With regard to the ongoing debate concerning the high-speed train, surely we would do better to revise the existing rail network and bring it back to the high standard that was in force when the railways were first built.
Searching the Internet for Summerseat near Bury in Lancashire, where a new Italian restaurant has just opened called Gattopardo, we came across a delightful website created by Peter Ward. Among much other information, Mr Ward has posted a report, dated 26th September 1846, published in "The Preston Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser", concerning the opening of the East Lancashire Railway. This is surely a Best Kept Secret.
If you are familiar with East Lancashire in the twenty-first century, you surely cannot fail to be moved by the account of that momentous day. As Mr Ward says:” People do not realize what a busy village Summerseat used to be. There were at one time five cotton mills and it had its own gas works. The small streets were all cobbled and nearly all the people who lived in the village working in the mills.”
In 1846, however, the opening of the East Lancashire Railway was extremely important and it was celebrated "in a way worthy of the great interests to be accompanied and promoted by the construction of the line", with around 500 guests enjoying a journey from "the spacious new station in Manchester, known as the Victoria Station" to Rawtenstall at that time “the metropolis of the Forest of Rossendale".
In 1846, Manchester was "the metropolis of manufacturers and the region where, more than all else, the genius of the steam engine presides. It is here that the wonderful inventions of Watt, and Arkwright, and Crompton, followed up, as they have been by the ingenious mechanics of our present day, are in constant operation, producing at a rate that almost defies consumption, cloths for not only
England but every nation on earth."
The first train, which, in order to accommodate all the guests, comprised 30 coaches and 3 engines, travelled through the village of Whalley. It was pointed out to those who joined in the opening celebrations the difference between Whalley in 1846 and during the 1500s when the population was 1,000 and "the old housewife sat at her wheel and the daughter was plying her distaff, the husband and father was perhaps called from his bed by the sound of the war bugle..." (Wars of the Roses). At that time, the area was mostly forest with "wild bull, wolf and wild boar".
By 1846 the population of Whalley had grown to 106,00 and "from the great invention of the locomotive, the wearers of fustian jackets might not only have cheap knowledge, cheap bibles and cheap postage, but they could have cheap rides to the public parks of Manchester, cheap rides to the exhibitions of the fine arts, cheap rides to bathing places and cheap rides to the beauties of nature in the Lake District of England."
The detailed report mentions not only the engineering feat of building the railway but also the care and diligence of the Directors of the Company, who had had to overcome initial 'difficulties with shares'. Justifiably proud of the East Lancashire Railway, the directors "appeared to appreciate the advantages of low fares and good accommodation...". The 500 guests were treated to a 'sumptuous feast’ when the train reached its destination where "ample preparation had been made to celebrate the opening in a way agreeable to most Englishmen".
Isn’t it time we all pulled together and found the spirit that made Britain great once more?
To read this amazing report about the opening of the East Lancashire Railway in full and/or for further details about Summerseat please see the Peter Ward’s Summerseat Website: www.summerseat.outwardfamily.com
For further details on the Gattopardo Restaurant in Sommerseat, please see www.gattopardo-restaurant.co.uk
