Catalogue description Records of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, 1824-25.

The following records date entirely from the period of the 1825 Bill. The main subjects covered are the distribution of shares, the gathering of evidence and petitions in favour of the Bill, administrative matters connected with the passage through the House, the survey for the line and negotiations with the Select Vestry and the Church Commissioners for an exchange of land with Richard Houghton, for the site of a proposed new church and parochial cemetery, adjacent to the line of the rail road. A new street was laid out alongside the cemetery, to be called Blenheim St. The church was consecrated in 1829, as St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, situated in Great Oxford Street, later Silvester Street.

In-Letters are arranged under recipients, in chronological order.

In-Letters

385 LIV/1 To Henry Booth, 36 docs.

385 LIV/2 To Charles Lawrence 14 docs.

385 LIV/3 To Joseph Sandars 9 docs.

385 LIV/4 To Lister Ellis 8 docs.

385 LIV/5 To the Committee and its deputation in London 6 docs.

385 LIV/6 To Thomas Headlam 3 docs.

385 LIV/7 To G.A. Pritt and Pritt & Clay, solicitors. 4 docs.

385 LIV/8 To miscellaneous recipients 11 docs.

385 LIV/9 Out-Letters (drafts and circulars) 18 docs.

385 LIV/10 Miscellaneous papers 11 docs.

Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, 1826-1845

Purchased from Grafton, 21.1.1946.

Old no. Ef 391

• James, William, 1771-1837, land agent and railway promoter
• Sandars, Joseph, 1785-1860, of Liverpool, merchant and railway promoter
• Booth, Henry, fl 1824-1825, of Liverpool, merchant and railway promoter
• Railway transport

A project for a Liverpool to Manchester railway was first discussed in 1822, when William James, an engineer, who had seen the Stockton to Darlington line at work, was introduced to Joseph Sandars, the leader of a group of Liverpool merchants who were dissatisfied with existing modes of transport. James interested Sandars in the possibility of a railway between Liverpool and Manchester and Sandars stood guarantor for a preliminary survey. James prevaricated a delay for two years and no survey was produced. However, a deputation of merchants consisting of Sandars, Henry Booth, Lister Ellis and Mr. Kennedy of Manchester visited the Darlington line and other railways in the North in May 1824, and reported favourably to a Provisional Committee of Liverpool gentlemen, chaired by John Moss. It was decided to form a permanent company. A subscription list was opened and a Committee was formed, headed by Charles Lawrence, then Mayor of Liverpool, with George Stephenson as sole engineer. A prospectus was issued in October 1824. Ellis, Sandars, John Moss and Robert Gladstone were Deputy Chairmen and Pritt and Clay were Solicitors to the company. Preparations were made for securing an Act of Parliament to implement the scheme. A deputation of the Committee attended in London in February to see the Bill through the House. The canal proprietors and the Earls of Derby and Sefton, whose land the proposed railway crossed, united to oppose the Bill. The Bill reached Committee stage in March and evidence was heard for and against. The promoters were obliged to admit that the levels of the survey were erroneous, which cast doubts on their cost estimates. An unfavourable impression was thus made on the Committee and on 1 June the second and third clauses were defeated and the Bill was withdrawn.

• View Record