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Cherwell Valley Railway The Social History of an Oxfordshire Railway by Allen
Cherwell Valley Railway The Social History of an Oxfordshire Railway by Peter Allen
Soft Cover
160 pages
Copyright 1999
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Setting the scene7
2 Railway rivalry17
3 In on the Act23
4 Growing pains29
5 Men at work35
6 Open for business43
7 Accidental damage51
8 Royal progress59
9 Lesser mortals65
10 A frightful smash73
11 Branching out83
12 Blenheim bound95
13 Further afield105
14 Conflict and casualties113
15 Trouble and strife121
16 War and peace131
17 A national concern141
18 Kidlington: a case study151
Acknowledgements160
Bibliography 160
ON THE BACK COVER:
From its source in Northamptonshire, the River Cherwell quickly drops into Oxfordshire, passing the Civil War battlefield at Cropredy, the historic market cross at Banbury and the majesty of Blenheim Park before reaching the dreaming spires of Oxford, where it is lost in the waters of the Thames. A rural idyll, its gentle, winding valley also forms a perfect gradual descent from Banbury to Oxford and so, in the Railway Mania years of the 1840s, it became a focus for Britain's competitive rail companies.
The Cherwell Valley - eventually to play a crucial role in rail travel from London to the North-west - was hotly contested between the Great Western Railway and the London & Birmingham (later London & North Western) Railway. On the one side, Isambard Kingdom Brunel with his dreams of grand design and broad-gauge comfort; on the other, George and Robert Stephenson, railway pioneers and convinced advocates of the narrow gauge. In the middle was a local population hungry for the advantages of fast travel and cheap coal and happy for any railway to be built if it were done quickly.
In Cherwell Valley Railway, Peter Allen chronicles the ups and downs of this busy rail link, from the early years of negotiation and frustrations through the growth of services and branch lines to the sad losses of the Beeching years and beyond. His affectionate and rigorous approach covers the railway in all its aspects. The stately visits of Queen Victoria's royal train are discussed alongside the day-to-day life of railway employees. With details of the growth and decline of the Cherwell Valley line, its wartime and peacetime roles, its accidents and its excursions, this chequered history reveals, in one meandering river valley, the social history of Britain over 150 years.
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