Early Railways in England

Artist's impression of a waggonway

On Wednesday Richard Charlton sent me a link to a research document sponsored by Historic England (HE) - see Early Railways in England by Dr David Gwyn & Sir Neil Cossons, published in February 2017.   This very interesting & authoritative study shows a current high level academic view of early railways supported by a well established & highly regarded organisation whose public face is English Heritage.   It also contains many useful reference to other authors & their works.

We're all aware of the importance to us of  TR's tercentenary in 2025, but this document lays bare the mountain we have to climb to establish our route on the national stage, even though the document itself says:

The Tyneside system is the design-ancestor of the median-gauge railways of the present day, and in particular of the UK, continental European and USA gauge of 4͛ 8½”.  p23

There is a clear and evident line of descent from the Tanfield waggonway through later coal-carrying railways like the Stockton & Darlington and the Bowes, to England͛'s first main line, the Liverpool & Manchester. The St-Étienne (1827) and the Baltimore & Ohio (1830) are early offshoots. The Japanese Shinkansen and the French TGV follow directly in this tradition, as does HS1 (the Channel Tunnel Rail Link) and as will HS2.  p46

A key problem is that Historic England seems to require some built object, but pretty much rules out landscape works such as the Causey embankment or our route as a whole:

Built structural features will typically be more appropriately protected via listing. Good runs of sleeper stones marking courses of wagonways may be considered for scheduling, especially if associated with engineered cuts or embankments or other contemporary features. However, simple earthwork embankments and cuttings are unlikely to be deemed to be of national importance in their own right because they are relatively common nationally. Rarer earthwork features, such as non-locomotive hauled inclines, may exceptionally be of national importance.  p38

No horses or wooden structures exist from the inception of the Tanfield waggonway - there is only the route.   While the Causey Arch & the culvert under the embankment are grade 1 listed, otherwise the importance, history, existence & continued use of the Tanfield route may be ignored today.

The full document is available to download - see  Early Railways in England  or use a wider search of Historic England Research.

There's a lot of reading, but you can search for particular words using CTRL F - eg try Tanfield or Causey or waggonway (but note that the authors sometimes use wagonway).