152 THE ACT OBTAINED. CHAP. IX. 



the first Stockton and Darlington Eailway Act on the 

 19th of April, 1821. 



The preamble of this Act recites, that " the making 

 'and maintaining of a Eailway or Tramroad, for the pas- 

 sage of waggons and other carriages " from Stockton to 

 Witton Park Colliery (by Darlington), " will be of great 

 public utility, by facilitating the conveyance of coal, 

 iron, lime, corn, and other commodities " between the 

 places mentioned. The projectors of the line did not 

 originally contemplate the employment of locomotives ; 

 for in the Act they provide for the making and main- 

 taining of the tramroads for the passage upon them 

 of waggons and other carriages " with men and horses 

 or otherwise," and a further clause made provision as 

 to the damages which might be done in the course of 

 .traffic by the " waggoners." The public were to be free 

 " to use, with horses, cattle and carriages," the roads 

 formed by the company, on payment of the authorised 

 rates, " between the hours of seven in the morning 

 and six in the evening," during the winter months ; 

 " between six in the morning and eight in the evening," 

 in two of the spring and autumn months each ; and 

 " between five in the morning and ten in the evening," 

 in the high summer months of May, June, July, 

 and August. From this it will be obvious that the 

 projectors of the line had themselves at first no very 

 large conceptions as to the scope of their project. 



Some time elapsed before any active steps were taken 

 to proceed with the construction of the railway. Doubts 

 had been raised whether the line was the best that could 

 be adopted for the district; and the subscribers gene- 

 rally were not so sanguine about the undertaking as to 

 induce them to press it forward. 



One day, about the end of the year 1821, two 

 j strangers knocked at the door of Mr. Pease's house in 

 I Darlington ; and the message was brought to him that 

 \ some persons from Killingworth wanted to speak with 



