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We’re still excited about all things #Railway after watching #TheArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt last night, so we thought why not share some railway history for #NationalStoryTellingWeek? We promise you there is drama!
It’s the 7 December 1846 and a public meeting is taking place @WindsorGuildhal. Six years previously, Great Western Railway opened their station at Slough. But now everyone wanted to know when Windsor was getting its own station.
There were two proposals on the table. The @GWRHelp proposed a branch line from Slough into central Windsor, while the South-Western Railway Company proposed a line from Staines to Waterloo with a station at Datchet.
Support in the town was split between the two, with some preferring a station in the centre of town (proposed by GWR) and others preferring a direct route into the centre of London, even if it meant having the station in Datchet.
So, the Mayor at the time, Mr James Bedborough, decided to call a public meeting for local residents to discuss the pros and cons. Great idea of his you might think! Time for a nice, jolly and constructive discussion.
Absolutely not! The stakes were too high for the railway companies & after hearing about the meeting, they sent their staff and interested parties to fill the Guildhall. The GWR even arranged for a special train to transport their staff to Windsor (via Slough, of course!)
The room was so crowded, local residents were prevented from entering to have their say. The Windsor & Eton Express @ExpressSeries reported ‘the hall was filled to an overflow, indeed we never remember to have seen it so crowded’.
In the words of the Express, the meeting became ‘stormy’ as representatives from both companies strongly advocated for their respective lines. One even accused the other of bribing Queen Victoria to gain permission to build on the Crown Estate.
In a turn of events, the representative of the GWR asked the Mayor to sign a petition stating that their proposal was favoured by the town. A very audacious move!
Mr Bedborough refused saying that the meeting was not representative of local people thanks to the rail companies filling the meeting with their own people. Though, we should say at this point that Mr Bedborough himself had interests in the South Western railway.
Bedborough declared that he would place a petition at the Guildhall that could be signed by residents only for the next 5 days. In the end, 14 signed for the adoption of the GWR proposal and 238 against. Poor GWR! Though, we have to say we love the branch line!
And would you believe it? After all that drama, they both ended up building their proposed lines and now #Windsor has two wonderful stations with quick access to London. Moral of the story- All’s well that ends well!
Though, this was only a small fraction of the drama that unfolded in the race to bring a railway to Windsor. Eton College & the Crown also had LOTS of objections! Find out more in episode 3 of #TheArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt http://bit.ly/2YACjTC @MrTimDunn @YesterdayTweets
Oh and fun fact: Mr Bedborough was the architect who designed the extension of @WindsorGuildhal in 1829 which is now our home! You can find out more about the building by watching our online tour https://bit.ly/2YDvelu
