1.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
2.
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
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The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was a railway opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in the United Kingdom. Jervis of the Delaware and Hudson Railway some years later wrote, as opening the epoch of railways which has revolutionised the social and commercial intercourse of the civilized world. Trains were hauled by steam locomotives between the two towns, though private wagons and carriages were allowed. Cable haulage of trains was down the steeply-graded 1. 26-mile Wapping Tunnel to Liverpool Docks from Edge Hill junction. The railway was built to provide faster transport of raw materials, finished goods. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first public transport system on land which did not use animal traction power. Up to then, the rail systems for public use had been, Horse-drawn plateways, such as the Lake Lock Railroad, Surrey Iron Railway. Railways that used a mix of steam and horse-drawn traffic, such as the Stockton and Darlington Railway, or a mix of cable and horse haulage, often described as the Grand British Experimental Railway the success or failure of which would decide plans for all future railways. The L&MR was intended to achieve cheap transport of raw materials, finished goods, huge tonnages of textile raw material were imported through Liverpool and carried to the textile mills near the Pennines where water and then steam power enabled the production of the finished cloth. There was support for the railway from the towns at either end, the original promoters are usually acknowledged to be Joseph Sandars, a rich Liverpool corn merchant, and John Kennedy, then owner of the largest spinning mill in Manchester. They were influenced to do this by William James, now something of a forgotten figure, James was a land surveyor who had made a fortune in property speculation. He advocated a national network of railways, based upon what he had seen of the development of colliery lines, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company was founded on 24 May 1823. It was established by Henry Booth, who became its secretary and treasurer, along with merchants from Liverpool. Charles Lawrence was the Chairman, Lister Ellis, Robert Gladstone, John Moss, a bill presented in 1825 to Parliament was rejected, but it passed in May the following year. In Liverpool 172 people took 1,979 shares, in London 96 took 844, the Marquess of Stafford had 1,000, giving 308 shareholders with 4,233 shares. The initial survey for the line was carried out by William James and, Robert Stephenson departed for South America and William James became bankrupt. Consequently, in 1824 George Stephenson was appointed engineer in their place, by this time, he was taking on too much. As Robert was absent, George left checking the survey to subordinates, upon presentation to Parliament in 1825 it was shown to be inaccurate
3.
Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
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The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway took place on 15 September 1830. Work on the L&M had begun in the 1820s, to connect the industrial city of Manchester with the nearest deep water port at the Port of Liverpool,35 miles away. The opening day was a public event. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, the Prime Minister, rode on one of the eight trains, as did many other dignitaries. Huge crowds lined the track at Liverpool to watch the trains depart for Manchester, the trains left Liverpool on time and without any technical problems. The Duke of Wellingtons special train ran on one track, around 13 miles out of Liverpool the first of many problems occurred, when one of the trains derailed and the following train collided with it. With no reported injuries or damage, the locomotive was lifted back onto the track. At Parkside railway station, near the midpoint of the line, although the railway staff advised passengers to remain on the trains while this took place, around 50 of the dignitaries on board alighted when the Duke of Wellingtons special train stopped. One of those who got off was William Huskisson, former minister and Member of Parliament for Liverpool. Hoping to be reconciled with Wellington, he approached the Dukes railway carriage, distracted by the Duke, he did not notice an approaching locomotive on the adjacent track, Rocket. On realising it was approaching he panicked and tried to clamber into the Dukes carriage and he fell onto the tracks in front of the train, suffering serious leg injuries and dying later that night. The Duke of Wellington felt that the remainder of the events should be cancelled following the accident at Parkside. However, a crowd had gathered in Manchester to see the trains arrive. Wellington was persuaded to continue to Manchester, by the time the trains reached the outskirts of Manchester the crowd had become hostile and was spilling onto the tracks. With local authorities unable to clear the tracks, the trains were obliged to drive at low speed into the crowd, using their own momentum to push people out of the way. Eventually they arrived at Liverpool Road railway station in Manchester to be met by a hostile crowd, Wellington refused to get off the train, and ordered that the trains return to Liverpool. Mechanical failures and an inability to turn the locomotives meant that most of the trains were unable to leave Manchester, while the Duke of Wellingtons train left successfully, only three of the remaining seven locomotives were usable. The L&M became extremely successful, and within a month of its plans were put forward to connect Liverpool
4.
Bank of England
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The Bank of England, formally the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world, after the Sveriges Riksbank, and it was established to act as the English Governments banker and is still one of the bankers for the Government of the United Kingdom. The Bank was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946, in 1998, it became an independent public organisation, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government, with independence in setting monetary policy. The Banks Monetary Policy Committee has a responsibility for managing monetary policy. The Banks Financial Policy Committee held its first meeting in June 2011 as a macro prudential regulator to oversee regulation of the UKs financial sector, the Banks headquarters have been in Londons main financial district, the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, since 1734. It is sometimes known by the metonym The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or The Old Lady, the busy road junction outside is known as Bank junction. Until 2016, the bank provided banking services as a popular privilege for employees. Englands crushing defeat by France, the dominant naval power, in naval engagements culminating in the 1690 Battle of Beachy Head, England had no choice but to build a powerful navy. No public funds were available, and the credit of William IIIs government was so low in London that it was impossible for it to borrow the £1,200,000 that the government wanted. To induce subscription to the loan, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the name of the Governor, the Bank was given exclusive possession of the governments balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue bank notes. The lenders would give the government cash and issue notes against the government bonds, the £1. 2m was raised in 12 days, half of this was used to rebuild the navy. This helped the new Kingdom of Great Britain – England and Scotland were formally united in 1707 – to become powerful, the power of the navy made Britain the dominant world power in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The establishment of the bank was devised by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, the plan of 1691, which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before, had not then been acted upon. The Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694, the first governor was Sir John Houblon, who is depicted in the £50 note issued in 1994. The charter was renewed in 1742,1764, and 1781, the Bank moved to its current location in Threadneedle Street in 1734, and thereafter slowly acquired neighbouring land to create the edifice seen today. When the idea and reality of the National Debt came about during the 18th century, the 1844 Bank Charter Act tied the issue of notes to the gold reserves and gave the Bank sole rights with regard to the issue of banknotes. Private banks that had previously had that right retained it, provided that their headquarters were outside London, a few English banks continued to issue their own notes until the last of them was taken over in the 1930s. Scottish and Northern Irish private banks still have that right, the bank acted as lender of last resort for the first time in the panic of 1866
5.
Industrial Revolution
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The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and most of the important technological innovations were British, aided by these legal and cultural foundations, an entrepreneurial spirit and consumer revolution drove industrialisation in Britain, which would be emulated in countries around the world. A change in marrying patterns to getting married later made able to accumulate more human capital during their youth. The Industrial Revolution marks a turning point in history, almost every aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth, mechanised textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe in the early 19th century, with important centres of textiles, iron and coal emerging in Belgium, and later in France. Since then industrialisation has spread throughout much of the world, the precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is still debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants. The term Industrial Revolution applied to change was becoming more common by the late 1830s. Friedrich Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 spoke of an industrial revolution, however, although Engels wrote in the 1840s, his book was not translated into English until the late 1800s, and his expression did not enter everyday language until then. Credit for popularising the term may be given to Arnold Toynbee, some historians, such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts, have argued that the economic and social changes occurred gradually and the term revolution is a misnomer. This is still a subject of debate among some historians, the commencement of the Industrial Revolution is closely linked to a small number of innovations, beginning in the second half of the 18th century. By the 1830s the following gains had been made in important technologies, Textiles – mechanised cotton spinning powered by steam or water greatly increased the output of a worker, the power loom increased the output of a worker by a factor of over 40. The cotton gin increased productivity of removing seed from cotton by a factor of 50, large gains in productivity also occurred in spinning and weaving of wool and linen, but they were not as great as in cotton. Steam power – the efficiency of steam engines increased so that they used between one-fifth and one-tenth as much fuel, the adaptation of stationary steam engines to rotary motion made them suitable for industrial uses. The high pressure engine had a power to weight ratio. Steam power underwent an expansion after 1800. Iron making – the substitution of coke for charcoal greatly lowered the fuel cost for pig iron, using coke also allowed larger blast furnaces, resulting in economies of scale. The cast iron blowing cylinder was first used in 1760 and it was later improved by making it double acting, which allowed higher furnace temperatures
6.
South Sea Company
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The South Sea Company was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of national debt. The company was granted a monopoly to trade with South America. At the time it was created, Britain was involved in the War of the Spanish Succession, there was no realistic prospect that trade would take place and the company never realised any significant profit from its monopoly. The Bubble Act 1720, which forbade the creation of joint-stock companies without royal charter, was promoted by the South Sea company itself before its collapse. In Great Britain, a number of people were ruined by the share collapse. The founders of the scheme engaged in trading, using their advance knowledge of when national debt was to be consolidated to make large profits from purchasing debt in advance. Huge bribes were given to politicians to support the Acts of Parliament necessary for the scheme, Company money was used to deal in its own shares, and selected individuals purchasing shares were given loans backed by those same shares to spend on purchasing more shares. The expectation of vast wealth from trade with South America was used to encourage the public to purchase shares, the only significant trade that did take place was in slaves, but the company failed to manage this profitably. A parliamentary enquiry was held after the crash to discover its causes, a number of politicians were disgraced, and people found to have profited unlawfully from the company had assets confiscated proportionate to their gains. The company was restructured and continued to operate for more than a century after the Bubble, the headquarters were in Threadneedle Street at the centre of the financial district in London, today the Bank of England has headquarters on Threadneedle Street. At the time of events the Bank of England also was a private company dealing in national debt. In August 1710 Robert Harley was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in a government of commission, the government at this time had become reliant on the Bank of England. This was a privately owned company, chartered 16 years previously, the government had become dissatisfied with the service it was receiving and Harley was actively seeking new ways to improve the national finances. The committee included Harley himself, the two Auditors of the Imprests, whose task was to investigate government spending, Harleys brother Edward, Harleys first concern was to find £300,000 for the next quarters pay for the British army operating in Europe under Marlborough. This was provided by a consortium of Edward Gibbon, George Caswall. The Bank of England had been operating a state lottery on behalf of the government, but this had not been successful in 1710. This too was performing poorly, so Harley granted authority to sell tickets to John Blunt, a director of the Hollow Sword Blade Company, with sales commencing on 3 March 1711, tickets had completely sold out by the 7th. This was the first truly successful English state lottery, marketing was handled by members of the Sword Blade syndicate, Gibbon selling £200,000 of tickets and earning £4,500 commission, and Blunt selling £993,000
7.
Newspaper
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A newspaper is a serial publication containing news about current events, other informative articles about politics, sports, arts, and so on, and advertising. A newspaper is usually, but not exclusively, printed on relatively inexpensive, the journalism organizations that publish newspapers are themselves often metonymically called newspapers. As of 2017, most newspapers are now published online as well as in print, the online versions are called online newspapers or news websites. Newspapers are typically published daily or weekly, News magazines are also weekly, but they have a magazine format. General-interest newspapers typically publish news articles and feature articles on national and international news as well as local news, typically the paper is divided into sections for each of those major groupings. Papers also include articles which have no byline, these articles are written by staff writers, a wide variety of material has been published in newspapers. As of 2017, newspapers may also provide information about new movies, most newspapers are businesses, and they pay their expenses with a mixture of subscription revenue, newsstand sales, and advertising revenue. Some newspapers are government-run or at least government-funded, their reliance on advertising revenue, the editorial independence of a newspaper is thus always subject to the interests of someone, whether owners, advertisers, or a government. Some newspapers with high editorial independence, high quality. This is a way to avoid duplicating the expense of reporting from around the world, circa 2005, there were approximately 6,580 daily newspaper titles in the world selling 395 million print copies a day. Worldwide annual revenue approached $100 billion in 2005-7, then plunged during the financial crisis of 2008-9. Revenue in 2016 fell to only $53 billion, hurting every major publisher as their efforts to gain online income fell far short of the goal. Besides remodeling advertising, the internet has also challenged the business models of the era by crowdsourcing both publishing in general and, more specifically, journalism. In addition, the rise of news aggregators, which bundle linked articles from online newspapers. Increasing paywalling of online newspapers may be counteracting those effects, the oldest newspaper still published is the Gazzetta di Mantova, which was established in Mantua in 1664. While online newspapers have increased access to newspapers by people with Internet access, literacy is also a factor which prevents people who cannot read from being able to benefit from reading newspapers. Periodicity, They are published at intervals, typically daily or weekly. This ensures that newspapers can provide information on newly-emerging news stories or events, currency, Its information is as up to date as its publication schedule allows
8.
Stock market
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Examples of the latter include shares of private companies which are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Stock exchanges list shares of equity as well as other security types, e. g. corporate bonds. Stocks can be categorised in various way, one way is by the country where the company is domiciled. S. At the close of 2012, the size of the stock market was about US$55 trillion. By country, the largest market was the United States, followed by Japan, as of 2015, there are a total of 60 stock exchanges in the world with a total market capitalization of $69 trillion. Of these, there are 16 exchanges with a capitalization of $1 trillion or more. Apart from the Australian Securities Exchange, these 16 exchanges are based in one of three continents, North America, Europe and Asia, a stock exchange is a place where, or an organization through which, individuals and organisations can trade stocks. Many large companies have their stock listed on a stock exchange and this makes the stock more liquid and thus more attractive to many investors. It may also act as a guarantor of settlement, other stocks may be traded over the counter, that is, through a dealer. Some large companies will have their stock listed on more than one exchange in different countries, Stock exchanges may also cover other types of securities, such as fixed interest securities or derivatives, which are more likely to be traded OTC. Trade in stock markets means the transfer for money of a stock or security from a seller to a buyer and this requires these two parties to agree on a price. Equities confer an ownership interest in a particular company and their buy or sell orders may be executed on their behalf by a stock exchange trader. Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor and this method is used in some stock exchanges and commodity exchanges, and involves traders shouting bid and offer prices. The other type of exchange has a network of computers where trades are made electronically. An example of such an exchange is the NASDAQ, a potential buyer bids a specific price for a stock, and a potential seller asks a specific price for the same stock. Buying or selling at the means you will accept any ask price or bid price for the stock. When the bid and ask prices match, a sale takes place, on a first-come, the purpose of a stock exchange is to facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, thus providing a marketplace. The exchanges provide real-time trading information on the securities, facilitating price discovery
9.
Great Western Railway
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The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance express services such as the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express and it also operated many suburban and rural services, some operated by steam railmotors or autotrains. The company pioneered the use of larger, more economic goods wagons than were usual in Britain and it operated a network of road motor routes, was a part of the Railway Air Services, and owned ships, docks and hotels. The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the port of the country. The company was founded at a meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then aged twenty-nine, was appointed engineer and this was by far Brunels largest contract to date. Firstly, he chose to use a gauge of 7 ft to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds. Secondly, he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs and this meant the line was not direct from to London to Bristol. From Reading heading west, the line would curve in a northerly sweep back to Bath, the first 22.5 miles of line, from Paddington station in London to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. When Maidenhead Railway Bridge was ready the line was extended to Twyford on 1 July 1839, the cutting was the scene of a railway disaster two years later when a goods train ran into a landslip, ten passengers who were travelling in open trucks were killed. This accident prompted Parliament to pass the 1844 Railway Regulation Act requiring railway companies to provide carriages for passengers. The next section, from Reading to Steventon crossed the Thames twice, a 7. 25-mile extension took the line to Faringdon Road on 20 July 1840. Meanwhile, work had started at the Bristol end of the line, on 17 December 1840, the line from London reached a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett Road west of Swindon and 80.25 miles from Paddington. The section from Wootton Bassett Road to Chippenham was opened on 31 May 1841, as was Swindon Junction station where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway to Cirencester connected. That was an independent line worked by the GWR, as was the Bristol and Exeter Railway, in 1851, the GWR purchased the Kennet and Avon Canal, which was a competing carrier between London, Reading, Bath and Bristol. The GWR was closely involved with the C&GWUR and the B&ER, the South Wales Railway had opened between Chepstow and Swansea in 1850 and became connected to the GWR by Brunels Chepstow Bridge in 1852. It was completed to Neyland in 1856, where a port was established
10.
Midland Railway
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The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. It had a network of lines managed from its headquarters in Derby. It became the third-largest railway undertaking in the British Isles, the Midland Railway Consolidation Act was passed in 1844 authorising the merger of the Midland Counties Railway, the North Midland Railway, and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. These met at the Tri-Junct station at Derby, where the MR established its locomotive and later its carriage, leading it were George Hudson from the North Midland, dynamic but unscrupulous, and John Ellis from the Midland Counties, a careful businessman of impeccable integrity. James Allport from the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway found a place elsewhere in Hudsons empire with the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, though he later returned. Almost immediately it took over the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway and the Erewash Valley Line in 1845, passengers from Sheffield continued to use Rotherham Masborough until a direct route was completed in 1870. Meanwhile, it extended its influence in the Leicestershire coalfields, by buying the Leicester and Swannington Railway in 1846, after the merger, London trains were carried on the shorter Midland Counties route. The former Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway was left with the traffic to Birmingham and Bristol, the line south was the Birmingham and Bristol Railway, which reached Curzon Street via Camp Hill. These two lines had been formed by the merger of the standard gauge Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and they met at Gloucester via a short loop of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway. In the event all that was necessary was for the later LNWR to share Birmingham New Street with the Midland when it was opened in 1854, the MR controlled all the traffic to the North East and Scotland from London. The LNWR was progressing slowly through the Lake District, and there was pressure for a line from London to York. Permission had been gained for the Northern and Eastern Railway to run through Peterborough and Lincoln, two obvious extensions of the Midland Counties line were from Nottingham to Lincoln and from Leicester to Peterborough. They were approved while the bill for the line was still before Parliament, forming the present day Lincoln Branch. The Leeds and Bradford Railway had been approved in 1844, by 1850 it was losing money but a number of railways offered to buy it. In spite of the objections of Hudson, for the MR and others, the London and York Railway led by Edmund Denison persisted, after Hudsons departure, the MR was in financial difficulties. Opposition to the Great Northern bill had cost a fortune, a deal of maintenance was overdue. Added to this, the Great Northern was taking much of the traffic from the North East, in 1851 the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway completed its line from Grantham as far as Colwick, from where a branch led to the MR Nottingham station. The Great Northern Railway by then passed through Grantham and both railway companies paid court to the fledgling line, meanwhile, Nottingham had woken up to its branch line status and was keen to expand
11.
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
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The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity, as a constituent of the newly formed London, the main line became part of the East Coast Main Line. In the summer of 1835, the engineer, Joseph Gibbs projected a line which was to run from Whitechapel, via Dunmow, Cambridge, Sleaford and this was submitted to a committee in London to which the title Great Northern Railway Company was provisionally given. However, the scheme came to nothing, loop from Peterborough to Bawtry via Boston and Lincoln. The London and York bill finally received Royal assent on 26 June 1846 as The Great Northern Railway Act,1846, the Act granted powers to construct the main line and loop lines. The Great Northern began construction first on the Peterborough to Gainsborough section of the loop line, as the ease of construction over the flat fens promised an earlier return on investment. The first section of line was opened on 1 March 1848 and was the Louth to Grimsby section of the East Lincolnshire Railway, which although nominally independent, was leased to the GNR from the start. The first section of GNR proper to be opened was the 3 miles from Doncaster to Askern Junction, the GNR and MS&LR lines allowing through running from Lincoln to Doncaster via Retford opened on 4 September 1849. The immediate targets in the north were Leeds and York and this new line was opened in June 1850, at which time the agreement was formalised and in return the GNR agreed not to proceed with its own main line from Askern to York via Selby. During 1846 to 1849 George Turnbull was the resident engineer under William Cubitt for the London District of the Great Northern Railway, in December 1848 Turnbull was busy with the plans for Kings Cross station and passing the line under the Regents Canal. On 2 February 1849 the last capstone on Holloway Bridge was set in place, on 27 March the first brick for the South Mimms tunnel was laid by Edward Purser. The first brick of the East Barnet tunnel was laid on 23 April, there was much trouble with the cement in the Tottenham and South Mimms tunnels, Turnbull stopped the use of this cement — blue lias was substituted. Another of the engineers working under Cubitt was James Moore, who went on to design the first commercial railway in Australia for the Melbourne. On 7 August 1850, the line opened from a temporary station at Maiden Lane, London. The remaining section between Peterborough and Retford opened in 1852, as did the new London terminus at Kings Cross, Doncaster locomotive works opened in 1853, replacing temporary facilities at Boston. On 1 August 1854, the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway opened between Leeds and Bowling Junction near Bradford, because it had running powers over this line and a section of the LYR, the GNR obtained access to Bradford and Halifax. In 1857, the West Yorkshire Railway opened their line from Wakefield to Leeds via Ardsley. The GNR had running powers over this line and immediately began using it instead of the Midland line via Methley, also in 1857, the previously mentioned LB&HJR opened a direct line from Ardsley to Laisterdyke, near Bradford
12.
North Eastern Railway (United Kingdom)
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The North Eastern Railway was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined and its main line survives to the present day as part of the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh. Unlike many other pre-Grouping companies the NER had a compact territory. That district extended through Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumberland, with outposts in Westmorland and Cumberland, the only company penetrating its territory was the Hull & Barnsley, which it absorbed shortly before the main grouping. The NER was the only English railway to run regularly into Scotland. The total length of line owned was 4,990 miles, the headquarters were at York and the works at Darlington, Gateshead, York and elsewhere. Befitting the successor to the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the NER had a reputation for innovation and it was a pioneer in architectural and design matters and in electrification. In its final days it also began the collection became the Railway Museum at York. In 1913 the company achieved a revenue of £11,315,130 with working expenses of £7,220,784. Constituent companies of the NER are listed in order under the year of amalgamation. Their constituent companies are indented under the parent company with the year of amalgamation in parenthesis, if a company changed its name, the earlier names and dates are listed after the later name. The information for this section is drawn from Appendix E in Tomlinson. E. R. The four largest, at Newcastle, Darlington, York and Hull survive in transport use, York station was the hub of the system, and the headquarters of the line was located here. The basis for the present station was opened on 25 June 1877, until the advent of modern signalling, the 295-lever box was the largest manually worked signal box in Britain. Newcastle Central station, opened on 29 August 1850, became the largest on the NER, other principal stations were located at Sunderland, Darlington and Hull. The station at Leeds was a joint undertaking with the London, the NER was the first railway company in the world to appoint a full-time salaried architect to work with its chief engineer in constructing railway facilities. Some of the men appointed were based in, or active in, George Townsend Andrews was the first architect associated with the North Eastern Railway. He designed the first permanent station at York, along with others on the NER route and he also designed the Assembly Rooms in York
