live sheep

5 February 1852: A local poet recounts the fate of some of his 81 neighbours drowned this morning in Holmfirth Flood through the miserliness of the mill-owners

19 October 1808: William Perigo of Bramley finds that Mary Bateman defrauded him in promising to cure his wife Rebecca’s palpitations, and suspects she died of poisoning

Order the book:

Subscribe to the free daily email:

Comment

A flacking is a palpitation, e.g. in Marshall’s Rural economy: “To FLACK: to flicker as a bird; to throb as a wound” (Marshall 1788). Vlacken is apparently used in more or less that sense in (late) medieval Dutch, but I only know it from later with an interpolated r, cognate with our flicker:

Hoe schoon blinckt daer den diamant,
Hoe soetjens flackeren de Saphieren,
Oock den Carbonckel triumphant,
Geeft licht in duysende manieren.
(Bybelsche historie liedekens (1655))

Bateman was hung on 20 March 1809 at York, despite falsely claiming to be pregnant. The only contemporary sympathy for her related to her daughter:

As soon as she returned to her cell [following sentence], she took her infant child and gave it breast, a circumstance which considerably affected the gaoler who attended her on this melancholy occasion… At five o’clock on Monday morning, she was removed from her cell, from her infant child–it lay asleep on the bed, unconscious of the dreadful fate of its mother. She stopt a moment, and kissed it for the last time; at this moment, if ever, she must have felt; her emotion might not be apparent, she might, by long habit, have been able to conceal the workings of her heart, but it must have been a moment of unutterable anguish (op. cit.).

She did not, however, die in vain:

The curiosity excited by the singularity and atrocity of her crimes, extended to the viewing of her lifeless remains; though the hearse did not reach Leeds until near midnight, it was met by a considerable number of people ; and so great was the general curiosity to see her, that the sum of thirty pounds was raised for the use of the General Infirmary, by receiving from each of the visitors the sum of threepence (op. cit.).

Wikipedia unfortunately makes much of Knipe, but I believe the following to be true:

Her body was dissected by William Hey, who spread the event across three days. On day one medical students paid to view the corpse, on day two “about 100 tickets were available to gentlemen [professional Leeds men] who paid five guineas”, and on day three women could buy a day ticket to attend Hey’s lectures on the body. Strips of her skin were tanned into leather and sold as magic charms to ward off evil spirits. The tip of her tongue was collected by the governor of Ripon Prison. Two books from the library of Mexborough House were covered in her skin – Sir John Cheeke’s Hurt of Sedition: How Grievous it is to a Common Welth (1569) and Richard Braithwaite’s Arcadian Princess (1635); the books went missing in the mid-nineteenth century (Wikipedia contributors 2021).

Susan Grace’s doctoral dissertation looks interesting (Grace 1998), but I haven’t had time.

Something to say? Get in touch