Drake's Road Book of the Grand Junction Railway / from Birmingham to Liverpool and Manchester

by active 1825 James Drake

BIRMINGHAM AND VAUXHALL STATION.

Distance to Liverpool and Manchester, 97¼ miles.

DISTANCES BY ROADS FROM THIS STATION TO THE FOLLOWING PLACES:—

^*_*^* Those printed in small capitals are market towns.

Places W. ofStation.		Places E. ofStation.
Edgbaston	2½ miles.	Erdington	3 miles.
Harborne	4 —	Castle Bromwich	4½ —
Halesowen	8½ —	Sutton Coldfield	6½ —
Stourbridge	12½ —	Water Orton	6½ —
		Curdworth	7½ —
		Coleshill	8½ —
		Wishaw	9 —
		Middleton	9½ —
		Drayton Bassett	11½ —
		Tamworth	13 —

The Birmingham Station of the Grand Junction railway, closely adjoins that of the London and Birmingham, which greatly facilitates the arrangements of travellers proceeding along the entire line. Until the completion of the permanent buildings, those at Vauxhall have been temporarily used. To a stranger coming into the station-yard for the first time, the whole scene is one of great novelty: the long train of treble-bodied coaches, waiting under a broad covered way for passengers and baggage; the bustle and animation of the host of porters, guards, conductors, &c.; the amazement depicted on some of the faces of the lookers-on; the state of “intellectual complication” evinced by others, especially those who, having various items of property to convey with them, are tremblingly solicitous for the welfare of sundry “red-striped carpet bags, trunks with wrappering over,” bandboxes which will be ruined by a drop of rain, and fish-baskets which have a mortal antipathy to be squeezed. Other important-looking passengers make up their minds to take things as a matter of course, and not betray any vulgar surprise; and from their extremely over-done nonchalance, would fain persuade you they had made a journey round the globe in a first-rate train, and reached the antipodes by a tunnel. These valiant and adventurous individuals are by far the severest sufferers by the anti-cigar-act, passed by the Company, for which the unsmoking part of the community, especially the fair sex, are greatly indebted. The traveller may refer to the company’s regulations at full, in the appendix at the end of this volume. Supposing all preliminaries adjusted, we commence our journey.

Passing the station at Vauxhall, (closely adjoining to which are Vauxhall Gardens,) the railroad proceeds by Duddeston, and passes over the Coleshill road near Saltley Chapel, a small pigeon-house like edifice to the E. of the line. Aston Church soon appears on the W., above the rich woods surrounding it; and the high chimney of the Birmingham Water Works (lately established to supply the town) is passed on the E. The steam engines, Hercules and Atlas, erected here for pumping the water from the reservoir, into the pipes for conveyance to Birmingham, are perhaps the grandest and most perfect of their kind ever fabricated. Yardley Village and Perry Barr form the distant view. The railroad now passes over the Aston embankment, and a viaduct of ten arches, beneath which runs the high road to Sutton, and the Fazeley Canal. From this point the last view is gained of the town of Birmingham, on the W.; and on the E. a prospect of Gravelly Hill, now nearly levelled, and the village of Erdington. A short distance onwards the line passes the front of Aston Hall, a fine old baronial residence in the Elizabethan style of architecture, erected by Sir Thomas Holt in 1620, and in which he entertained Charles I. previously to the battle of Edge Hill. It is situated in a fine park, richly ornamented with stately timber of ancient growth, and thriving modern plantations. All the views of this fine old mansion are strikingly beautiful; but the one commanded from the railroad line, looking up the avenue of lofty elms, (which the line crosses,) is the most imposing.

James Watt, Esq., the present proprietor, has, it is said, expended £10,000 in preventing the line of railroad from passing through his park, which the Company intended it to do; and in consequence of this opposition a great curve appears in the course of the line at this part. Iron works in the neighbourhood have been in operation from remote antiquity. [14]

The Church, which re-appears at several points of the line, is a beautiful and venerable structure, with a fine tapering spire, and remarkably musical bells, the sweet tones of which will scarcely reach the ears of railroad travellers. Part of the village of Aston is observable from the railroad, and also the grounds and fish-pans of its “Tavern,” a spot much frequented by tea (and ale) drinking parties from Birmingham.

One very agreeable feature of the scenery on the line, is the unspoiled freshness and verdure of the ground on either side. The idea most persons entertain respecting such astounding innovations on ancient usages as steam carriages and railroads is, that they spread desolation around their path, and that the track of a locomotive engine must necessarily be as devastating in its effects as that of a lava course. We candidly confess to something akin to this suspicion ourselves. But all “Grand Junction” patrons must be gratified to find such expectations disappointed so pleasingly in the cheerful aspect of the fields, groves, and “little running brooks,” closely bordering the excavations or embankments. Cattle are quietly feeding just on the other side the fence, and gay wildflowers already enamel the newly-made banks. Sometimes, certainly, a horse or cow may be abruptly interrupted in a quiet meditation by the rapid rushing by of a “Centaur” or “Alecto,” with its lengthened tail of many ponderous joints; and one accident, very singular, if true, occurred lately. A certain luckless individual of the pig family, having too far indulged an imprudent spirit of investigation on the Bilston portion of the line, had his curly conclusion very summarily amputated by a passing train:—he turned round briskly to ascertain the extent of his calamity, when another train, whirling along in an opposite direction, coming in contact with his head, put a period to the enterprising animal’s existence by an instant decapitation. We might draw a wise and serious moral from this “cutting” event, but the fact presents a sufficient warning to all persons inclined to incur the penalty of two pounds in sterling coin, and limbs ad libitum, for the sake of a promenade on the forbidden ground. “Digression is a sin,”—on the defunct pig’s head be ours! But for his tragic history, we should, ere this, have introduced the hill of these parts, Barr Beacon, to our readers; it appears to the N.E., crowned with a dense grove of trees. The intervening scenery is cheerful and cultivated, but not picturesque. The village of Witton shortly appears to the E., with Barr lying on the N.E. The bridge here passed is on the boundary of Warwickshire and Staffordshire, which latter county the line now enters. Aston Hall and Church again come in sight beyond Witton, and form a beautiful rear view, which is soon shut out by the banks of the excavation, precluding all prospect save of their own sloping sides, the pebbles and markings in which are made, by the rapidity of passing, to appear like flying lines.