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Railway 150 years 2
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Railway 150 years 1
Kingswear to Paington railway celebrates its 150th anniversary!
The railway to Kingswear is one of the area’s most attractive days out for many visitors. The line is dotted with breath-taking coastal views, river vistas, viaducts and tunnel, ending at Kingswear and the mouth of the river – no wonder more than a million people choose this route each year.
However, the beauty of the landscape made the building of the line a painstakingly slow and costly endeavour, almost bankrupting its financers and causing political scandal and even riots.
With the end of the Newfoundland trade – which had made the fortunes of a number of the area’s families – coupled with the economic slump following the Napoleonic Wars, the future of Dartmouth seemed dark at the beginning of the 19th Century.
This all changed when the Industrial Revolution took root in the South Hams in the 1840s – quite late when you consider that Thomas Newcomen, widely considered as one of the fathers of the revolution, had been born in Dartmouth, and even cut his teeth in the area as an iron-monger.
Coal bunkers arrived in the harbour in 1850, making it an attractive stop off for the growing number of steam ships sailing in British waters.
However, although such innovations were undoubtedly successful, Dartmouth’s trade routes over land were still vastly inferior to the rest of the country. Rail links already existed between London and ports such as Southampton – traders knew that Dartmouth needed the same sort of service if it was going to survive.
By 1848, the railway had reached as far as Torre under the guidance of legendary civil engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Yet his plans for his “Great Western Line” did not extend as far as Dartmouth and Kingswear and had no intention of ever doing so.
Dartmouth’s own Charles Seale Hayne recognised the need for the railway connection. The roads in the area had been improved in the 1820s but travel by horse and carriage was slow and its cost made it possible only for the upper echelons of society.
Backed by his uncle Sir Henry Seale, Seale Hayne formed the Dartmouth and Torbay Railway Company and campaigned for the extension of the line.
1857 saw success for Seale Hayne as an Act of Parliament approved his proposal. The predicted cost for the project was set at £90,000. Little did they know that seven years later it would have spiralled to around £262,000 – roughly £9million today.
By 1859 the line had reached Paignton, and the opening of the station was celebrated with magnificent pomp and enthusiasm. 18,000 people converged on the area to enjoy the party. Everyone was wined and dined with 1,900 lbs of meat, 1,900 lbs of bread and an unlimited supply of Paignton cider. The ‘pièce de résistance’ was a 1½ ton Paignton Pudding, made specially for the occasion. Unfortunately, the cake proved too popular for its own good. Worried they would miss out on sampling the enormous dessert, and no doubt emboldened by free cider, the diners armed themselves with whatever came to hand and marched on the 5 helpless policeman guarding the cake. The riots raged until barely a morsel was left. Truly a day to remember!
From Paignton, Seale Hayne’s original plans had hoped to take the line across the River Dart by a bridge at Greenway and directly into Dartmouth. However, the Admiralty and the local landowners at Greenway blocked the route. Seale Hayne was reluctantly forced to redirect the line all the way to Kingswear.
If the original plans had been successful, it’s interesting to think how differently the local area would have developed. Would Dart Marina have instead been a site for warehouses and rail sidings? Would the BRNC have been built? Would Kingswear have suffered without the huge influx of passengers?
This is pure speculation as obviously the line DID come to Kingswear. The station opened on August 16th 1864 during Regatta Week to fanfare and widespread praise. The station itself has seen many changes since its launch all those years ago, initially being built with a timber roof at the southern end. The “trainshed” itself is one of three remaining in the UK – the stations at Frome in Somerset and Ashburton in Devon house the others. The station buildings at Churston are also the original ones from 1862.
For Seale Hayne, the road to completing the line had been marred by both financial strain and political outrage. In the same year as the infamous ‘Paignton Pudding riots’, he had been supposed to stand as the Liberal Party candidate for the area, but stood aside for a gentleman called Schenley – after Schenley promised to invest £3,000 in the railway company. He was later found to have spent £1,400 - £60,000 today – on buying votes. Although Seale Hayne himself had no part in this chicanery, his name was irreversibly linked with the scandal.
The first few years of the new railway proved testing, despite the flood of passengers it brought into Dartmouth. Seale Hayne bought and renovated the ‘Plume of Feathers’ pub and created the Royal Dart Hotel, which is still in existence today, to make the most of the customers arriving at its doors from the train.
Besides carrying passengers, the railway took on a number of different roles that proved to be of great importance for the area and indeed the country.
Jetties were constructed next to the Kingswear station in 1868 to enable coal to be transferred from the boats to the Torquay gas works. This was the beginning of a system that continued until 1963. Seale Hayne’s line was also used during the preparations for the D-Day landings at Slapton Sands, bringing supplies out to the troops as they practiced their manoeuvres.
Despite all efforts, it was clear by 1876 that the line was losing money. As a result, it was integrated into the Great Western Railway, along with most other branch lines in the South West – an amalgamation that heralded the move away from Brunel’s ‘Broad Guage’ tracks (7ft 1/4 inches wide) to the increasingly popular ‘Standard Guage’ (4ft 8½inches).
1908 saw the line linked all the way to London, a connection many acknowledged as being crucial to the prosperity of Dartmouth and its surrounding villages.
However, in 1948 the railways were nationalised and in 1970 the planned closure of the Kingswear Branch line was announced to the public.
Fortunately for everyone, Dart Valley Railway – a company hugely enthusiastic about the continuation of the line and already in possession of the Totnes to Buckfastleigh line – acquired the Kingswear to Paignton link.
Under the ownership of Dart Valley Railway – which, together with the South Devon Railway, has grown to become the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Co. – the Kingswear station has been restored to its former splendour. The company has since added a new halt at the nearest possible point to Greenway. Set just north of the Greenway Tunnel, the halt allows passengers to visit Agatha Christie’s famous house and grounds via a beautiful woodland walk.
After all the hard work, financial ruin and political upset, it would surely be gratifying for Seale Hayne to know that his early endeavour has flourished into one of the most successful heritage railway lines in the country and continues to be a centre-piece of the Dartmouth landscape after 150 years.
By the Dart August 2014
