1844—March 19—The Mayor presided at a very respectable gathering of tradesmen of the city in the Guildhall, and Mr. F. T. Elgie made a statement of the proposal by the Great Western Company to construct what is now known as the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway, and requested the support of the citizens to the scheme. Mr. W. S. P. Hughes said the Grand Connection Railway would answer all the purposes of the city of Worcester, and that was to be brought before Parliament again immediately, with every prospect of success. A resolution in favour of the line proposed by Mr. Elgie was, however, carried unanimously. The merits of the two lines were discussed at a public meeting at Kidderminster, on the 4th of April, at which Mr. Elgie and Mr. Hughes supported their respective schemes, and the Oxford line had a majority in the meeting of three to one.
1844—May 9—Another railway meeting was held in the Guildhall this day, with the Mayor in the chair, to support one or other of the schemes for connecting Worcester with London. Mr. Elgie and Mr. Brunel appeared for the Oxford line, and Mr. Taunton and Mr. Addison for a line from Worcester through Evesham and Leamington, to join the London and North Western Railway. This was to be only a single line of rails. Mr. Brunel assured the meeting that the Oxford line was supported by the Great Western, and that £1,000,000 would be sufficient for its construction. Mr. Hughes, on behalf of the promoters of the Grand Connection Railway, said the cost of the line from Worcester to Wolverhampton alone would be above a million; and proposed, as an amendment, that it would be premature to express an opinion in favour of any particular line till they had more details before them. The meeting, however, almost unanimously expressed itself in favour of the Great Western project.
1844—The great town’s meeting at which the Great Western and London and Birmingham projects for a Worcester Railway were brought into competition for the approbation of the citizens, was held in the Guildhall on the 4th November, William Lewis, Esq., Mayor, presiding. It was first assembled in the Crown Court, but afterwards there was an adjournment to the outer hall. The proceedings were commenced by Mr. Waters’s moving “That until the Parliamentary plans were deposited, the citizens were in no position to decide upon the eligibility of the schemes proposed to them.” Mr. J. W. Lea seconded this proposition. Mr. Leader Williams denied that the Great Western were bonâ fide in their scheme, and until the plans were deposited they could have no security that they would go on with it. Mr. Elgie retorted that Messrs. Waters and Williams wanted no railway at all. The motion was negatived by a very large majority. Mr. Alderman Matthews, Mr. Francis Rufford, and Mr. Barlow spoke on behalf of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line, which again received the almost unanimous adhesion of the citizens, Mr. E. Shelton, of Thorngrove, alone putting in a word for the London and Birmingham Company’s line.
1845—February 4—The Railway Commissioners of the Board of Trade reported in favour of the Tring line, and against the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton.
1845—February 22—A general meeting of the Oxford and Worcester Railway Company’s shareholders was held in the Guildhall, Worcester, at which they determined to proceed vigorously with their own measure, in spite of the unfavourable report of the Board of Trade. The report of the provisional committee, read at this meeting, stated that the project had been set on foot in the previous February, by the influential mining and commercial interests of South Staffordshire, who afterwards applied to the Great Western Railway Company to support and lease a line from Wolverhampton to Banbury; but this was ultimately changed for the line to Oxford.
On the 26th of March a common hall was convened at Worcester, at which the citizens unanimously agreed to petition in favour of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton line. A series of resolutions in favour of the Tring line was transmitted to the Mayor, who presided, as having been agreed to at a private meeting of its supporters at Messrs. Hyde and Tymbs’ offices, with Mr. Francis Hooper in the chair, the day before; and this was assigned as the reason for the non-attendance of the friends of the London and Birmingham scheme.
1845—April 10—The inhabitants of Droitwich assembled in public meeting on the railway question, and on the motion of W. H. Ricketts, Esq., petitioned in favour of the Birmingham and Gloucester Company’s deviation line, refusing to support the Oxford and Wolverhampton scheme.
The Great Battle of the Gauges.—The Parliamentary Committee to whom had been intrusted the duty of reporting on the various railways proposed for this district, commenced their labours on the 5th of May. The members of the committee were the Right Honourable F. Shaw (Dublin University), chairman; Messrs. Bramston, Horne, Drummond, Villiers, Stuart, and Lockhart. The lines brought before them were:
BROAD GAUGE.
1—Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway.