1.
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
2.
Rainhill
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Rainhill is a large village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. The population of the parish taken at the 2011 census was 10,853. Historically part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the parish of Prescot. Following the Local Government Act 1894, it part of the Whiston Rural District. The Rainhill Trials of 1829 resulted in the selection of Stephensons Rocket as the worlds first modern steam locomotive, Rainhill has been recorded since Norman times but its name is believed to come from the Old English personal name of Regna or Regan. It is thought that around the time of the Domesday Book that Rainhill was a part of one of the townships within the Widnes fee. Recordings have shown that in the year of 1246, Roger of Rainhill died, one half was centred on the now standing Rainhill Manor public house, see Rainhill Stoops below, and the other centred on Rainhill Hall, just off Blundells Lane. Towards the end of the 18th century, four Catholic sons of a farmer, the names of the brothers were Joseph, Francis, Peter and Bartholomew Bretherton. In 1800, Bartholomew decided to break into the coaching business, the partnership that he had with one or two of his brothers quickly built up and by 1820, he had the bulk of the coaching trade of Liverpool. He was running coaches to and from Manchester fourteen times a day from the Saracens Head in Dale Street, Bartholomew had begun to purchase land in Rainhill, and in 1824, he bought the Manor of Rainhill from Dr James Gerrard of Liverpool. By 1830, he owned over 260 acres around Rainhill, in 1824, across the road from the stables, he built Rainhill House and laid out beautiful gardens around it. Today, this house is known as Loyola Hall, and has served as a run by the Society of Jesus since 1923. The winner was the Rocket, designed by George Stephenson, in 1979 the 150th anniversary of the trials was celebrated by a cavalcade of trains through the ages, including replicas of the winner and runner-up in the trials. During the Victorian era, Rainhill was the location of a mass murderer. In March 1892, the bodies of a woman and her four children were discovered buried under the floor of Dinham Villa, Lawton Road. The series of events led to this gruesome discovery began with a marriage in St. Anns Church. Miss Emily Mather married Frederick Bailey Deeming, who called himself Albert Williams, the couple emigrated to Melbourne, where Deeming murdered his wife and buried her under the floor of their kitchen. Victoria Police contacted Scotland Yard, who, as a result of information passed onto them, made a search of Dinham Villa, marie Deeming, however, was his first wife
3.
Lancashire
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Lancashire is a non-metropolitan ceremonial county in north west England. The county town is Lancaster although the administrative centre is Preston. The county has a population of 1,449,300, people from Lancashire are known as Lancastrians. The history of Lancashire begins with its founding in the 12th century, in the Domesday Book of 1086, some of its lands were treated as part of Yorkshire. The land that lay between the Ribble and Mersey, Inter Ripam et Mersam, was included in the returns for Cheshire, when its boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. Lancashire emerged as a commercial and industrial region during the Industrial Revolution. Liverpool and Manchester grew into its largest cities, dominating global trade, the county contained several mill towns and the collieries of the Lancashire Coalfield. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire, Accrington, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Colne, Darwen, Manchester, Nelson, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale and Wigan were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a centre for tourism for the inhabitants of Lancashires mill towns, the detached northern part of Lancashire in the Lake District, including the Furness Peninsula and Cartmel, was merged with Cumberland and Westmorland to form Cumbria. Lancashire lost 709 square miles of land to other counties, about two fifths of its area, although it did gain some land from the West Riding of Yorkshire. Today the county borders Cumbria to the north, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south and North and West Yorkshire to the east, with a coastline on the Irish Sea to the west. The county palatine boundaries remain the same with the Duke of Lancaster exercising sovereignty rights, including the appointment of lords lieutenant in Greater Manchester, the county was established in 1182, later than many other counties. During Roman times the area was part of the Brigantes tribal area in the zone of Roman Britain. The towns of Manchester, Lancaster, Ribchester, Burrow, Elslack, in the centuries after the Roman withdrawal in 410AD the northern parts of the county probably formed part of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a successor entity to the Brigantes tribe. During the mid-8th century, the area was incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, in the Domesday Book, land between the Ribble and Mersey were known as Inter Ripam et Mersam and included in the returns for Cheshire. Although some historians consider this to mean south Lancashire was then part of Cheshire and it is also claimed that the territory to the north formed part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It bordered on Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire, the county was divided into hundreds, Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford and West Derby. Lonsdale was further partitioned into Lonsdale North, the part north of the sands of Morecambe Bay including Furness and Cartmel
4.
Merseyside
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Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, Merseyside spans 249 square miles of land which border Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and the Irish Sea to the west. North Wales is across the Dee Estuary, there is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Merseyside, but overwhelmingly the land use is urban. For the 12 years following 1974 the county had a system of local government. The county council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts are now effectively unitary authority areas, Merseyside is joined by the neighbouring borough of Halton to form the Liverpool City Region, which together forms a local enterprise partnership and combined authority area. Further areas, including Widnes and Runcorn, were added to the Special Review Area by Order in 1965, draft proposals were published in 1965, but the commission never completed its final proposals as it was abolished in 1966. This would have included four districts, Southport/Crosby, Liverpool/Bootle, St. Helens/Widnes, in 1970 the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive was set up, covering Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and Knowsley, but excluding Southport and St. Helens. The Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the incoming Conservative Party government, a White Paper was published in 1971. The Local Government Bill presented to Parliament involved a substantial trimming from the White Paper, excluding the northern and southern fringes of the area, excluding Chester, following the creation of Merseyside, Merseytravel expanded to take in St Helens and Southport. Between 1974 and 1986 the county had a system of local government with the five boroughs sharing power with the Merseyside County Council. However, in 1986 the government of Margaret Thatcher abolished the county council along with all other county councils. The eastern part of Merseyside borders onto Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, the territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed part of the administrative counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. The two parts are linked by the two Mersey Tunnels, the Wirral Line of Merseyrail, and the Mersey Ferry, to express location within the Merseyside area by the preposition on – thus on Merseyside as opposed to in Merseyside – was traditionally the more usual. Therefore, more recent usage tends to draw distinctions between the geographical Merseyside – for which on is considered appropriate – and the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, Merseyside contains the metropolitan boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens and Wirral. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Merseyside at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. This also has a usage by some local authorities and organisations and is used by Geographers A-Z Map Company for their Merseyside Street Atlas. However, a separate City region, comprising Merseyside and Halton, has official recognition as being Greater Merseyside. Halton also forms part of the Merseyside NUTS region, List of Lord Lieutenants of Merseyside List of High Sheriffs of Merseyside 1911 Liverpool general transport strike List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Merseyside Dickinson, Joseph
5.
Stephenson's Rocket
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Stephensons Rocket was the early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement. It was built for, and won, the Rainhill Trials held by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1829 to choose the best design to power the railway. Rocket was designed by Robert Stephenson in 1829, and built at the Forth Street Works of his company in Newcastle upon Tyne. Though the Rocket was not the first steam locomotive, it was the first to bring together several innovations to produce the most advanced locomotive of its day. It is the most famous example of a design of locomotives by Stephenson that became the template for most steam engines in the following 150 years. The locomotive was preserved and is now on display in the Science Museum in London, the locomotive had a tall smokestack chimney at the front, a cylindrical boiler in the middle, and a separate firebox at the rear. The large front pair of wheels was driven by two external cylinders set at an angle. The smaller rear wheels were not coupled to the driving wheels, Stephenson designed Rocket for the Rainhill trials, and the specific rules of that contest. As the first railway intended for more than freight, the rules emphasised speed and would require reliability. Six-wheeled locomotives were limited to six tons, four-wheeled locomotives to four, in particular, the weight of the train expected to be hauled was to be no more than three times the actual weight of the locomotive. Stephenson realised that whatever the size of successful locomotives, this new contest would favourites a fast. Stephensons most visible decision was to use a pair of driving wheels. This was the first 0-2-2 and first single driver locomotive, the use of single drivers gave several advantages. The weight of coupling rods was avoided and the second axle could be smaller and lightweight, Rocket uses a multi-tubular boiler design. Previous locomotive boilers consisted of a pipe surrounded by water. Rocket has 25 copper fire-tubes that carry the hot exhaust gas from the firebox, through the wet boiler to the blast pipe and this arrangement resulted in a greatly increased surface contact area of hot pipe with boiler water when compared to a single large flue. Additionally, radiant heating from the enlarged separate firebox helped deliver an increase in steaming. The original innovator of multiple fire-tubes is unclear, between Stephenson and Marc Seguin and it is known that Seguin visited Stephenson to observe Locomotion and that he also built two multi-tubular locomotives of his own design for the Saint-Étienne–Lyon railway before Rocket
6.
Stationary steam engine
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Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. Table engines have the crosshead above the cylinder and the crankshaft below. Horizontal engines have a horizontal cylinder, vertical engines have a vertical cylinder. Inclined engines have an inclined cylinder, Stationary engines may be classified by secondary characteristics as well, High-speed engines are distinguished by fast-acting valves. Corliss engines are distinguished by special rotary valve gear, uniflow engines have admission valves at the cylinder heads and exhaust ports at the midpoint. When stationary engines had multiple cylinders, they could be classified as, Simple engines, compound engines which use the exhaust from high-pressure cylinders to power low-pressure cylinders. This could be done with a plate that acted as a heat sink. Stationary engines may also be classified by their application, Pumping engines are found in pumping stations, mill engines to power textile mills Winding engines power various types of hoists. Refrigeration engines are coupled to ammonia compressors. A. and Watkins, George, The Industrial Archaeology of the Stationary Steam Engine, London,1976, ISBN 0-7139-0604-9 Hills, power from Steam, A History of the Stationary Steam Engine. Roberts, A S. Arthur Roberts Engine List
7.
Steam locomotive
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A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its pulling power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning combustible material—usually coal, wood, the steam moves reciprocating pistons which are mechanically connected to the locomotives main wheels. Both fuel and water supplies are carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in wagons pulled behind, the first steam locomotive, made by Richard Trevithick, first operated on 21 February 1804, three years after the road locomotive he made in 1801. The first practical steam locomotive was built in 1812-13 by John Blenkinsop, Steam locomotives were first developed in Great Britain during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. From the early 1900s they were superseded by electric and diesel locomotives, with full conversions to electric. The majority of locomotives were retired from regular service by the 1980s, though several continue to run on tourist. The earliest railways employed horses to draw carts along railway tracks, in 1784, William Murdoch, a Scottish inventor, built a small-scale prototype of a steam road locomotive. An early working model of a rail locomotive was designed and constructed by steamboat pioneer John Fitch in the US during 1794. His steam locomotive used interior bladed wheels guided by rails or tracks, the model still exists at the Ohio Historical Society Museum in Columbus. The authenticity and date of this locomotive is disputed by some experts, accompanied by Andrew Vivian, it ran with mixed success. The design incorporated a number of important innovations that included using high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine, Trevithick visited the Newcastle area in 1804 and had a ready audience of colliery owners and engineers. The visit was so successful that the railways in north-east England became the leading centre for experimentation. Trevithick continued his own steam propulsion experiments through another trio of locomotives, Four years later, the successful twin-cylinder locomotive Salamanca by Matthew Murray for the edge railed rack and pinion Middleton Railway debuted in 1812. Another well known early locomotive was Puffing Billy built 1813–14 by engineer William Hedley and it was intended to work on the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne. This locomotive is the oldest preserved, and is on display in the Science Museum. George Stephenson built Locomotion No.1 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, north-east England, in 1829, his son Robert built in Newcastle The Rocket which was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials. This success led to the company emerging as the pre-eminent builder of locomotives used on railways in the UK, US. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened a year later making exclusive use of power for passenger
8.
John Urpeth Rastrick
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John Urpeth Rastrick was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. Rastrick was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, to John Rastrick and he attended local public schools, at age 15, in 1795 he was apprenticed in his fathers engineering practice. In 1802 he was hired by the Ketley Iron Works in Shropshire, after five years at Ketley, Rastrick partnered with John Hazledine, in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. He also produced equipment for Trevithicks abortive South American adventure. On 1 April 1814, he was awarded UK patent number 3,799 for his engine design. Rastrick oversaw the construction of the Wye bridge at Chepstow, which opened in 1816, the partnership between Rastrick and Hazledine was a troubled one, ending in a dispute in 1817. He worked independently for a period, but in 1819 he formed a partnership with James Foster. The new company manufactured a range of products from blast furnaces. In 1822 Rastrick became the engineer for the Stratford and Moreton Tramway, the partnership was also responsible for the first steam locomotives for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, the Stourbridge Lion in 1829. In 1829 Rastrick was commissioned with James Walker to report on the economics of using either rope haulage or locomotives on the new Liverpool, after extensive travels to view the early railways of the age their report favoured rope haulage on economic grounds. They did however include the rider that there were benefits to locomotive haulage not least their probable technical improvement. Given such a judgement, the directors of the company decided to hold a competition to test the locomotives on offer. Rastrick was one of three judges at the Rainhill Trials of 1829 which conclusively proved the benefits of Stephensons Rocket locomotive, Rastricks diaries and notebook of the trial are valuable records of the performance of locomotives of that era. Rastrick left the Foster, Rastrick & Co partnership in 1831 to become an independent civil engineer, and he then worked on numerous railway projects of the period and in 1835 worked with John Rennie the Younger to obtain parliamentary approval for the London and Brighton Railway. He then became consultant engineer, overseeing the construction over difficult terrain. He was involved with the design and construction of the Merstham, Balcombe, Clayton and Patcham Tunnels, Rastrick retired from active life in 1847, moving to Sayes Court, Addlestone, Chertsey in Surrey which was an eight-bedroom mansion in 25 acres of grounds. His death occurred there on 1 November 1856 and he is buried at Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery. During his partnership with John Hazledine, Rastrick married Sarah Jervis on 24 December 1810 at Codsall, joseph emigrated to New Zealand and founded a line of builders, engineers and architects
9.
Stourbridge
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Stourbridge /ˈstaʊərbrɪdʒ/ is a large town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically a part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, the population, as recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2001, was 55,480, increasing to 63,298 at the 2011 Census. Stourbridge is included in the Stourbridge parliamentary constituency, currently held by Margot James of the Conservative Party, Stourbridge is a part of the West Midlands metropolitan county and conurbation, in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. Stourbridge is located about 13 miles west of Birmingham, at the edge of the industrial Midlands, much of the town consists of suburban streets, interspersed with green spaces. Stourbridge borders on green land, and is close to unspoiled countryside with rural Shropshire close by to the west. The Clent Hills, Kinver Edge and large areas of farmland lie to the south, the town and surrounding area is at the south western extremity of the Black Country and the majority of the working-class population retain the regions accent and dialect. Stourbridge was in the ancient parish of Oldswinford, Worcestershire, and this perhaps led to Stourbridge being a separate township for Poor Law and other purposes, distinct from Amblecote and the rest of Oldswinford. In 1834, the Stourbridge Union was formed consisting of Kingswinford, Amblecote, Stourbridge, Oldswinford, the town obtained a Board of Improvement Commissioners under an Act of 1825. A further Act of 1866 divided it into three wards and allowed the neighbouring hamlets of Amblecote, Wollaston and Lye to accede to the if they wished. The Improvement Commissioners were replaced by an Urban District Council in the 1890s, the town subsequently obtained a charter as a municipal borough. This later absorbed Lye and Wollescote Urban District Council, and in 1965 much of Amblecote, since 1974, it has been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. Stourbridge takes its name from the River Stour, which flows through the town, but the border was moved a couple of miles north in 1966, when Amblecote Urban District was incorporated into the Borough of Stourbridge. The town gives its name to local production, which has been manufactured since the early 1600s. The local glass proved particularly suitable for the industry, taken up predominantly after the immigration of French coal miners in the Huguenot diaspora, however, most of the glass industry was actually located in surrounding areas including Wordsley, Amblecote and Oldswinford. The rich natural resources of coal and fireclay for lining furnaces made it the location for the industry. Glass making peaked in the 19th century, encouraged by the famous glass-making family, the 1861 census identified that 1,032 residents of Stourbridge were involved in the glass trade in some way. Of these,541 were glass workers - an increase from 409 in 1851, the vast majority of those involved in the glass trade came from Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. 9% came from parts of England and 0. 2% had come from abroad
10.
Nicholas Wood
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Nicholas Wood FRS was an English colliery and steam locomotive engineer. Nicholas Wood was born at Sourmires, in the parish of Ryton, then in County Durham, Nicholas Senior was the mining engineer at Crawcrook colliery. Nicholas Junior attended the school at Crawcrook and started work in 1811 at Killingworth Colliery as an apprentice colliery viewer under the guidance of Ralph Dodds. Wood eventually became the viewer, or colliery manager, of Killingworth Colliery in 1815 and he also carried out in 1818 a series of experiments on rolling resistance, lubrication and laminated steel springs of locomotives. Wood and Stephenson remained in contact throughout their lives, and George Stephenson even sent his son, Robert Stephenson, to work as Woods apprentice. He republished his book, considerably enlarged by reports and discussion of the trials, a third edition appeared in 1838. In 1832 he was involved in the building of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and in 1845 became a director of the Newcastle, Wood was also given an opportunity to display his geological knowledge of Northumberland when the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge held a session in Newcastle. This would lead to Wood becoming one of the men who founded the North of England Institute of Mining, later to become the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. In 1844 Wood became a partner in the company that owned Hetton Colliery and he also had a vested interests in a number of other local collieries and businesses. Following the introduction of the Mines Inspection Act of 1850 he was appointed President of the newly formed North of England Institute of Mining Engineers and he campaigned for a College of Science in Newcastle which eventually came to fruition after his death, and was the forerunner to Newcastle University. In 1857, he published a work on mining safety, On the conveyance of coals underground in pits. In 1864 Wood was made a Fellow of the Royal Society and he married Maria Lindsay of Alnwick in 1827, they had four sons and three daughters. In declining health for months, he died while visiting London for medical consultations on 19 December 1865. His four sons all made names for themselves in the industry, the youngest, Sir Lindsay Wood, becoming chairman of Hetton Collieries after his fathers death. In 1871, in honour of Nicholas Wood, the Neville Hall within the North of England Institute of Mining Mechanical Engineers was renamed the Wood Memorial Hall. Planned to open on 5 August 1871, on the anniversary of its foundation. The Hall was successfully reopened on 2 July 1872, and was considered by many of the members to be a testimonial to the memory of Nicholas Wood. Within the building, there is a statue of Nicholas Wood presiding over the library
11.
Killingworth
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Killingworth, formerly Killingworth Township, is a town north of Newcastle Upon Tyne, in North Tyneside, England. Killingworth was built as a town in the 1960s, next to Killingworth Village. Other nearby towns and villages include Forest Hall, West Moor, most of Killingworths residents commute to Newcastle, or its surrounding area. However, Killingworth developed a commercial centre, with bus links to the rest of Tyne. Killingworth is served by Palmersville Metro station, the town of Killingworth in Australia is named after the British original because of its extensive coal mines, it lies west of Newcastle, New South Wales, so-named for the same reason. In an episode of the architecture series Grundys Wonders on Tyne Tees, filming of the episode took place in the 19th Century mining village at Blists Hill Open Air Museum in Ironbridge, however. According to Morrison there is no recorded evidence of human activity at Killingworth. She asserts that this may be due in part to a lack of fieldwork in the area, subsequent mining, spoil heaps and landscaping disturbed the stratigraphy and damaged or destroyed artifacts. Documentary evidence for Killingworth starts in 1242 when it is recorded as part of the held by Roger de Merlay III. There were nine recorded taxpayers in 1296, falling to eight by 1312, in a survey of the township dated 1373 listed sixteen tenements. The township was divided more than twenty named fields. Within each field the various landholders farmed strips, or selions, fifteen landholders are mentioned as holding tenements in Killingworth and strips of land scattered among the fields. One of the fields mentioned is Dimisdale and this name survived until the 18th century and can be identified with the lands abutting Burradon township. The last male heirs of the Killingworth family were dead by 1704 and their lands in Killingworth were divided between their sisters, Mehitabel, Deborah, Blandina and Bethseba. Dimisdale was assigned to Mehitabel Killingworth, wife of Thomas Partis and this was subsequently sold, along with other lands, around 1737 to John Williams of the Close Gate glass house. Williams died in 1763, leaving his Killingworth property to his son, John Williams, John Williams sold his Killingworth land and property in 1767 to George Colpitts. Colpitts was to pay a tax of £8 4s. 9d. that year and again in 1779 and this is just short of the figure for Burradon township
12.
Manchester
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Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,414 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdoms second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million, Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council and it was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township but began to expand at an astonishing rate around the turn of the 19th century. Manchesters unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment, in 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK and it is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom, the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, both meanings are preserved in languages derived from Common Brittonic, mam meaning breast in Irish and mother in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Central Manchester has been settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell, much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, the premises of the college house Chethams School of Music. The library, which opened in 1653 and is open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282, around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the regions textile industry
13.
Stockton and Darlington Railway
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The Stockton and Darlington Railway was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The worlds first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington, the movement of coal to ships rapidly became a lucrative business, and the line was soon extended to a new port and town at Middlesbrough. While coal waggons were hauled by locomotives from the start. The S&DR was involved in the building of the East Coast Main Line between York and Darlington, but its expansion was at Middlesbrough Docks and west into Weardale. At the beginning of the 1860 it took over railways that had crossed the Pennines to join the West Coast Main Line at Tebay and Clifton, near Penrith. The opening of the S&DR was seen as proof of the effectiveness of steam railways, much of the original route is now served by the Tees Valley Line, operated by Northern. Coal from the mines in southern County Durham was taken away on packhorses. A canal was proposed by George Dixon in 1767 and again by John Rennie in 1815, a few years later a canal was proposed on a route that bypassed Darlington and Yarm, and a meeting was held in Yarm to oppose the route. The Welsh engineer George Overton was consulted, and he advised building a tramroad, Overton carried out a survey and planned a route from the Etherley and Witton Collieries to Shildon, and then passing to the north of Darlington to reach Stockton. Approximately two-thirds of the shares were sold locally, and the rest were bought by Quakers nationally, the promoters lodged a bill on 30 September 1820, the route having changed again as agreement had not been reached with Viscount Barrington about the line passing over his land. The railway was unopposed this time, but the bill failed to enter the committee stage as the required four-fifths of shares had not been sold. Pease subscribed £7,000, from time he had considerable influence over the railway. Concerned about Overtons competence, Pease asked George Stephenson, an experienced enginewright of the collieries of Killingworth, the committee designed a seal, showing waggons being pulled by a horse, and adopted the Latin motto Periculum privatum utilitas publica. By 23 July 1821 it had decided that the line would be a railway with edge rails, rather than a plateway, Stephenson recommended using malleable iron rails, even though he owned a share of the patent for the alternative cast iron rails, and both types were used. Overton had kept himself available, but had no further involvement, on 23 May 1822 a ceremony at Stockton celebrated the laying of the first track, the rails 4 feet 8 inches apart, the same gauge used by Stephenson on his Killingworth Railway. Stephenson advocated the use of locomotives on the line. Pease visited Killingworth in mid-1822 and the directors visited Hetton colliery railway, a new bill was presented, requesting Stephensons deviations from the original route and the use of loco-motives or moveable engines, and this received assent on 23 May 1823. The line included embankments up to 48 feet high, and Stephenson designed an iron bridge to cross the River Gaunless
14.
Nuremberg Transport Museum
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The Nuremberg Transport Museum is based in Nuremberg, Germany, and consists of the Deutsche Bahns own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications. It also has two satellite museums at Koblenz-Lützel and Halle, the Nuremberg Transport Museum is one of the oldest technical history museums in Europe. In February 2007 the official name of the DB Museum became the Company Museum of the Deutsche Bahn AG and it is a milestone on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The forerunner of the present-day DB Museum was opened in 1899 as a royal Bavarian railway museum, today it is a company museum belonging to the Deutsche Bahn and portrays, amongst other things, the history of the railways. The present building was built in 1925, on 1 July 1996, the Deutsche Bahn AG took over the museum from the Deutsche Bundesbahn for the symbolic purchase price of one deutschmark. At the same time Dr. Jürgen Franzke, previously head of the Museum of Industrial Culture in Nuremberg, was appointed as the museums chief, the DB AG planned at that time to invest 6 million DM up to the museums centenary year. The museum also owns a range of vehicles that can be used for special rail services. A further attraction of the museum is its collection of 160,1,10 scale models occupying 1000 square metres of the museum and these models have been built over the years since the end of the 19th century and are very finely detailed. The first were made in 1882 by apprentices of the Royal Bavarian State Railways, the museum also offers a walk-through tunnel, a level crossing, signals and points that can be operated, models equipped with sound and light and simulators. A model railway covering an area of 80 m² is used to demonstrate prototypical railway operations, during museum opening hours there is a ten-minute demonstration hourly, on the half-hour, with explanations of the key concepts of railway operating. The layout, built between 1960 and 1970, is worked using control panels with a total of some 5000 relays, in the main building of the DB Museum there is a library with about 40,000 titles on railway subjects. The Präsenzbibliothek can be visited by appointment free of charge on workdays, on the evening of 17 October 2005 much of the roundhouse of the museum, less its steel frame, was burnt to the ground. It was there that the DB Museum had stabled operational locomotives for which room could not be found in the museum, a 1935 working replica of the Adler, a locomotive from the first German railway between Nuremberg and Fürth, was badly damaged by the blaze. Apprentices and experienced specialists rebuilt the engine in the Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works, after two years of reconstruction the Adler was once again ready for operations in October 2007 and returned to the Nurember Transport Museum on 23 November 2007. Federal Government MPs, members of the DB AG management and the Bavarian minister-president, Beckstein, a further, non-operational,1953 replica is displayed in the museum. A total of 24 historical engines and wagons went up in smoke, in the long term, the steam engines should be repairable, as should the E75. The damaged diesel engines and railbuses, due to their construction, were irreparable and were scrapped by July 2006. The burnt out and partly collapsed locomotive shed was torn down, several locos were sold or loaned to railway museums for restoration
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Nuremberg
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Nuremberg is a city on the river Pegnitz and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia, about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria, and the largest in Franconia, the population as of February 2015, is 517,498, which makes it Germanys fourteenth-largest city. The urban area also includes Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a population of 763,854. The European Metropolitan Area Nuremberg has ca.3.5 million inhabitants, Nuremberg was, according to the first documentary mention of the city in 1050, the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes, Nuremberg is often referred to as having been the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the structure of the empire. The increasing demand of the court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. In 1298, the Jews of the town were accused of having desecrated the host, behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague years, in 1349, Nurembergs Jews were subjected to a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter, the plague returned to the city in 1405,1435,1437,1482,1494,1520 and 1534. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362, where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory, the Hussite Wars, recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. During the Middle Ages, Nurembergs literary culture was rich, varied, the cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, during the 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but the city was attacked without a declaration of war and was forced into a disadvantageous peace. The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere, frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein, the city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre
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Science Museum, London
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The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and today is one of the major tourist attractions. Like other publicly funded museums in the United Kingdom, the Science Museum does not charge visitors for admission. Temporary exhibitions, however, may incur an admission fee and it is part of the Science Museum Group, having merged with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in 2012. It included a collection of machinery which became the Museum of Patents in 1858, and this collection contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum. In 1883, the contents of the Patent Office Museum were transferred to the South Kensington Museum, in 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum, which became the Victoria. When Queen Victoria laid the stone for the new building for the Art Museum, she stipulated that the museum be renamed after herself. On 26 June 1909 the Science Museum, as an independent entity, the Science Museums present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison, were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28. This building was known as the East Block, construction of which began in 1913, as the name suggests it was intended to be the first building of a much larger project, which was never realized. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits, a recent addition is the IMAX 3D Cinema showing science and nature documentaries, most of them in 3-D, and the Wellcome Wing which focuses on digital technology. Entrance has been free since 1 December 2001, the museum houses some of the many objects collected by Henry Wellcome around a medical theme. The fourth floor exhibit is called Glimpses of Medical History, with reconstructions, the fifth floor gallery is called Science and the Art of Medicine, with exhibits of medical instruments and practices from ancient days and from many countries. The collection is strong in clinical medicine, biosciences and public health, the museum is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine. The Science Museum has a library, and until the 1960s was Britains National Library for Science, Medicine. It holds runs of periodicals, early books and manuscripts, and is used by scholars worldwide and it was, for a number of years, run in conjunction with the Library of Imperial College, but in 2007 the Library was divided over two sites. The Imperial College library catalogue search system now informs searchers that volumes formerly held there are Available at Science Museum Library Swindon Currently unavailable, a new Research Centre with library facilities is promised for late 2015 but is unlikely to have book stacks nearby. The Science Museums medical collections have a scope and coverage
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Cycloped
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Cycloped was an early horse-powered locomotive, built by Thomas Shaw Brandreth of Liverpool, which competed unsuccessfully in the Rainhill Trials of October 1829. The Cycloped was the entry in the trials that did not rely on steam power. Brandreth was one of the directors of the railway and some believed that that gave the Cycloped an unfair advantage. Stephensons Rocket eventually won the trials, maintaining a speed of 13.8 mph for a modest consumption of coal. Horses had been used to pull wagons on coal and mineral tramways and plateways for some years before this, many were arranged so that the line ran downhill from the mine to the river or coastal loading staith. Gravity could be used to run the trains downhill, with the horses only required to haul the lighter empty trains back uphill. Early examples with just one or two together were pulled downhill by the horse, the horse also acting as brakes. Later trains developed better mechanical brakes and so several wagons could be coupled together as a single train, the resting horse was carried in a separate wagon or dandy car. These wagons were simple unpowered wagons, with no more adaption for horses than their loading doors, horse locomotives occupied a negligible interval between the development of lightweight passenger-carrying public railways and the provision of viable steam locomotives. Only one other is recorded, the Flying Dutchman of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company
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Novelty (locomotive)
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Novelty was an early steam locomotive built by John Ericsson and John Braithwaite to take part in the Rainhill Trials in 1829. It was an 0-2-2WT locomotive and is now regarded as the very first tank engine and it had a unique design of boiler and a number of other novel design features. Unfortunately, several of the components had significant design weaknesses which ultimately resulted in its failure at the Trials. During the late 1820s Ericsson and Braithwaite were working together building horse drawn fire engines with steam pumps and these used a boiler designed by Ericsson and were built in the London works of John Braithwaite. These fire engines were known for their ability to steam quickly. Charles Vignoles has also associated with Novelty, but his practical involvement is not known. He may have aligned himself with the engine because of a feud with George Stephenson. This incredibly short space of time has led people to suggest that Novelty is in fact a fire engine. It is more likely that it used many of the parts as their fire engines. Novelty was constructed in the London Workshop belonging to Braithwaite and transported to Liverpool by boat, there was no time to test Novelty in London before transportation, and following test runs at Rainhill before the trials, modifications were carried out with the help of Timothy Hackworth. The boiler used on Novelty was designed by John Ericsson, the design was very scientific for the era but proved to be very hard to build and maintain compared with the boiler design adopted for Rocket and most steam locomotives since. The most prominent feature for the boiler is the copper firebox. Within the vertical vessel was the inner firebox and the space between the two was filled with water, fuel was added from the top, where a tube passed down through the top of the firebox. This firebox construction was not dissimilar to some types of vertical boiler, like George Stephenson, Ericsson understood that a large area was needed to extract heat from the hot gases. This he did in a horizontal tube filled with water which ran under the full length of the engine. It can be seen in the illustration on top of page, sticking out to the right. Within the horizontal section was a tube carrying the hot gases and this ‘S’ shaped tube was also tapered causing the gases to speed up as they cooled down. In practice this tube is almost impossible to clean, the resulting boiler was the shape of a hammer and was required to be fitted to the frame before the footplate, cylinders or blower could be added
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John Ericsson
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John Ericsson was a Swedish-American inventor, active in England and the United States, and regarded as one of the most influential mechanical engineers ever. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the steam locomotive Novelty, which competed in the Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, won by George Stephensons Rocket. In America he designed the US Navys first screw-propelled steam-frigate USS Princeton, in partnership with Captain Robert Stockton, a new partnership with Cornelius H. Johan Ericsson was born at Långban in Värmland, Sweden. He was the brother of Nils Ericson, a distinguished canal and their father Olaf Ericsson had worked as the supervisor for a mine in Värmland. He had lost money in speculation and had to move his family to Forsvik in 1810, there he worked as a director of blastings during the excavation of the Swedish Göta Canal. The extraordinary skills of the two Ericsson brothers were discovered by Baltzar von Platen, the architect of the Göta Canal and they were dubbed cadets of mechanics of the Swedish Royal Navy, and engaged as trainees at the canal enterprise. At the age of fourteen, John was already working independently as a surveyor and his assistant had to carry a footstool for him to reach the instruments during surveying work. At the age of seventeen he joined the Swedish army in Jämtland, serving in the Jämtland Field Ranger Regiment, as a Second Lieutenant, but was soon promoted to Lieutenant. He was sent to northern Sweden to do surveying, and in his time he constructed a heat engine which used the fumes from the fire instead of steam as a propellant. His skill and interest in mechanics made him resign from the army, however his heat engine was not a success, as his prototype was designed to burn birchwood and would not work well with coal. Notwithstanding the disappointment, he invented several other mechanisms instead based on steam, in 1829 he and John Braithwaite built Novelty for the Rainhill Trials arranged by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It proved considerably faster than the other entrants but suffered recurring problems. Two further engines were built by Braithwaite and Ericsson, named William IV and Queen Adelaide after the new king and these were generally larger and more robust than Novelty and differed in several details. The pair ran trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway but the railway declined to purchase the new designs, an engine Ericsson constructed for Sir John Franklins use failed under the Antarctic conditions for which, out of Franklins desire to conceal his destination, it had not been designed. At this stage of Ercissons career the most successful and enduring of his inventions was the steam condenser and his deep sea lead, a pressure-activated fathometer was another minor, but enduring success. The commercial failure and development costs of some of the machines devised, at this time he also married 19-year-old Amelia Byam, a disastrous match that ended in the couples separation until Amelias death. His only formal education was an officers education and training during his time in the Swedish Army. On March 27,1822, John passed an examination in Stockholm
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John Braithwaite (engineer)
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John Braithwaite, the younger was an English engineer who invented the first steam fire engine. He also co-designed the first locomotive to cover a mile in less than a minute, Braithwaite was third son of John Braithwaite the elder. In June 1818 his father died, leaving the business to his sons Francis, Francis died in 1823, and John Braithwaite carried on the business alone. He added to the business the making of high-pressure steam-engines, in 1817 he reported before the House of Commons upon the Norwich steamboat explosion, and in 1820 he ventilated the House of Lords by means of air-pumps. In 1822 he made the engine, and in 1823 cast the statue of the Duke of Kent by sculptor Sebastian Gahagan that was erected in Portland Place. He was introduced to George and Robert Stephenson in 1827, and about the time became acquainted with Captain John Ericsson. In 1829 Braithwaite and Ericsson constructed for the Rainhill experiments the locomotive engine and this engine was the first that ever ran a mile within a minute. At this time Braithwaite manufactured the first practical steam fire-engine, which was destroyed by a London mob. He, however, soon constructed four others of larger dimensions, in 1833 he built the caloric engine in conjunction with Captain Ericsson. In 1834 the Eastern Counties Railway was projected and laid out by him in conjunction with Mr. Charles Blacker Vignoles, the act of incorporation was passed in 1836, and he was soon after appointed engineer-in-chief for its construction. He adopted a 5 ft gauge, and upon that gauge the line was constructed as far as Colchester, on the recommendation of Robert Stephenson it was subsequently altered to the national gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. In after years Braithwaite advocated a still narrower gauge and he ceased to be officially connected with the Eastern Counties Railway on 28 May 1843. Whilst engineer to that company he introduced on the works the American excavating machine and he was joint founder of the Railway Times, which he started with Joseph Clinton Robertson as editor in 1837, and he continued sole proprietor till 1845. Braithwaite had, in 1844, a share in a patent for extracting oil from shale, and works were erected near Weymouth which. The experiment was abandoned on account of the deficiency of water in the canals and the completion of the railway system, which diverted the paying traffic. From that year he was engaged in chamber practice, and acted as consulting engineer, advising on most of the important mechanical questions of the day for patents. John died suddenly at 8 Clifton Gardens, Paddington, on 25 September 1870, to this work Sir J. Ross published a reply in the same year. Guideway Steam Agriculture, by P. A. Halkett, with a Report by J. Braithwaite 1857 Fatigue This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Boase
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Perseverance (steam locomotive)
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Perseverance was an early steam locomotive that took part in the Rainhill Trials. Built by John Reed Hill of London and Timothy Burstall of Leith, perseverance was damaged on the way to the trials and Burstall spent the first five days trying to repair his locomotive. It ran on the sixth and final day of the trials, Burstall and Hill were awarded a consolation prize of £25
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George Stephenson
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His rail gauge of 4 feet 8 1⁄2 inches, sometimes called Stephenson gauge, is the standard gauge by name and by convention for most of the worlds railways. George Stephenson was born on 9 June 1781 in Wylam, Northumberland,9 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne and he was the second child of Robert and Mabel Stephenson, neither of whom could read or write. Robert was the fireman for Wylam Colliery pumping engine, earning a low wage. At 17, Stephenson became an engineman at Water Row Pit in Newburn, George realised the value of education and paid to study at night school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic – he was illiterate until the age of 18. In 1801 he began work at Black Callerton Colliery as a brakesman, in 1802 he married Frances Henderson and moved to Willington Quay, east of Newcastle. There he worked as a brakesman while they lived in one room of a cottage, George made shoes and mended clocks to supplement his income. Their first child Robert was born in 1803, and in 1804 they moved to West Moor and their second child, a daughter was born in July 1805. She was named Frances after her mother, the child died after just 3 weeks and was buried in St Bartholomews Parish Church near Newcastle. In 1806 Georges wife Frances died of consumption and she was buried in the same churchyard as their daughter on the 16th May 1806. George decided to work in Scotland and left Robert with a local woman while he went to work in Montrose. After a few months he returned, probably because his father was blinded in a mining accident and he moved back into a cottage at West Moor and his unmarried sister Eleanor moved in to look after Robert. In 1811 the pumping engine at High Pit, Killingworth was not working properly and he did so with such success that he was promoted to enginewright for the collieries at Killingworth, responsible for maintaining and repairing all the colliery engines. He became an expert in steam-driven machinery, in 1815, aware of the explosions often caused in mines by naked flames, Stephenson began to experiment with a safety lamp that would burn in a gaseous atmosphere without causing an explosion. At the same time, the eminent scientist and Cornishman Humphry Davy was also looking at the problem. Despite his lack of knowledge, Stephenson, by trial and error, devised a lamp in which the air entered via tiny holes. The two designs differed, Davys lamp was surrounded by a screen of gauze, whereas Stephensons prototype lamp had a perforated plate contained in a glass cylinder. Stephenson, having come from the North, spoke with a broad Northumberland accent and not the Language of Parliament, which made him seem lowly. Realizing this, he made a point of educating his son Robert in a school, where he was taught the sciences his father lacked
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Robert Stephenson
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Robert Stephenson FRS was an early railway and civil engineer. The only son of George Stephenson, the Father of Railways, Robert has been called the greatest engineer of the 19th century. Robert was born in Willington Quay, Northumberland, to George and Frances née Henderson, before moved to Killingworth. Robert attended the middle-class Percy Street Academy in Newcastle and at the age of fifteen was apprenticed to the mining engineer Nicholas Wood and he left before he had completed his three years to help his father survey the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Robert spent six months at Edinburgh University before working for three years as an engineer in Colombia. When he returned his father was building the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and he was appointed chief engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1833 with a salary of £1,500 per annum. By 1850 Robert had been involved in the construction of a third of the railway system. He designed the High Level Bridge and Royal Border Bridge on the East Coast Main Line and he eventually worked on 160 commissions from 60 companies, building railways in other countries such as Belgium, Norway, Egypt and France. In 1829 Robert married Frances Sanderson who died in 1842, the couple had no children, in 1847 he was elected Member of Parliament for Whitby, and held the seat until his death. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1849 and he served as President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Institution of Civil Engineers. Roberts death was widely mourned, and his funeral cortège was given permission by Queen Victoria to pass through Hyde Park and he is buried in Westminster Abbey. Robert Stephenson was born on 16 October 1803, at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle upon Tyne, to George Stephenson and Frances née Henderson and she was twelve years older than George, and when they met was working as a servant where George was lodging. Fanny was suffering from tuberculosis, so George would take care of his son in the evening, in autumn 1804 George became a brakesman at the West Moor Pit and the family moved to two rooms in a cottage at Killingworth. On 13 July 1805 Fanny gave birth to a daughter who lived for three weeks, Fannys health deteriorated and she died on 14 May 1806. George employed a housekeeper to look after his son and went away for three months to look after a Watt engine in Montrose, Scotland and he returned to find his housekeeper had married his brother Robert. He moved back into the cottage with his son and briefly employed another housekeeper before his sister Eleanor moved in, known to Robert as Aunt Nelly, Eleanor had been engaged to be married before travelling to London to work in domestic service. However, returning to get married Eleanors ship was delayed by poor winds, Eleanor attended the local Methodist church, whereas George would not regularly attend church, preferring on Sundays to work on engineering problems and meet his friends. Robert was first sent to a village school 1½ miles away in Long Benton, on his way to school, he would carry picks to the smiths at Long Benton to be sharpened
