INDUSTRIES 



designed to facilitate horse traction, seems to 

 have been the outcome of a larger scheme to 

 meet the necessity of an easier mode of car- 

 riage for heavy goods between London and 

 Portsmouth. Originally, as part of this 

 scheme, it was proposed to make a canal 

 between Wandsworth and Croydon, but this 

 proposal, as we have stated, proved imprac- 

 ticable on account of the injury that it was 

 felt would be done to the numerous manu- 

 factures on the Wandle by the serious reduc- 

 tion in the supply of water for the mills. 

 Accordingly in 1799 an engineer, Mr. 

 William Jessop, after a survey of the ground, 

 proposed that an iron railway, as used in parts 

 of Derbyshire, should be made from Wands- 

 worth to Portsmouth by way of Croydon, 

 Reigate and Arundel. It was thought prudent 

 however to make a beginning with one sec- 

 tion only from Wandsworth to Croydon, and 

 the Act of 1 80 1 was obtained, whereby 

 authority was given for the raising of a 

 capital stock of ;^35,000 in shares of ;£iOO 

 each in order to carry out the scheme. The 

 preamble of the Act states that the railway 

 will be of very great advantage to several 

 considerable manufactories established in the 

 neighbourhood, as well as to the inhabitants 

 of a very populous country lying on or near 

 the railway by opening a cheap and easy 

 communication for the conveyance of coals, 

 corn and all goods, wares and merchandize to 

 and from the metropolis and other places. 



The Act is of interest because, although 

 clauses had for some time previously been in- 

 serted in Canal Acts authorizing the making 

 of branch railways, it was the first one for a 

 railway alone. The works included in addi- 

 tion to the main line of the railway a dock 

 at Wandsworth and a branch line from 

 Mitcham Common to Hackbridge. There 

 would appear also to have been a proposal to 

 connect the line at Merton with the calico- 

 printing works of Mr. Richard Howard at 

 Phipps Bridge, but it is doubtful whether 

 this connection was ever made. The 

 length of the main line was about eight 

 miles and the branch to Hackbridge a mile 

 and a quarter. The company was managed 

 by a committee, which was composed chiefly 

 of the local maunfacturers. 



Grooved rails were used to guide the 

 wheels of the cars or trucks, the principle of 

 the flanged wheel being apparently unknown 

 at this date. The waggons in use belonged 

 for the most part to the manufacturers of the 

 neighbourhood, but anyone whose waggons 

 were of the correct gauge and not above a 

 certain weight and size was at liberty to use 

 the rails upon paying the tolls, the maximum 



rates of which were fixed by the Act. These 

 maximum rates were zd. per ton per mile 

 for manure ; 3^. for limestone, chalk, lime, 

 clay, breeze, ashes, sand and bricks ; 4^. for 

 metals, stone, flints, coals, coke, fullers' earth, 

 corn and seeds, flour, malt and potatoes, and 

 bd. for all other goods. 4^. per ton might 

 be charged upon all goods carried in or out 

 of the basin at Wandsworth. 



The venture proved unsuccessful, its failure 

 being due perhaps in the main to the adop- 

 tion of Wandsworth and not London as the 

 terminus. Connection through the Grand 

 Junction Canal at Brentford with the north 

 and midlands had been put forward as one of 

 the principal objects of the company. But 

 the chief market for the products of the 

 Wandle manufactories must have been the 

 metropolis, and the failure through lack of 

 support to carry out an extension of the line 

 from Wandsworth to London, proposed in 

 1802, put an end to any hopes of saving the 

 fortunes of the railway. The opening of 

 the Croydon Canal in 1809 raised a formid- 

 able competitor against the railway for the 

 goods traffic between Croydon and London, 

 as it must have been considerably less expen- 

 sive to carry the goods in barges all the way 

 from Rotherhithe than to land them from 

 the river at Wandsworth and transport them 

 thence in the little trucks of the Surrey Iron 

 Railway. 



The chief source of traffic to the line 

 came, however, from its extension under the 

 name of the Croydon, Merstham and God- 

 stone Iron Railway, the necessary powers to 

 raise the capital being obtained from Parlia- 

 ment in 1803.' The company under which 

 this new line was carried out was distinct 

 from the former one, although several of the 

 members of the committee were the same, 

 and its powers were to make and maintain a 

 railway from Pitlake Meadow in Croydon — 

 that is to say, from the terminus of the Surrey 

 Iron Railway — to or near Reigate, with a colla- 

 teral branch from the line at Merstham to God- 

 stone Green. The capital stock to be raised 

 was not to exceed ^60,000, to be contributed 

 in shares of ;£ioo each. The maximum 

 rates which the new company was permitted 

 to charge for the carriage of goods over its 

 lines were the same as those of the older 

 company. 



The company only succeeded in raising 

 j^45,500, and was never able to carry its 

 line beyond the Merstham quarries. This 

 portion of it, about 8| miles in length, was 

 opened for traffic in July 1805. It seems to 



1 Loc. and Pers. Acts, 43 Geo. III. cap. 35. 



257 



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