Huddersfield and East and West Coasts Direct Railway (1845/6)

The Huddersfield and East & West Coasts Direct Railway was a scheme proposed in September 1845 for the purpose of "connecting Liverpool, Manchester, Huddersfield, Barnsley, Google, Great Grimsby, and Hull, with a communication to the Metropolis from or near the Cudworth Station of the North Midland Railway". The capital was £1,000,000 in 50,000 shares of £20 each (deposit £2 2s per share) and the company secretary was William Jacomb of Huddersfield.[1] The engineer was to have been Thomas Storey of Bishop Auckland.

The scheme included a proposal to extended the (at that time unconstructed) Huddersfield & Manchester Railway eastward from Huddersfield Station with a line to Cudworth Station via Kirkheaton, Kirkburton, Shelley and Barnsley, thereby opening up a new route through to the east coast.[2] The scheme also proposed a number of branch lines to run off of the new line:[3]

  • Dalton to Upper Aspley (Huddersfield)
  • Dalton to a junction with the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway in the township of Huddersfield
  • Dalton to Upper Whitley via Lepton
  • Cumberworth Half to Flockton
  • Cawthorne to Silkstone
  • Monk Bretton to Barnsley
  • Monk Bretton to a junction with the North Midland Railway
  • Ardsley

The company's provisional committee included William Leigh Brook (Meltham), Richard Armitage (Fenay Lodge), Francis Shaw Buckley (Saddleworth), Rev. John Farrand (Cumberworth), James Learoyd (Huddersfield), William Learoyd (Bridgefield House, Huddersfield), John Mason (Newhouse, Huddersfield), Luke Marsden (Aspley Place), William Moore (Seed Hill), Jere Kaye (York Place, Huddersfield), Samuel Routledge (Seed Hill), and John Starkey (Thornton Lodge).[4] By November 1845, civil engineer John Stead was involved with the scheme.[5]

Successful negotiations were entered into with the Huddersfield & Manchester Railway and the Hull & Barnsley Railway.[6]

At a meeting held in Huddersfield on 21 January 1846, chaired by Joseph Starkey, it was agreed that other newly proposed railway schemes would likely have the desired effect of opening up a coast-to-coast route and that the Huddersfield and East & West Coasts Direct Railway scheme should therefore be suspended.[7][8]

Further Reading

Notes and References

  1. ↑ The Sun (London) (16/Sep/1845).
  2. ↑ The Sun (London) (19/Sep/1845).
  3. ↑ Further details of the various branch lines can be found in "The Huddersfield and East and West Coasts Direct Railway" in Leeds Intelligencer (15/Nov/1845).
  4. ↑ Hull Advertiser (26/Sep/1845).
  5. ↑ "Correspondence" in Herapath's Railway Journal (19/Nov/1845).
  6. ↑ Herapath's Railway Journal (01/Nov/1845) page 2395.
  7. ↑ Morning Herald (09/Jan/1846).
  8. ↑ "Huddersfield and East and West Coasts Direct Railway" in Bradford Observer (08/Jan/1846).