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“Our society is entirely funded by members, many of whom come from across
the world,” explains Mark a research manager at Keele University’s
Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine. “The group formed in 1995
and to say we have an enthusiasm for railway is an understatement – we
really are at the serious end of passion. It’s not simply the technology
or love of steam trains but the social and economic history that goes with
it. My interest comes from childhood. You could blame Thomas the Tank
Engine, but realistically it was an uncle who was obsessive about steam
trains.”
The
attraction of the Knotty was its compactness. Retired IT technician David
tells me it was the third smallest in the LMS group when it was taken over
in 1923.
“Our
group covers all aspects of the Knotty not just engines and trucks but
the signalling and the stations and the compact aspect of the industry
that it served,” he says.
“Potteries’ social history is explicit to our interests,” Mark
continues. “The Knotty as a company held a unique place in the
interrelationship with the district’s development. It wasn’t simply a
network designed to link cities or to connect regions. It was designed
by the people of the Potteries for the people of the Potteries because
they realised their industry was expanding and railway was crucial to
its progress.”
The first
main line, constructed in 1840, was nowhere near the Potteries.
“In
fact,” says David, “The nearest station serving the district was Whitmore
where a horse-and-carriage facility was set up to carry passengers to the
Potteries. This unsatisfactory service continued for some years before the
Knotty was built, delayed to some extent by the owners and users of the
Trent and Mersey Canal. You see the pottery industry had invested a huge
amount of money in the canal system and it wasn’t about to lose its
economic control without a fight. The success of the project relied on
railway champions who were powerful people then.”
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Historian
Steve Birks theorises about the lack of railway champions today.
“There’ve been all sorts of tinkering with local railways,” he says.
“Stone Station closed and reopened. Etruria gone and Longport closed. A
good idea would be to build a station near the Festival Park serving the
centre. But there seems to be a distinct disinterest by the districts
administrators. There were champions in the 1840’s who responded to the
needs of the people of the Potteries. If they hadn’t, it’s possible the
railway would never have come here. Imagine what would have happened
then. Would the industry have relocated? Certainly the best place for
steel production is the coast. Clay was already being imported so the
only resource being produced in North Staffordshire was coal.”
David
takes up the point.
“Local
railway pioneers, and particularly the Stoke MP and railway company
director JL Ricardo, were important to our history,” he says. “They were
social engineers as well as leaders. MPs were crucial because of the
legislation required giving compulsory purchase powers to buy-up any
land they needed. They also gathered common support by promoting the
benefits of employment opportunities which independently brought
economic growth to the district.”
Mark
adds, “The major landowners in the Potteries were already making a mint
out of mining so they had a vested interest in rail,” he says. “As
shareholders they stood to gain from rival manufacturers in rail carriage.
George Stephenson designed the Knotty route but left the mineral lines to
the industrialists which subsequently accounted for the many miles of
connecting rail from the manufacturing source.”
By the
late Victorian period Cobridge passenger station was being used by the
new rich who had settled in the big houses along Waterloo Road. The
entrance to the station descended steeply from Elder Road where the
cobbled gangway remains as a last reminder. David reckons Cobridge
Station was an afterthought, which is probably why it was built of
timber.
“Added in
1874 it was beautifully kept with immaculate gardens that probably
reflected the status of those who occupied the new big houses,” he says.
“From here the Loop Line ran through a tunnel immediately after leaving
Cobridge Station reappearing near Vale Place where it entered a cutting
through Century Oils.”
The knowledge the NS Railway Study Group has assembled on the Loop Line is
vast, much of which is contained in its bi-monthly newsletter called Loop
Lines. I’m pleased to say we’ve agreed to meet again at the end of the
line in Etruria in a couple of week’s time.
more on Cobridge on the loop line
