If you are interested in the railways and when and how they arrived in East Anglia….this is a new book you will love.
The Great Eastern Railway, The Early History, 1811-1862 by Charles Phillips has been a labour of love for this talented author who has done an enormous amount of research to bring us this compelling and complicated story.
And we are introduced to many of the colourful characters involved in the arrival of the trains and what was going on behind the scenes.
This is the first of two books by Charles which cover the history of the Great Eastern Railway and its predecessors, from the first proposal for a railway in the eastern counties in 1811 and all the trials and tribulations involved.
In fact the town of Great Yarmouth was the original objective of the Eastern Counties Railway, but the failure to build its line to the town led to the formation of and the building of the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway.
This history of the GER is the first since Cecil J Allen’s history of the railway which was first published in 1955 and has been out of print for many years.
This new book covers the GER from its beginnings to its absorption into the London and North Eastern Railway under the 1923 grouping of the railways.
We can follow the journey from that first proposals for a railway in the East of England in 1811 up to the formation of the company in 1862.
The author has spent a long time reading books, magazine articles, newspaper reports, including ours, and extracts from contemporary diaries relating to the railways.
And he came across some interesting tales.
In May 1853 Mr Frere (JP), of Roydon Hall, near Diss, was convicted at Colchester Magistrates Court of travelling on the railways without paying the appropriate fare.
He had bought a 2nd class ticket from Colchester to Norwich costing 5 shillings but alighted at Diss where the fare from Colchester to Diss was in fact 7 shillings!
Frere appealed to the Quarter Sessions, where the case was adjudged to be so important it was referred to the High Court which set aside the 10s imposed by the magistrates.
Whilst counsel for the train company argued that Frere had obtained the ticket under false pretences, the court decided that a passenger was entitled to alight at any intermediate station unless there were specific byelaws to the contrary.
Moving across to Diss we arrive at Scole and the little railway which opened in 1850. It was the brainchild of William Betts who owned Frenze Hall and estates.
He had plans to create a market garden and the main reason for the railway was so he could get his produce to the London in good time.
It started from the Jolly Porter Inn at Diss, and to make it more profitable Betts created two large brickfields, connected to his railway as well as providing raw material for the construction of workers’ cottages.
When Betts died in 1885 the railway closed.
The Times reported in October 1862 how the Lynn/Hunstanton line had opened and the first train conveyed the directors, contractors, officers of the company, and others to a luncheon at the Hunstanton terminus.
The 15-mile line, with stations at North Wootton, Wolferton, Dersingham, Snettisham, Heacham and Hunstanton had cost £80,000.
Then, in 1857, the Wells and Fakenham Railway, promoted by landowners and directors of the Norfolk Railway, opened. A public holiday was declared in Wells and there was a dinner for 90 gentlemen at the Crown Inn under the presidency of Lord Leicester.
The Great Eastern Railway, The Early History 1811-1862 by Charles Phillips, is published by Pen & Sword Books at £25. More details on www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
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