Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LONDON AND NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY

LONDON AND NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY, a railway system from London to the northwestern connties. It is an amalgamation, effected in 1846, of the London and Birmingham, the Manchester and Birmingham, and the Grand Junction railways; it is also interested, by lease or subscription, in a number of other railways; and, in 1866, it had a productive mileage of 1,273. The London and Birmingham railway was authorized in 1833, and opened in 1838; underwent extension, through authority obtained in 1843, by purchase of the Warwick and Leamington line, and by construction of the Peterborough branch; and, at the amalgamation in 1846, had a capital of £8,250,000. The Manchester and Birmingham railway, from Manchester to Crewe, was authorized in 1837, and opened in 1842; became interested jointly with the London and Birmingham, in the Trent Valley railway; had, at the amalgamation, a capital of £2,800,000; and was subsequently united with the Leeds, Dewsbury, and Manchester, authorized in 1845, -the Huddersfield and Manchester, authorized in 1846, with a branch to Oldham, opened in 1855, -the Northampton and Market-Harborough, authorized in 1853, with a short branch from Hardingston, -the St. Albans, 7½ miles long, authorized in 1853, and opened in 1858,- and the Shrewsbury and Crewe, 33 miles long, authorized in 1853, and opened in 1858. The Grand Junction railway has already been noticed in its own alphabetical place.

The subsidiary works of the London and Northwestern railway, connected with it by lease or subscription, are, -the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Stour Valley, authorized in 1846 on a capital of £1,110,000, and leased in 1847 in perpetnity, at a rental of two-thirds of the Northwestern's dividends on a fixed capital of £760,350; the Buckinghamshire railway, 41½ miles long, authorized in 1846 on a capital of £950,000, and leased to the Northwestern at 4 per cent. and half-surplus profits on the capital; the Bedford railway, 1 5¾ miles long, authorized in 1845 on a capital of £125,000, opened in Nov. 1846, and leased to the Northwestern at 4 per cent. and halfsurplus profits on half the capital; the Hampstead Junction railway, 6 &he. miles long, authorized in 1853 on a capital of £250,000, and associated with the Northwestern through subscription of £150,000; the Birmingham canal, leased in 1846 to the Birmingham and Stour Valley railway, and associated thence with the Northwestern, under a guarantee of £4 dividend per share; the Stockport, Disley, and Whaley-Bridge railway, authorized in 1855, and associated with the Northwestern through subscription of £85,000; the Brixton Extension railway, authorized in 1857, and associated with the Northwestern through subscription of £1 05,000; the North Union railway, an amalgamation of the Wigan and Preston and the Bolton and Preston, 39 miles long, and conveyed in 1846 in perpetuity to jointly the Northwestern and the Lancashire and Yorkshire, for a fixed annuity of £66,064; the West London railway, 9½ miles long, authorized in 1 836, and leased in 1845, for 999 years, to conjointly the Northwestern and the Great Western, at an annual rent of £1,800; the West London Extension railway, authorized in 1859 and 1861, opened in 1863, and associated with the Northwestern through subscription of £85,000; the Preston and Wyre railway, leased for onethird of its interests to the Northwestern, for the other two-thirds to the Lancashire and Yorkshire; the Manchester, Brixton, Matlock, and Midlands railway, 11½ miles long, authorized in 1846, united by purchase with the Cromford canal, and leased in 1842 to jointly the Northwestern and the Midland, at 2½ per cent. per annum on a capital of £421,300; the North and South Western Junction railway, about 4 miles long, connecting the Northwestern and the Southwestern, authorized in 1851, and held jointly by the NorthwesteRn and the Southwestern on a tenure yielding a minimum of 3 per cent. on paid-up share-capital: the Shropshire Union railway, an amalgamation of the Newton and Crewe, the Chester and Wolverhampton, and the Shrewsbury and Stafford railways, aggeegately 154 miles long, together with the Ellesmere and Chesterand the Shrewsbury and Montgomery canals, leased to the Northwestern in 1847, on guarantee terms equal to one half of the Northwestern's ordinary consolidated stock, but subsequently associated with it on altered terms; the Chester and Holyhead railway, 85 miles long, authorized in 1844,-including afterwards the Mold railway and the Bangor and Carnarvon railway, so as to be aggregately 105 miles long,-and, in 1858, leased amalgamatingly with the Northwestern, at a price not exceeding £50 per £100 stock; the Lancaster and Carlisle railway, already noticed in its own alphabetical place; the Warrington and Stockport railway, authorized in 1859, and leased to the Northwestern at 5 per cent. on preference capital, and 4 per cent. on ordinary stock; and the London and Blackwall railway, associated with the Northwestern through payment of interest on the cost of a short branch from the Northwestern's warehouses in Haydon-square to the Blackwall line, together with payment of a fixed annual sum as toll.

Other works, numerous and varions, have been executed, undertaken, or contemplated by the Northwestern Company. Such are - the construction of nearly 8 miles of railway on portions of the site of the Shropshire canal, authorized in 1857; the formation of a branch line and other works in connexion with the Crewe and Shrewsbury railway, authorized in 1858; the construction of a line, 4½ miles long, from the Edge-hill station at Liverpool to the St. Helen's railway at Garston, opened in 1863; the construction of a line from Aston station to Sutton-Coldfield, opened in 1862; the subscribing of £50,000 to the Oldham, Ashton, and Guide-Bridge line, authorized in 1859; the construction of new lines, 1 3 miles long, from near Stockport to Cheadle, and from Chelford to Knutsford, authorized in 1861; the construction of lines, upwards of 15 miles long, from Edge-hill to Bootle, from Winwick to Golborne, and from Aston to Ditton, with enlargement of stations in Liverpool, and with a branch to Runcorn and a bridge across the Mersey, opened in 1863; the construction of a line, 13 miles long, from Eccles through Tyldesley and Wigan, with branches to Bedford and Leigh, opened in 1864; the constriction of new lines, upwards of a mile long, at Burton-on-Trent, authorized in 1861; the purchasing or leasing of St. George's Harbour, authorized in 1861; the construction of several small branches to the West Cheshire line, aggregately 10 ½ miles long, authorized in 1863; the construction of new lines in Yorkshire, 4½ miles long, authorized in 1863; the forming of contracts for improved postal and passenger service between Holyhead and Ireland, authorized in 1855 and 1864; the constructing of short lines and junctions aggregately 12¾ miles long, and the incorporating of the Bedford and Cambridge, authorized in 1865; the construction of several short lines in Wales, aggregately 23 ½ miles long, authorized in 1865; an assumption of a current lease of the South Staffordshire line, effected in 1865; the erection, jointly with the Northeastern, of a new central station at Leeds, authorized in 1865; the construction of new lines in Cheshire, Salop, Stafford, Flint, and W. R. Yorkshire, contemplated in bills lodged for the session of 1866; and measures, some entirely on its own account, others jointly with the Midland, others jointly with the Lancashire and Yorkshire, for the construction of a line from the Stockport and Whaley-Bridge to Sheffield, for the making of new streets in Sheffield, for the construction of a line from Huddersfield to Halifax, with a branch to Elland, for the purchase of the Ashby and Nuneaton lines, for acquiring powers over the lines at Burton-on-Trent, and for purchasing the Fleetwood, Preston, and West Riding Junction line, contemplated in notices for the session of 1867. The Northwestern has also amalgamated the Conway and Llanrwst; leased the Merthyr, Tredegar, and Abergavenny, the Llandudno, the Knighton, the Shrewsbury and Hereford, and the St. Helens; made agreements with the Birkenhead, the Great Northern, the Great Western, the North Staffordshire, the Wolverhampton and Walsall, and the Northwestern and Charing-cross; and contemplated, for the session of 1866, agreements with the Whitehaven Junction and the Cockermouth and Workington. The capital accounts of the company, at 30 June 1865, showed, -on stock and shares, £28,605,436; on debentures, £1 0,13 4,6 78; debenture stock at 3½ per cent., £310,830; debenture stock at 4 per cent., £1,952,279; total receipts, £41,003,224; expenditure, £39,679,980.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a railway system"   (ADL Feature Type: "railroad features")
Administrative units: London AncC

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