Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway
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The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway (CK&PR) was an English railway company incorporated by
Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
on 1 August 1861, to build a line connecting the town of
Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...
with the London and North Western Railway (LNWR)
West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
at Penrith. Arrangements for the use of the stations at either end (Cockermouth was already served by the
Cockermouth and Workington Railway The Cockermouth & Workington Railway was an English railway company (established by Act of Parliament in 1845) which built and operated a railway between the Cumberland towns of Workington and Cockermouth. The railway opened for service in 1847, ...
(C&WR)) were included. Passenger and goods traffic was worked by the LNWR and mineral traffic by the North Eastern Railway, both of whom had shares in the company (the NER inheriting its holding from the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which had encouraged the promotion of the line). The line was in length, and had eight intermediate stations.


History


Early development

The company had its origins in a meeting at Keswick in September 1860 which agreed to promote a railway linking Keswick to existing railways at Cockermouth (to the West) and Penrith (to the East). A project for a railway linking the towns had been promoted during the Railway Mania, getting as far as a survey of the proposed route, but nothing had come of this (nor of a projected railway from Cockermouth to Windermere via Keswick). Consequently, a Keswick resident complained in 1857, "Here we are buried - shut out from the world, as it were - 15 hours from a morning paper while other people know at an instant what happens at the other end of the kingdom" However, the prospectus for the company argued, what would make the line profitable was not local traffic to Keswick, but potential two-way mineral traffic between the haematite orefield of West Cumberland and the coke-ovens of South Durham. The project was supported by the London and North Western Railway (whose line would be joined at Penrith), and by the Stockton and Darlington Railway which had been behind a series of lines engineered by
Thomas Bouch Sir Thomas Bouch (; 25 February 1822 – 30 October 1880) was a British railway engineer. He was born in Thursby, near Carlisle, Cumberland, and lived in Edinburgh. As manager of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway he introduced the first roll ...
which together gave access from South Durham to the
West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
at Clifton just south of Penrith. The
Cockermouth and Workington Railway The Cockermouth & Workington Railway was an English railway company (established by Act of Parliament in 1845) which built and operated a railway between the Cumberland towns of Workington and Cockermouth. The railway opened for service in 1847, ...
, with which the CK&PR was to link at its western end, initially intended to support the CK&PR directly, but was not in a financial position to do so; instead many of the C&W directors took substantial shareholdings in the new line, with some sitting on its board. The company's Bill was unopposed, and its Act received its Royal Assent in August 1861.


Construction and opening

Work on the line began May 1862, the first sod being cut at Great Crosthwaite by the company chairman. The directors were able to make inspection trips to Keswick from either end of the line in May–June 1864; on their trip from Cockermouth they were accompanied by goods waggons, thereafter Keswick was "supplied with coal by rail from the Workington pits" (implying that the Cockermouth-Keswick section of the line was ''de facto'' open for mineral traffic). The line was officially opened for goods traffic on 1 November 1864; mineral traffic may have been running over it from 26 October 1864. On 29 September 1864 passenger trains had been run from either end of the line to Keswick for an agricultural show there 'though the line is not yet officially open, owing to the punctilios of a certain government official' (free tickets were issued by the contractor for the line and the Cockermouth and Workington Railway lent carriages and staff). The Penrith-Keswick mail coach had ceased to run in mid-November 'being knocked off the road by ... the Railway Engine', but the railway was not officially opened for passenger traffic until 2 January 1865. Trains ran to and from a new joint station at Cockermouth. At first they merely connected there with the C&WR service to Workington, but by April passenger trains were timetabled to work through from Penrith to
Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It i ...
along the CK&PR/C&WR route.


Operation

The CK&PR had agreed with its sponsoring railways that the LNWR was to work passenger and goods traffic on the line (receiving one-third of earnings) whilst the S&D was to work mineral traffic (the S&D to receive 35% of earnings, and the CK&PR to pay for waggons). The CK&PR also provided non-moving staff. The line was laid out by Bouch with the object of the utmost economy; although the bridges were permanent (stone and iron rather than timber trestles). The CK&PR joined the West Coast Main Line by a north-facing junction at Penrith; trains to or from the south would have had to go to Penrith and reverse direction, had the NER not built a 'loop line' (at Red Hills, south of Penrith) giving a south to west junction. The line was single throughout; when the LNWR recommended instead that the line be built from the start as double-track, the CK&PR board rejected this advice, preferring to delay doubling until actual receipts justified it. Furthermore, according to a pseudonymous contemporary critic, the engineering of the line, and the purchase of land made no provision for future doubling: consequently the line was "really a miserable affair, anything but a first-class line as it was originally boasted to be. Everything connected with it has been sacrificed to cheapness, which in this undertaking, as everyone must see, has been unquestionably carried too far. The line is single, the bridges are single; everything appertaining or belonging to it is single, and, strange to say, land has been taken up for a single line only." With the adoption of 'absolute block' working in 1892 (at the insistence of the Board of Trade), the section between Thelkeld and Troutbeck had to be converted into two blocks (by the addition of a signal box just to the west of the Mosedale Viaduct) to prevent excessive delays . The line was eventually doubled over the heavy gradients between Threlkeld and Red Hills: doubling between Threlkeld and Troutbeck (west of the summit) was in effect by 1896; extension of this to Penruddock was undertaken in 1900, along with doubling east of the summit (Red Hills to Blencow) and was not completed until spring 1901.


Mineral traffic

It had been predicted that the mineral traffic over the line would (on its own) ensure dividends of at least 5% as soon as the line opened, but this proved to have been optimistic. The line cost more to build than anticipated, and the mineral traffic was not as large as predicted. The profitability was also low; through rates were effectively governed by those set by the
Maryport and Carlisle Railway The Maryport & Carlisle Railway (M&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1836 which built and operated a small but eventually highly profitable railway to connect Maryport and Carlisle in Cumbria, England. There were many small collieries ...
. These were deliberately set by the M&C at underpriced levels (as low as d per mile) which should have deterred the construction of competing lines. Unlike the M&CR, the CP&KR had severe gradients (westbound a climb of 1 in 70 between Penrith and Blencow, eastbound 1 in between Threlkeld and Troutbeck) and therefore higher running costs; a CK&PR chairman claimed that a locomotive could haul on the M&CR a train three times as heavy as it could haul over the CK&PR. Nor did the CK&PR have the lucrative local colliery traffic of the M&CR. Passenger and goods traffic on the line were, however, sufficient to make the CK&PR profitable; eventually passenger traffic became the main revenue as mineral traffic declined further. Technological improvements in steelmaking reduced the dependence of the British steel industry on Cumbrian haematite. Blast furnaces were established close to the orefield, and processed much of the ore locally. Although, initially, they needed to import coke to do so, later improvements in coke-making allowed them to increasingly use coke made from local coal; considerable volumes of Welsh coke also began to reach West Cumbria by sea. Increased foreign production of iron and steel meant a loss of foreign markets and over-capacity in the British iron and steel industry.


Passenger traffic

Tourist traffic was a vital contributor to passenger revenue. In 1863, a shareholders' meeting authorised the expenditure of £11,000 on the construction of a first-class railway hotel; such a hotel, the directors had urged, was essential if Keswick was to compete with the Scottish lochs and Switzerland. By 1865, when the hotel had been built, it was evident that the capital cost of the railway had overrun to an alarming extent; the LNWR advised strongly (and the NER concurred) that railway hotels were not profitable when run by railway companies; furthermore it was now thought that the hotel needed to be extended before anyone could run it profitably. The hotel was therefore sold to a separate company, floated for the purpose, with a considerably overlapping directorate, and with railway shareholders being given first refusal on the hotel company shares. Keswick also attracted day trips (works outings, Sunday school treats) from Carlisle and industrial West Cumberland, and was a popular venue for Temperance demonstrations, although much depended on the weather:
Soon after the departure from Carlisle the rain commenced to fall in heavy showers, and continued throughout the whole of the day without the slightest perceptible abatement. Between eleven and twelve o'clock the whole of the excursion trains had arrived, and the streets of Keswick were literally crowded by an immense concourse of people, whose wet and weary appearance indicated the entire absence of enjoyment. It was impossible to look upon the drifting multitude without feelings of compassion. Those local places of interest which have given to Keswick an attractive reputation were unvisited, and the people seemed to wander from the tea rooms to the public-houses during the whole day … If the weather had been propitious, the Demonstration would have proved a marked success, for seldom has such a large number of people accompanied an excursion to Keswick. As the excursionists returned to the station towards evening, a more reliable estimate could be formed of the number present, which was represented by several thousands. Beyond a few expressions of sympathy with some loitering excursionists who missed the homeward train, nothing transpired in the shape of an accident to call forth regret save the serious weather, which reminded many of the not altogether groundless proverb that, "it always rains at Keswick"


Ownership

In return for subscribing for £25,000 of CK&PR shares, the LNWR had been granted running rights over the CK&PR in perpetuity. Although in the LNWR 'jumped over the head of' the CK&PR to absorb the Cockermouth and Workington Railway, and the Whitehaven Junction Railway in 1866 (almost as soon as they had been connected to the LNWR by the CK&PR), it made no similar offer for the CK&PR until 1890 when it offered to lease the CK&PR for 5%. The CK&PR's dividend had averaged 5% over the last four years, and its board held out for 6%, which the LNWR refused to offer. The LNWR also rebuffed subsequent attempts by the CK&PR to reopen negotiations, and the latter continued to operate as a separate company until the
1923 Grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...
, when it was absorbed by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.


Closure

The line was closed west of Keswick in April 1966. The Keswick to Penrith section followed suit in March 1972, though freight trains continued to run to Flusco and Blencow, at the eastern end of the line, until the following June.
Keswick Museum and Art Gallery Keswick Museum is a local museum based in Keswick in the English Lake District, which exhibits aspects of the landscape, history and culture of the area. History The collection was established as the Keswick Museum of Local and Natural History ...
displays many items connected with the railway, including the barrow and spade used in the ceremony to cut the first sod for the railway on 21 May 1862, train tickets from the 19th century, and a platform guard's
whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a lar ...
. The development of the
A66 road The A66 is a major road in Northern England, which in part follows the course of the Roman road from Scotch Corner to Penrith. It runs from east of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire to Workington in Cumbria. Route From its easter ...
used much of the former track path from Cockermouth to beyond
Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is one of the largest water bodies in the English Lake District. It is long and narrow, approximately long and wide, but is also extremely shallow, with a maximum depth of about . It is the only body of water in the Lake ...
. Much of the section between Keswick and Penrith, through the National Park, has been made into a cycle and walking route, and is maintained as such by the park authority.


The future

There is a proposal to reopen the line as a modern railway and a feasibility study has been commissioned b
CKP Railways plc
to examine the business case. However, Eden District Council approved development in 2006 a
Flusco Business Park
to straddle the trackbed. A proposal to demolish the Mosedale Viaduct was cancelled by the British Rail Property Board in 1997 because of the plan to reinstate the line.www.waymarking.com
Gives details of Mosedale Viaduct.
The project to reopen the railway has been dealt some serious blows, including numerous trackbed breaches, lack of funding and the NWRDA saying the case was not strong enough compared to other much more urgent projects. During floods in 2015, three bridges were damaged or destroyed in Storm Desmond in the Greta gorge. The railway footpath which uses these bridges was restored to service in 2020, but with two lightweight bridges, which makes it even more unlikely that the railway will be opened once more. In January 2019, Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line which was listed as Priority 2 for reopening. Priority 2 is for those lines which require further development or a change in circumstances (such as housing developments). In March 2020, a bid was made to the Restoring Your Railway fund to get funds for a feasibility study into reinstating the line. the bid was unsuccessful.Restoring Your Railway Fund: bids received
gov.uk


Railway stations

From west to east: *
Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...
: a joint station with the
Cockermouth and Workington Railway The Cockermouth & Workington Railway was an English railway company (established by Act of Parliament in 1845) which built and operated a railway between the Cumberland towns of Workington and Cockermouth. The railway opened for service in 1847, ...
, whose original station became the joint goods station. * Embleton (initially 'Lambfoot' in local property advertisementse.g. one placed by the CK&PR inviting tenders 'for the erection of DWELLING HOUSES adjoining the proposed stations' at Lambfoot, Peil Wyke, Braithwaite and Thelkeld: ) *
Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is one of the largest water bodies in the English Lake District. It is long and narrow, approximately long and wide, but is also extremely shallow, with a maximum depth of about . It is the only body of water in the Lake ...
(initially 'Peel Wyke' in local property advertisements): the line skirted the lake for a considerable distance *
Braithwaite Braithwaite is a village in the northern Lake District, in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just to the west of Keswick and to the east of the Grisedale Pike ridge, in the Borough of Allerdale. It forms part of the ...
* Keswick *
Threlkeld Threlkeld is a village and civil parish in the north of the Lake District in Cumbria, England, to the east of Keswick. It lies at the southern foot of Blencathra, one of the more prominent fells in the northern Lake District, and to the nort ...
* Troutbeck * Penruddock *
Blencow Blencow or Blencowe is a small village near Penrith, Cumbria, England. It is divided by the River Petteril into Great Blencow to the south and Little Blencow to the north. Great Blencow is in the civil parish of Dacre while Little Blencow is w ...
* Penrith


Notes


References


External links


The Cockermouth, Keswick, and Penrith Railway, Cumbria

Keswick to Penrith Railway Re-opening

Briery Bobbin Mill Halt
{{Authority control Pre-grouping British railway companies Rail transport in Cumbria Closed railway lines in North West England Railway companies established in 1861 Railway lines opened in 1865 Railway companies disestablished in 1923 London, Midland and Scottish Railway constituents 1861 establishments in England British companies established in 1861 1923 disestablishments in England British companies disestablished in 1923