A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



and partially opened three years later.' This 

 was intended to be an Essex Une. The Hert- 

 fordshire portion of the Great Eastern, how- 

 ever, was principally formed from the old 

 Northern and Eastern from Stratford to 

 Cambridge, which had been granted the use of 

 the Eastern Counties terminus at Shoreditch. 

 In 1840 the Northern and Eastern line was 

 open to Broxbourne, and soon after reached 

 Bishop's Stortford on its way to Newport ; 

 thence the Eastern Counties extended the line 

 to Cambridge. 



The third great trunk Hne to be constructed, 

 which passed through Hertfordshire with a 

 terminus in London, was that soon to be known 

 as the Great Northern. The London and York 

 Railway Bill passed in June 1846, but the hne 

 from Werrington to Maiden Lane was not 

 completed until 1850. Some delay had been 

 occasioned during the winter of 1849-50 by 

 keen frost, which stopped work on the Welwyn 

 viaduct, and after this by the collapse of an 

 arch of the North London Railway viaduct 

 near the tunnel at Copenhagen Fields. By 

 5 August 1850, however, all difficulties were 

 overcome, and the directors and their friends 

 made a trial trip * to Peterborough in four and 

 a half hours, a considerable time having been 

 lost at Welwyn, where the party went down to 

 the valley to secure a better view of the viaduct. 

 The first public train was three days later. 

 The Royston, Hitchin and Shepreth Branch 

 was opened in 1850 by the Great Northern 

 Company, which guaranteed j^i 5,000 a year to 

 the Royston and Hitchin shareholders, but 

 from I April 1852 the working of this line was 

 taken over by the Eastern Counties for a term 

 of fourteen years. In 1853 an independent 

 company had been formed to build the Welwyn 

 and Hertford Railway, 7 miles in length, to 

 join the Great Northern and Eastern Counties 

 hues. Originally it was worked by both these 

 companies. By i860 the Hertford and Welwyn 

 line had been extended westward to Luton 

 and Dunstable, and in 1 861 it was absorbed by 

 the Great Northern, which guaranteed the 

 dividend » on the shares of the local company. 

 In 1864, in view of the approaching lapse of the 

 agreement under which the Great Eastern was 

 working the Shepreth and Hitchin hne, the 

 Great Northern obtained running powers from 

 Shepreth over the Great Eastern. On 11 June 

 1866 took place the memorable accident in the 

 Welwyn tunnel when three trains took fire. 

 As regards the later development of the line 

 in Hertfordshire, branches to Edgware and 

 Barnet were opened up in the early ' seventies,' 

 and under an Act of ParHament in 1883 the 



' Official Guide to the Great Eastern Railway, 1 7. 



8 Grinling, Great Northern Raihay, 90 et seq. 



9 Ibid. 20+. 



Hatfield and St. Albans line was acquired.^" 

 At the present time the Great Northern Com- 

 pany is constructing a new line from Cufiley to 

 Stevenage, the section from Enfield to Cuffley 

 having been opened in April 1910. 



At the time when companies operating in 

 the Midlands were amalgamated and incor- 

 porated as the Midland Railway in 1844, it 

 had obtained no foothold in Hertfordshire. In 

 1847 an Act of ParHament had been obtained 

 for the making of a line from Leicester to 

 Hitchin, but this lapsed since the Midland were 

 promised facihties on the North Western line 

 from Rugby, and it was only under a later Act 

 of 1853 that the Midland Une through Bedford 

 to Hitchin was constructed." The Leicester 

 to Hitchin hne was opened for mineral and 

 goods traffic in April 1857 ^'^^ ^°^ passenger 

 traffic the following month, running powers 

 over the Great Northern being obtained to 

 King's Cross early in the next year. The 

 Midland, however, found themselves entirely 

 in the power of their hosts, and the situation 

 soon became impossible. A chmax was 

 reached in June 1862 during the Exhibition, 

 when the Great Northern evicted the Midland 

 from their sidings at King's Cross and dis- 

 located their traffic. Accordingly in June 

 1863 the Midland Company obtained Parha- 

 mentary powers to make a line from Bedford 

 to St. Pancras, but before this was opened 

 built a goods station at St. Pancras and ran 

 into it from Hitchin from January 1865. The 

 Bedford hne to the goods station at St. Pancras 

 was opened on 7 September 1867. On 

 I October of the following year the new passen- 

 ger station at St. Pancras was opened and 

 Midland trains were no longer run to King's 

 Cross .^ 



The Hemel Hempstead Company had ob- 

 tained an Act in 1863, amended by sub- 

 sequent Acts, to make a short hne beginning at 

 Boxmoor on the London and North Western 

 system, passing through Hemel Hempstead 

 and Redbourn to the Midland and Great 

 Northern systems at Harpenden. On con- 

 sideration, however, they determined to commit 

 the working to the Midland, and on 16 July 

 1877 the hne, in a modified form, from the 

 junction near Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead 

 was opened and worked by the Midland. In 

 1886 the Hemel Hempstead Company was 

 absorbed by the Midland Company.^ 



The extension of the MetropoUtan Railway 

 was opened as far as Harrow in 1880. From 

 this station it was gradually carried forward 

 until the line between Chalfont Road and 



1" Grinling, Great Northern Railtcay, 366. 

 ^ C. E. Stretton, Hist. Midland Railway, 1 5 5. 

 "Ibid. 186. 

 "Ibid. 159. 



240 



