Bundle of Papers re the Proposed Stockport & Warrington Railway

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 133 EGR4/2/10/26
  • Dates of Creation
      1834-1835
  • Physical Description
      5 pieces, in separate wrapper.

Scope and Content

The bundle contains papers relating to the proposed Stockport & Warrington Railway, which was planned by the engineer George Stephenson. George Harry Grey (1765-1845), 6th Earl of Stamford, was fiercely opposed to the railway. He argued that the railway was unnecessary and would not bring the economic benefits claimed by the promoters. But he seems to have been motivated principally by concern that the line would run within a mile of Dunham Massey Hall. The proposal appears to have been abandoned. In 1851 the Warrington & Altrincham Junction Railway received Parliamentary approval for a line between the two towns via Dunham Massey, and a further Act was obtained in 1853 permitting an extension to Stockport and the change of its name to the Warrington & Stockport Railway. The line opened in its entirety on 1 May 1854. Source: G.O. Holt, A regional history of the railway of Great Britain; volume 10: the North West (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1978), pp. 86-9.

There is correspondence between Lord Stamford and George Stephenson (EGR4/2/10/26/1-2), notes by Lord Stamford on the proposal (/3-4), and a letter from F. Hill to Hugo Worthington (/5).

The wrapper is addressed to Lord Stamford and is annotated "Mr George Stephenson | Stockport & Warrington | Railroad" in the hand of Lord Stamford