Chester and Holyhead Railway

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The Chester and Holyhead Railway was incorporated out of a proposal to link Holyhead, the traditional port for the Irish Mail with London by way of the existing Chester and Crewe Railway, and what is now the West Coast Main Line. Indeed the carriage of the Irish Mail was always the primary objective of the founding Directors.

1 The Irish Mail
2 The Chester and Holyhead Railway Act 1844
3 Engineering Works
4 Operating the Line
5 References

[edit] The Irish Mail

If one is looking for the first Irish Mail from London to Dublin perhaps one should start with the Romans who almost certainly had need of the facility and their Watling Street from London to Chester was a good start. From Chester they could have sailed, as many have done since, either direct or via Parkgate or Liverpool. But also from Watling Street the Romans had a choice of roads of their own making through Wales to Caernarfon and across Anglesey to Holyhead.

It comes as no surprise that when Queen Elizabeth I decided in 1572 to establish a weekly post to Ireland the route via Chester and Liverpool was chosen and then switched just four years later to Holyhead. When it comes to travel in a hurry, by land is usually faster than by sea. And Royal mail has always been in a hurry.

Not such a hurry though that unlimited funds were available and the weekly post sufficed for many years with a British Parliament in London and an Irish Parliament in Dublin messages slowly came and went and a few civil servants braved the journey mostly on horseback. The post improved but slowly, although by 1784 the turnpike acts had produced improved roads on which a regular mail coach could be operated almost nightly from the 'Swan with two necks' in Lad Lane in the City of London to the 'Eagle and Child' in Holyhead. But it was still a slow, troublesome and often dangerous journey. Even when on time it took 45 hours from London to Holyhead.

With the passing of the Act of Union 1800, which created the United Kingdom, expectations changed. Elected Irish members of the new United Kingdom Parliament sought the same quality of travel and postal facilities as their fellow members from England and Scotland. Even so improvement came slowly and by the time Thomas Telford had completed his A5 road improvements through Shrewsbury, Llangollen, Betws-y-coed, Bangor and his Menai Suspension Bridge in 1826, the London to Holyhead journey was down under 30 hours, but the age of steam had already arrived. The first steam packet boats had entered service between Holyhead and Dublin in 1819 and soon they were operating out of Liverpool as well.

With the coming of the railways, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and joining the two the Grand Junction Railway, came fast trains from London to Liverpool and fast steam packets from Liverpool to Kingstown and a journey time of 22½ hours from London to Dublin. From January 24, 1839 the Irish Mail contract was switched to Liverpool.

Even before this date the search was on for the shortest route from Dublin to London and this was clearly via Porth Dinllaen on the Llyn Peninsula and engineers were not slow to survey. They quickly discovered the difficulties of the terrain (which might be thought to far outweigh any slight advantages of shortness of route) but the engineers saw this simply as a challenge to be overcome. The great advocate of Porth Dinllaen was Henry Archer, Secretary of the Ffestiniog Railway Company who engaged the services of Charles Vignoles to survey the route in 1835 and indeed Vignoles produced three alternative routes.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel chose quite a different route and was actively surveying via Gloucester and New Quay in Cardigan Bay. Others, however, got very serious about the merits of their proposed St. George's Harbour constructed with a large stone breakwater between the Great Orme's Head and the Little Orme's Head in Ormes Bay at Llandudno and they were the first to petition Parliament, in 1837, with their St. George's Harbour and Railway Bill, which failed.

It was against this background that plans for a Chester and Holyhead Railway were prepared and canvassed between 1838 and 1842, almost scuppered in 1843, and eventually given the Royal Assent on July 4, 1844 (7-8 Vic. cap lxv).

[edit] The Chester and Holyhead Railway Act 1844

The Company was empowered to raise £2,100,000 in shares, of which the London and Birmingham Railway might contribute £1,000,000. Powers to construct the main line did not include bridging the Menai Strait. A station was to be built at Fflint. Cuts through the walls at Chester and Conwy were to be in an approved manner and the bridge at Conwy was to give the same clearance as Telford's suspension bridge with which the new structure was to be in harmony. A sea wall was to be built at Abergele. Penmaenbach was to be tunnelled.

The Company had eighteen directors. Nine were nominated by the London and Birmingham Railway, three were nominated by the Chester and Birkenhead Railway and six were nominated by the original proposers who themselves were originally nominees of the Chester and Crewe Railway which had become part of the Grand Junction Railway in 1840.

The Board had been much exercised during the eight month's before the granting of the Act in establishing a working relationship with its neighbour the Grand Junction Railway, which was shewing resentment at having been excluded from the formulation of the Chester and Holyhead Railway's plans. Likewise the Board had been finding the Treasury difficult to deal with in obtaining a satisfactory mail contract.

By the end of 1844, the Board, meeting as usual in London, had severed its connections with George Stephenson and appointed his son Robert Stephenson as engineer-in-chief and Captain Moorsom as resident Director in Chester. It had submitted a Bill to Parliament for the line between Ogwen and Llanfair PG including the bridging of the Menai Strait. Land acquisition was in progress but proving expensive and tenders were being prepared for the construction.

The section between Chester and Saltney was causing problems even before construction started owing to the need to accommodate the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway (and the income it would generate), which was seeking to save costs by entering Chester over the Chester and Holyhead Railway.

[edit] Engineering Works

The first sod was cut and the first blasting shot fired at Conwy tunnel on Saint David's Day March 1, 1845. By the end of that year, some 5,000 men and 500 horses were engaged in the construction. In the same year work had started on several tunnels, Llandegai, Conwy, Belmont and Bangor. Penmaenbach tunnel was opened in November 1846 amid local celebration. Earlier in October 1846, the sea defences had been breached at Penmaenmawr tunnel entrances and the formation washed away even before completion.

By May 1844, the Board had agreed to 14 intermediate stations at: Queensferry, Fflint, Holywell, Mostyn Quay, Rhyl, Abergele, Colwyn, Conwy, Aber, Bangor, Menai Bridge, Llanfair PG, Bodorgan and Ty Croes. A station was provided at 'The Valley' as a result of a successful petition in 1846. The stations were architect designed by Francis Thompson who also designed the fine buildings for the Chester joint station. The need for several others including Bagillt and Prestatyn was recognised by Stephenson but deferred along with Colwyn and Aber on account of financial stringency.

In total 85 miles of double track railway were under construction during a four year period including two large and most impressive bridges at technically very demanding locations. The pioneering design of the Conwy and Britannia Tubular Bridges occupied much of Stephenson's personal attention and pushed forward the boundaries of railway engineering.

Yet it was another far less demanding bridge that almost brought about Stephenson's downfall. It was the River Dee Bridge at Chester, that had been brought into use early in November 1846 for the accommodation of the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway. One of its three 98 foot cast iron spans collapsed on May 24, 1847 just as a passenger train was passing over at about 30 mph. The engine and its tender got across but the coaches fell with the girders into the river. The fireman and five passengers were killed and eight injured.

[edit] Operating the Line

Notwithstanding the setback with the Dee Bridge, passenger trains operated throughout from Chester to Bangor, almost sixty miles, from May 1, 1848 and across the Britannia Bridge to Holyhead from March 18, 1850.

The Chester and Holyhead Railway was incorporated in the LNWR on January 1, 1859. It is now known as the North Wales Coast Line and it still connects with sea ferries to Dublin.