In those days it was a strange sight for a stranger coming down the bank towards Bedlam for the first time in the dusk of a winter’s evening, when the works were in full operation. We remember Hemmings once telling of a Cockney coming down into the country for the first time, and waking up from a snooze, unable to conjecture the true character of the scene, and insisting upon going no farther. To him the mazy river was the Styx; and had he been able to see the ferry unpaddled moving slowly to and fro in mid-channel, he might have imagined it was Charon’s boat; and the bellowing blast-furnaces and coke-fires the entrance to Inferno. These fires have long been extinguished, and the supply of mineral riches being exhausted, labour has migrated to places where nature had similar gifts in store to stimulate wealth-creating industry. You may yet perceive the crumbling outlines of the ruins, abrupt and massive, like the tottering walls of some dismantled castle. Mr. Glazebrook, Mr. E. Edwards, and others horsed some of the coaches from Ironbridge, and the stopping and changing usually drew a group of tradesmen and others to witness the sight. L’Hirondelle was horsed from Shrewsbury by Jobson of the Talbot, who took a special pride in his team. When Hemmings left the road we had some few attempts at running Omnibuses by the Rushtons, and by Walters; first to Wolverhampton, and next to Wellington; but railways coming nearer drove them from the road.
The tradesmen of Ironbridge naturally took great interest in the various schemes proposed to bring railways within their reach, and assisted manfully in meeting the difficulties which for a long time delayed the execution of the works on the part of interested landowners, and others who advocated rival schemes; and it may be interesting here to place on record facts bearing on the subject.
THE SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY WAS AUTHORIZED IN 1853.
First by the 16th and 17th Vict. Ch. 227, entitled “An Act for making a Railway from the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway near Hartlebury, in the County of Worcester, to the Borough of Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, WITH A BRANCH to be called the Severn Valley Railway, and for other purposes.”
2ndly, in 1855. By the 18th. and 19th. Vict. Ch. 188 entitled “An Act for making and maintaining the Severn Valley Railway, and for other purposes.”
3rdly. in 1856. By the 19th. and 20th. Vic. Ch. 111 entitled “An Act for authorizing deviations from the authorized line of the Severn Valley Railway, and for making further provisions with respect to Shares in the Capital of the Severn Valley Company, and for facilitating the completion of their undertaking, and other purposes.”
4thly in 1858. By the 21st. and 22nd. Vic. Ch. — entitled “An Act for making further provisions with respect to the Severn Valley Railway in order to the completion thereof, and for other purposes.”
5thly in 1860. By the Severn Valley Railway Leasing Act 1860 to the West-Midland.
THE WELLINGTON AND SEVERN JUNCTION RAILWAY
Was authorized in 1853, but a portion only of this Railway (from Wellington to Lightmoor) was constructed and the powers of the Act lapsed. It was worked by the Great Western Company in connexion with their line from Lightmoor to Shifnal and Wolverhampton.