Bourne Archive: Economy: Railway

http://boar.org.uk/abiwxo3Bournedoc006.htm Latest edit 30 Nov 2009.

The Bourne Archive

Bourne and Essendine Railway Timetable: 1860.

The service on the Bourne and Essendine branch was opened on the 16^th MAY, 1860 and operated by the Great Northern Railway.

Dimensions of the paper 253 x 114 mm.

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By leaving Bourne at 12.35, it was possible to reach King’s Cross, London in 3 hours 25 minutes; or York in 5 hours and 10 minutes.

The Bourne and Essendine Railway Company was incorporated in 1857, with shares offered for sale late in 1856. However, talk of railway building was already in the air of Bourne in 1854. In that year land was offered for sale with the inducement of its being on the line of an anticipated railway. As historical context, the Crimean War ended in 1856. At the time of the railway’s opening, an attempt was being made to capitalize on the new railway connection by redeveloping Bourne market.

In 1835, there had been two London coaches per day on the turnpike road, the Royal Mail at 19:45 and the Express (not Sunday) at 24:00 (Pigot). In 1841, the Royal Mail continued (at 20:00) but the second coach was the Railway Tally-Ho. It left at 11:00 (except Sunday), not itself going to London but “to meet the trains at Blisworth station” (Pigot), which had opened on the Euston to Birmingham Railway, in 1838. In 1857, there was a daily omnibus service (not Sunday), leaving Bourne at 08:00 and connecting with the railway at Tallington (Birkbeck p.94), on the main line to King’s Cross.

In December, 1857, the passenger service on the Edenham branch railway opened (Pearson & Ruddock p.65). This went from Edenham station, about 4.5 km from Bourne Market Place, to the main line at Little Bytham. Of the five trains a day, three were timed to connect with London trains. That people in the vicinity of Bourne used this service seems indicated by the fact that at the time of the opening of Bourne station, in May 1860, the annual passenger revenue on the Edenham line fell from £170 in 1859 to £ 114 in 1860, to £93 in 1861. At the same time, the Edenham line’s revenue from coal fell by more than half. The mean revenue from coal transport in the three years before 1860 was £4651. In the three years after 1860, it was £1800 (Pearson & Ruddock p.69).

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