![Locomotive 'Agenoria' built by Foster Rastrick in Stourbridge for the Earl of Dudley’s Railway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Locomotive_%27Agenoria%27_built_by_Foster_Rastrick_in_Stourbridge_for_the_Earl_of_Dudley%E2%80%99s_Railway.jpg)
The Earl of Dudley’s Railway or Pensnett Railway, was a railway that developed from a single line opened in 1829 to, at its maximum extent, a long network around the
Earl of Dudley
Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford (now the West Midlands), is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ward family.
History
Dudley was first used for a p ...
’s Iron Works at Round Oak near
Brierley Hill
Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, 2.5 miles south of Dudley and 2 miles north of Stourbridge. Part of the Black Country and in a heavily industrialised area, it has a pop ...
.
History
Origins
In the 19th century, the Ward family, owners of
Dudley Castle
Dudley Castle is a ruined fortification in the town of Dudley, West Midlands, England. Originally a wooden motte and bailey castle built soon after the Norman Conquest, it was rebuilt as a stone fortification during the twelfth century but su ...
, had large holdings of land in the
Black Country region of England. They had added to their possessions in the 18th century by the enclosure of
Pensnett Chase which had formerly been common land and, much further back in time, a hunting ground for the Barons of Dudley.
Much of this land covered coal seams and deposits of industrial material including iron ore and fire-clay. Canals had been cut into the Black Country region in the second half of the 18th century but not all were conveniently close to the mines of the Dudley Estate. It was therefore decided to construct a railway linking coal mines near Shut End to a purpose-built canal basin at
Ashwood on the
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, a distance of around .
The Kingswinford Railway
![Ashwood Basin, Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Ashwood_Basin%2C_Staffordshire_and_Worcestershire_Canal_-_geograph.org.uk_-_658012.jpg)
An agreement to construct a rail line was signed in 1827 by
James Foster, a local ironmaster, and Francis Downing, the mineral agent of
John William Ward, the 4th Viscount Dudley and Ward, soon to become the 1st Earl of Dudley. James Foster (1786-1853) controlled the company
John Bradley & Co a large industrial concern that owned the Stourbridge Iron Works. In 1823 John Bradley & Co., had taken a lease of land at Shut End, Kingswinford from
J.H.H. Foley. In addition to John Bradley & Co., James Foster was also involved with the engineer
John Urpeth Rastrick
John Urpeth Rastrick (26 January 1780 – 1 November 1856) was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the '' ...
and, in 1819, they formed the company Foster Rastrick & Co.
Rastrick had experience of steam engine construction and railway engineering.
The line opened on 2 June 1829 with the steam locomotive
Agenoria purpose-built to haul wagons of coal from pits to the canal basin. The railway crossed land either owned by the Dudley Estate or leased by James Foster. The line was known as the Kingswinford Railway although sometimes it was called the Shutt (or Shut) End Railway. It was a standard gauge line set on stone blocks. From the Ashwood canal basin, the line ran up an incline for around 500 yards before reaching a level section which extended for around 2 miles. The line then tilted upwards again for a second incline to the vicinity of Shut End. A short level section brought it to its termination at Corbyn's Hall collieries. Agenoria only had sufficient power to pull carriages along the level section of the line. The two inclines were worked by
self-acting mechanisms where loaded coal wagons moving down the slope pulled empty wagons uphill.
The locomotive, constructed by
Foster Rastrick & Co of
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The ...
ran for in excess of three decades. After a period of neglect, it was eventually donated to the Science Museum in South Kensington in 1885 and is now on display at the
National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant ...
in York.
The Pensnett Railway
![Locomotive 'Countess' by Manning Wardle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Locomotive_%27Countess%27_by_Manning_Wardle._Earl_of_Dudley%E2%80%99s_Railway.png)
In 1843 a consultant, F.P. Mackelcan, was hired by the Dudley estate to produce plans for further rail lines. A contractor, William Hughes, was hired to put a modified version of these plans into practice between 1844 and 1845. These new lines, in service in 1846, were known as the Pensnett Railway and were built to service local mines, factories, furnaces and transport hubs. The lines, roughly centred on the Level New Furnaces at
Brierley Hill
Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, 2.5 miles south of Dudley and 2 miles north of Stourbridge. Part of the Black Country and in a heavily industrialised area, it has a pop ...
ran north to
Barrow Hill, north-east to High Lanes (in the direction of
Dudley
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
) and south to Nine Locks. The incline at Barrow Hill was so steep that a stationary engine had to be installed to work the line on the slope.
In 1852 the
Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway
The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) was a railway company in England. It built a line from Wolvercot JunctionThe nearby settlement is spelt ''Wolvercote'' and a later station on the LNWR Bicester line follows that spelling. ...
opened their route to Dudley. The line crossed the Pensnett Railway at Round Oak, the crossing being made on the level. This crossing, at a near right angle, became a well known feature of the railway.
Also in the early 1850s, an extension was made to the Pensnett system to the south-east to service collieries at
Saltwells in Netherton. In 1855, the Dudley Estate opened the Round Oak Ironworks next to the Level New Furnaces in the centre of the Pensnett railway network.
In 1865, the Pensnett Railway was connected to the Kingswinford Railway, so that the original line, built in 1829, was connected to the network. Also in 1865 the line to High Lanes was extended to Dudley where a land sale wharf was built at Wellington Road. Coal was sent to the wharf by rail to be collected by coal merchants and distributed by road.
The railway line though long closed was recalled for many years by a local business called Great Western Windows based in Wellington Road.
The network achieved its maximum extent in the 1870s when it included nearly of track. At this point it stretched to Himley in the north, Dudley in the north-east, Ashwood Basin in the west, Cradley Station in the south and Old Hill to the south-east. In 1876 a report was made into the state of the railway by Rupert Smith.
It was calculated that the total length of line was 39.366 miles. Three connections with the GWR mainline had been made by this date: at Round Oak, Cradley (later renamed Cradley Heath) Station and at Askew Bridge. The report noted that there were 576 crossings, one turntable, 4 locomotive running sheds, and eleven locomotives 'exclusive of the old ''Pershore''.' At the end of 1876 a total of 137 men were employed by the railway as well as 15 boys.
In 1885 some of the original land leases obtained by James Foster in order to build the Kingswinford Railway were set to expire. James' successor at John Bradley & Co., W.O. Foster, decided that the link to the Ashwood Basin was no longer necessary for his Shut End works, which were by then connected to the canal and mainline rail network.
It was then arranged for the Dudley Estate to take over the Foster leases, which included the Ashwood Basin itself.
The final major development of the network came when the Dudley estate developed a large coal mine at
Baggeridge near the Earl of Dudley's Himley Park. The line to the colliery was constructed by the GWR in 1907 starting from Askew Bridge on the Pensnett Railway. Although the GWR built it, the branch was owned and operated by the Pensnett Railway.
The mine went into production in 1912.
Although the railway was a mineral line, passengers were carried from 1928 until 1937 to the annual fetes at
Himley Park
Himley Hall is an early 17th-century country house situated in Staffordshire, England. It is situated in the south of the county in the small village of Himley, near to the town of Dudley and the city of Wolverhampton. Himley Hall is a Grade ...
.
For the first year, passengers were carried in converted mineral waggons. However, from 1929, proper passenger carrying carriages were hired from the
GWR. The route started at Wallows Shed, which was a repair facility for locomotives near the end of
Lord Ward's Canal, included an intermediate stop at Barrow Hill and ended at Himley Park, a distance of 3.5 miles.
Post Second World War
The years immediately after the Second World War brought great changes to the Pensnett Railway. Some of the pits served by the line were nearly exhausted of minerals
and so some branches of the railway had little traffic. In 1952 the tracks were lifted in the Saltwells area. In 1953 most of the line to the Ashwood basin (i.e. the original Kingswinford Railway) was closed. In the same year Wellington Wharf at Dudley closed, its track being lifted the following year. Diesel locomotives were introduced into the system in the 1950s,
steam power being last used in 1963. The final remaining short section of track became the property of the
Round Oak Steelworks
The Round Oak Steelworks was a steel production plant in Brierley Hill, West Midlands (formerly Staffordshire), England. It was founded in 1857 by Lord Ward, who later became, in 1860, The 1st Earl of Dudley, as an outlet for pig iron made in th ...
, which itself closed in 1982.
Locomotives
The Pensnett Railway employed many different locomotives during its long history. As already mentioned, the first of these was the ''Agenoria'', built in 1829. This locomotive worked the near-level stretch of the line between Shut End and the top of the incline above the Ashwood canal basin but was not powerful enough to manage the two inclines on the line. A letter from the mineral agent of the Dudley Estate to W.O. Foster implied that the locomotive was not running on the line in April 1864 although it is not clear whether it was a temporary or permanent stoppage. Shortly afterwards, W.O. Foster's agent wrote back agreeing to provide a new engine as part of an agreement to improve the railway.
The new locomotive was delivered to Foster's company John Bradley & Co. in 1865. It is generally assumed that ''Agenoria'' was abandoned around this time.
When the new lines were built in the mid 1840s the Dudley Estate obtained an engine or engines to work the lines (a locomotive driver was engaged in 1846) but no details are available of the type or the manufacturer. The first locomotive to run on the railway after Agenoria, of which anything is known, was the ''Alma'', supplied in 1855 by
E.B. Wilson of the Railway Foundry in Leeds.
Subsequently, the Leeds manufacturer
Manning Wardle
Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
Precursor companies
The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially s ...
became a favoured locomotive supplier up to the close of the 19th century. This company provided several locomotives to the railway including ''Brandon'' (1859), ''Himley'' (1859), ''Victory'' (1863), and ''Ednam'' (1872).
In the first half of the 20th century many locomotives were obtained from Scottish manufacturer
Andrew Barclay including ''Viceroy'' (1903), ''Billy'' (1925), ''George V'' (1930), ''Lady Edith II'' (1941) and ''Lady Rosemary II'' (1941).
A few locomotives were also obtained from
Peckett and Sons
Peckett and Sons was a locomotive manufacturer at the Atlas Locomotive Works on Deep Pit Road between Fishponds and St. George, Bristol, England.
Fox, Walker and Company
The company began trading in 1864 at the Atlas Engine Works, St. George, ...
including Lady Edith (1900), Lady Morvyth (1921) and Lady Rosemary (1921).
From 1955 to 1962, 10 diesel locomotives were obtained from the
Yorkshire Engine Company
The Yorkshire Engine Company (YEC) was a small independent locomotive manufacturer in Sheffield, England. The company was formed in 1865 and produced locomotives and carried out general engineering work until 1965. It mainly built shunting engi ...
.
These engines were given numbers rather than names. A final diesel locomotive was obtained second-hand in 1969.
Remains
A short piece of track is still visible at the
Round Oak Steel Terminal
Round Oak Steel Terminal is a railway freight terminal dealing in steel from the Round Oak Steel Works until 1982 and from other sources thereafter, in Brierley Hill, West Midlands, England managed by Tata Steel Europe.
History
The termina ...
but the steel works and the pits have been demolished. Some trackbeds have become footpaths, while others have disappeared completely.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Earl of Dudley's Railway
Railway lines opened in 1829
Rail transport in the West Midlands (county)
Industrial railways in England
Closed railway lines in the West Midlands (region)