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Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
LandCR
county:-   Lancashire
civil parish:-   Burton-in-Kendal (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Holme (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Beetham (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Milnthorpe (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Heversham (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Hincaster (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Stainton (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Sedgwick (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Natland (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Kendal (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Scalthwaiterigg (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Docker (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Lambrigg (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Grayrigg (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Firbank (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Tebay (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Orton S (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Crosby Ravensworth (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Shap Rural (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Shap (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Thrimby (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Little Strickland (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Lowther (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Clifton (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Yanwath and Eamont Bridge (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Dacre (formerly Cumberland)
civil parish:-   Penrith (formerly Cumberland)
civil parish:-   Hesket (formerly Cumberland)
civil parish:-   St Cuthbert Without (formerly Cumberland)
civil parish:-   Carlisle (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   railway
SummaryText:-   from Lancaster, through Hest Bank, Bolton-le-Sands, Carnforth, Lancashire; then Burton and Holme, Milnthorpe, Oxenholme, Grayrigg, Low Gill, Tebay, Shap, Clifton, Westmorland; then Penrith, Plumpton, Calthwaite, Southwaite, Wreay, to Carlisle, Cumberland.
references:-   image
RWY004.jpg


photograph
BRP91.jpg  Coat of arms on Carlisle Citadel Station.
(taken 29.9.2009)  
photograph
BLN12.jpg  Goods train S of Shap.
(taken 4.1.2006)  

evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 3 16) 
placename:-  Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
OS County Series (Wmd 14 2) 

evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag
item:-  stone circle
source data:-   Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.
image G844B381, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1844 part 2 p.381  "Druidical Temple near Shap."
"... NOTWITHSTANDING the alleged increase in good taste at the present day, I find it is the intention of the projectors of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway to carry their line through, and destroy, a most interesting remnant of antiquity, the remains of a Druidical Temple situated in a field the property of the earl of Lonsdale, on the road from Kendal to Shap, ... I am surprised that the noble Earl should permit such barbarity, with such influence as he possesses over the Company. ..."
"Yours, &c."
"DRUID."

evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag
source data:-   Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.
image G846B526, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1846 part 2 p.526  "Sept. 28. The first portion of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, to Kendal (Commenced in the latter part of September, 1843), was opened on Monday. It extends twenty-two miles. On arriving at Kendal, the directors, with their officers, and a large party of friends, repaired, by special invitation from the directors of the Kendal and Windermere railway, to the White Hall, where a handsome dejeuner awaited their arrival. Cornelius Nicholson, esq. mayor of Kendal, presided."

evidence:-   old map:- Garnett 1850s-60s H
placename:-  Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
source data:-   Map of the English Lakes, in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire, scale about 3.5 miles to 1 inch, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, 1850s-60s.
image
GAR2NY45.jpg
triple line, light bold light, railway 
image
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image
GAR2NY43.jpg
image
GAR2NY53.jpg
image
GAR2NY52.jpg
image
GAR2NY51.jpg
"Lancaster &Carlisle Railway"
image
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image
GAR2NY60.jpg
image
GAR2SD69.jpg
image
GAR2SD59.jpg
image
GAR2SD58.jpg
"Lancaster &Carlisle Railway"
image
GAR2SD57.jpg
image
GAR2SD46.jpg
item:-  JandMN : 82.1
Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-   old text:- Martineau 1855
source data:-   Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76.
image MNU1P003, button  goto source
Page 3:-  "The traveller arrives [at Windermere], we must suppose, by the railway from Kendal, having been dropped at the Oxenholme Junction by the London train from the south, or the Edinburgh and Carlisle train from the north."
image MNU1P004, button  goto source
Page 4:-  "The railways skirt the lake district, but do not, and cannot, penetrate it: for the obvious reason that railways cannot traverse or pierce granite mountains or span broad lakes. If the time should ever come when iron roads will intersect the mountainous parts of Westmorland and Cumberland, that time is not yet; nor is in view,- loud as have been the lamentations of some residents, as if it were to happen to-morrow. No one who has ascended Dunmail Raise, or visited the head of Coniston Lake, or gone by Kirkstone to Patterdale, will for a moment imagine that any conceivable railway will carry strangers over those passes, for generations to come. It is a great thing that steam can convey travellers round the outskirts of the district, and up to its openings. This is now effectually done; and it is all that will be done by the steam locomotive during the lifetime of anybody yet born. The most important of the openings thus reached is that of WINDERMERE."
"The mountain region of Cumberland and Westmorland has for its nucleus the cluster of tall mountains, of which Scawfell is the highest. There are the loftiest peaks and deepest valleys. These are surrounded by somewhat lower ridges and shallower vales; and these again by others, till the uplands are mere hills. and the valleys scarcely sunk at all. It is into these exterior undulations that the railways penetrate; and, at the first ridge of any steepness, they must stop. It is this which decides the termination of the Windermere railroad, and which prevents the lateral railways from coming nearer than the outer base ..."

evidence:-   probably old text:- Dickens 1857
item:-  Bradshaw's Railway Guide
source data:-   Book, The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, by Charles Dickens, 1857.
image DIC1P005, button  goto source
Page 5:-  "... ..."
"These two [Thomas Idle and Francis Goodchild] had sent their personal baggage on by train: only retaining each a knapsack. Idle now applied himself to constantly regretting the train, to tracking it through the intricacies of Bradshaw's Guide, and finding out where it is now - and where now - and where now - and to asking what was the use of walking, when you could ride at such a pace as that. Was it to see the country? If that was the object, then look at it out of the carriage windows. There was a great deal more of it to be seen there than here. Besides, who wanted to see the country? Nobody. And again, whoever did walk? Nobody. Fellows set off to walk, but they never did it. They came back and said they did, but they didn't. Then why should he walk? He wouldn't walk. He swore it by this milestone!"
"It was the fifth from London, so far had they penetrated into the North. Submitting to the powerful chain of argument, Goodchild proposed a return to the Metropolis, and a falling back on Euston Square Terminus. Thomas assented with alacrity, and so they walked down into the North by the next morning's express, and carried their knapsacks in the luggage-van."
"It was like all other expresses, as every express is and must be. It bore through the harvest country a smell like a large washing-day, and a sharp issue of steam as from a huge brazen tea-urn. The greatest power in nature and art combined, it yet glided over dangerous heights in the sight of people looking up from fields and roads, as smoothly and unreally as a light miniature plaything. Now the engine shrieked in hysterics of such intensity, that it seemed desirable that the men who had"
image DIC1P006, button  goto source
Page 6:-  "her in charge should hold her feet, slap her hands, and bring her to; now, burrowed into tunnels with a stubborn and undemonstrative energy so confusing that the train seemed to be flying back into leagues of darkness. Here, were station after station, swallowed up by the express without stopping; here, stations where it fired itself in like a volley of cannon-balls, swooped away four country-people with nosegays, and three men of business with portmanteaus, and fired itself off again, bang, bang, bang! At long intervals were uncomfortable refreshment-rooms, made more uncomfortable by the scorn of Beauty towards Beast, the public (but to whom she never relented, as Beauty did in the story, towards the other Beast), and where sensitive stomachs were fed, with a contemptuous sharpness occasioning indigestion. Here, again, were stations with nothing going but a bell, and wonderful wooden razors set aloft on great posts, shaving the air. In these fields, the horses, sheep, and cattle were well used to the thundering meteor, and didn't mind; in those, they were all set scampering together, and a herd of pigs scoured after them. The pastoral country darkened, became coaly, became smoky, became infernal, got better, got worse, improved again, grew rugged, turned romantic; was a wood, a stream, a chain of hills, a gorge, a moor, a cathedral town, a fortified place, a waste. Now, miserable black dwellings, a black canal, and sick black towers of chimneys; now, a trim garden, where the flowers were bright and fair; now, a wilderness of hideous altars all a-blaze; now, the water meadows with their fairy rings; now, the mangy patch of unlet building ground outside the stagnant town, with the larger ring where the Circus was last week. The temperature changed, the dialect changed, the people changed, faces got shaper, manner got short, eyes got shrewder and harder; yet all so quickly, that the spruce guard in the London uniform and silver lace, had not yet rumpled his shirt-collar, delivered half the dispatches in his shiny little pouch, or read his newspaper."
"Carlisle! Idle and Goodchild had got to Carlisle. ... ..."

evidence:-   old advertisement:- Jenkinson 1875 B
placename:-  London and North Western Railway
source data:-   Advertisement for the London and North Western Railway, published by Edward Stanford, 55 Charing Cross, London, 1884.
image  click to enlarge
JK1208.jpg
Adverts p.14 at the back of Jenkinson's Smaller Practical Guide to Carlisle, Gilsland, Roman Wall and Neighbourhood. 
item:-  Armitt Library : A1717.9
Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-   old text:- Harper 1907
item:-  mail coachstage coach
source data:-   Guidebook, The Manchester and Glasgow Road, by Charles G Harper, published by Chapman and Hall Ltd, London, 1907.
HP01p146.txt
Page 146:-  "..."
"... the irony of fate long ago overtook the canal, in its conversion into a railway."
"It was in December, 1846, that the first railway ran into Carlisle from the south. It was the Lancaster and Carlisle"
HP01p147.txt
Page 147:-  "Railway, long since absorbed into the London and North-Western. In September, 1847, the Caledonian Railway, from Carlisle to Moffat, carried on the new methods another stage, and in the following February it was further extended to Glasgow and Edinburgh. It was necessarily the death-blow of the coaches along the main route. ..."

evidence:-   old map:- LMS 1920s maps
source data:-   Railway map, lithograph, 23 pages of strip maps, The Journey in Brief, the Route London to Carlisle, published by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS, 1920s.
image  click to enlarge
LS3p29.jpg
image  click to enlarge
LS3p28.jpg
image  click to enlarge
LS3p27.jpg
image  click to enlarge
LS3p26.jpg
image  click to enlarge
LS3p25.jpg
image  click to enlarge
LS3p24.jpg
item:-  JandMN : 95.2
Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-   old map:- LMS 1939 B
source data:-   image  click to enlarge
LMS6Cm.jpg
"MAP OF LMS RAILWAY"
item:-  JandMN : 1016.5
Image © see bottom of page

:-  
The Lancaster and Carlisle line was a continuation of a chain of railways reaching north from London towards Glasgow; London and Birmingham Railway, Grand Junction Railway, and North Union Railway. An editorial by John Steel, in the Carlisle Journal, prompted the GJR to investigate a continuation. A report by the company's engineer, Joseph Locke, a London and Glasgow Railway through Lancashire, 1836, chose a main line east of Lancaster, through Kirkby Lonsdale and the Lune valley, a tunnel through Shap Fell, via Askham to Penrith and Carlisle. Another proposed route was through Kendal, up Longsleddale, tunnel to Mardale, then Penrith etc. Another was up the Lune valley, tunnel under Orton Scar, Tebay, Crosby Ravensworth, Newby, Melkinthorpe, Crofton, Penrith, etc. These routes and one through Dunmail Raise, were rejected. George Stephenson reported, about 1837, on a possible coastal route from Lancaster via Ulverston and Whitehaven, avoiding the climb over Shap. People in Kendal, the biggest town between Lancaster and Carlisle, got a report from Job Bentley, who proposed a route from Lancaster via Carnforth, just east of Kendal, up Longsleddale and a tunnel through Gatescarth, to Bampton and Penrith. All these routes were in competition with an east coast route to Scotland, via Newcastle to Edinburgh. In 1839 the government appointed a commission to look at the various proposals. The result, in the west, was a compromise that went via Lancaster, close to Kendal, wiggled east through Grayrigg to the Lune valley, then via Penrith to Carlisle. A decision for or against east or west coast routes was avoided; the result was both. The Lancaster and Carlisle Railway was put in being, authorized 1844, opened 1846 - by which time the elements in the chain were combined as the London and North Western Railway.
George Stephenson surveyed a route round the Cumberland coast; both his a Locke's routes bypassed Kendal. Cornelius Nicholson and others in Kendal engaged Job Bintley of Kendal to survey a route that included Kendal. It was to go through Kendal, tunnel under Kendal Castle, up Longsleddale then a tunnel under Gatesgarth Pass, 2¼miles, to Mardale and on to Penrith and Carlisle.

: 1846 (19 December): [Opening of the Lancaster to Carlisle Railway]: Illustrated London News: no.396: opening 'Tuesday last'; 6 page report with illustrations of Lancaster Station, Lowther Viaduct, Eamont Viaduct, Newbiggin Bridge, etc, and the contractor's dinner.
Awdry, Christopher: 1990: Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies: Guild Publishing (London)
Joy, David: 1983 &1990: Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain; the Lake Counties (vol.14): David and Charles (Newton Abbot, Devon):: ISBN 0 946537 56 9
Nicholson, Cornerlius: 1837: London and Glasgow Railway; the Interests of Kendal Considered

:-  
"The decision to take the main line through Oxenholme, and so avoid the town of Kendal, was simply a matter of engineering. The line begins to climb somewhere east of Milnthorpe and continues in a steady gradient towards Grayrigg, Tebay and Shap. To have taken the line through Kendal, once the alternative plan to take it up Longsleddale had been shelved, would have meant losing the advantage."

Ffinch 1983

 Travelling Post Office photos


photograph
BJZ85.jpg  Detail from the Millennium Window, St Michael's Church, Shap, design by Adam Goodyear, 2000.
(taken 11.11.2005)  


photograph
BLW38.jpg (taken 18.4.2006)  
photograph
BLW36.jpg (taken 18.4.2006)  
photograph
BPQ83.jpg (taken 2008)  

MN photo:-  
6 wheeled for smooth running; 3000 gallon capacity; glass lined; would have been used for milk from Cumbria to London.

photograph
BPR01.jpg  LMS / United Dairies milk tank wagon, 1937.
(taken 2008)  courtesy of the National Railway Museum.

person:-   railway company
 : Lancaster and Carlisle Railway
date:-   1844
 to 1879

person:-   railway company
 : London and North Western RailwayLNWR
date:-   1879
 to 1923

person:-   railway company
 : London, Midland and Scottish RailwayLMS
date:-   1923
 to 1948

person:-   railway company
 : British RailwaysBR
date:-   1948

see:-    Kendal and Windermere Railway (opened 1855)

goes through:-    Lancaster Station, Lancashire
 railway bridge, Burton-in-Kendal
 Burton and Holme Station, Burton-in-Kendal
[railway bridge, Holme (2)]
 railway bridge, Holme
 railway bridge, Beetham (2)
 railway milepost, Beetham
 railway bridge, Beetham
[railway bridge, Beetham (3)]
 Milnthorpe Station, Milnthorpe
 railway bridge, Milnthorpe
 Rowell Railway Bridge, Heversham
 Woodhouse Bridge, Woodhouse
 railway bridge, Hincaster (2)
 railway milepost, Hincaster
 Hincaster Junction, Hincaster
 railway bridge, Hincaster (3)
 Railway Cottages, Hincaster
[railway bridge, Hincaster (5)]
 railway bridge, Hincaster (4)
 railway bridge, Sedgwick
 Newland Bridge, Natland
 railway bridge, Natland
 railway bridge, Oxenholme (2)
 engine shed, Oxenholme (4)
 Kendal Junction, Oxenholme
 railway bridge, Oxenholme
 Oxenholme Station, Oxenholme
 railway bridge, Kendal (3)
 railway bridge, Kendal (7)
 railway bridge, Kendal (16)
 railway bridge, Kendal (2)
[railway bridge, Kendal (5)]
[railway bridge, Scalthwaiterigg (2)]
[railway bridge, Scalthwaiterigg (3)]
 railway bridge, Scalthwaiterigg
 Hayfell Bridge, Scalthwaiterigg
 Appleby Road Bridge, Docker
 railway milepost, Docker
 railway bridge, Docker
 Docker Viaduct, Docker
 Lambrigg Crossing, Lambrigg
 Grayrigg Station, Lambrigg (2)
 Beck House Bridge, Lambrigg
 Grayrigg Station, Lambrigg
 railway milepost, Lambrigg
 railway crossing, Lambrigg
 Morsedale Hall Bridge, Lambrigg
 railway bridge, Lambrigg (2)
 railway bridge, Lambrigg
 railway bridge, Firbank (3)
 railway bridge, Firbank (2)
 railway bridge, Lowgill
 Lowgill Station, Lowgill (2)
 Lowgill Station, Lowgill
 Lowgill Junction, Lowgill
 Hest Bank Station, Lancashire
 Borrowbridge Viaduct, Low Borrowbridge
 Dillicar Water Troughs, Tebay
 railway bridge, Tebay
[memorial, Tebay]
 railway bridge, Tebay (2)
 engine shed, Tebay (2)
 Tebay South Junction, Tebay
 Tebay Station, Tebay
 Tebay Station Junction, Tebay
 Tebay North Junction, Tebay
 railway bridge, Tebay (3)
 railway bridge, Tebay (4)
 catenary, Tebay
 Loups Fell Bridge, Tebay
 engine shed, Tebay
 Birkbeck Viaduct, Tebay
 Scotchman's Bridge, Orton S
 railway bridge, Orton S
[railway bridge, Orton S (2)]
[railway crossing, Orton S]
 railway bridge, Shap Wells
[railway footbridge, Shap Rural]
 Railway Cottages, Shap Rural
 Shap Summit, Shap Rural
 railway bridge, Shap Rural
 railway sidings, Hardendale Quarry
 railway culvert, Shap
 railway bridge, Shap (4)
 railway bridge, Shap (5)
 railway bridge, Shap (3)
 Shap Station, Shap
 railway milepost, Shap (2)
 railway bridge, Shap (6)
 railway milepost, Shap
 railway signal, Shap
 railway bridge, Shap (7)
 railway bridge, Shap (8)
[railway bridge, Shap (9)]
 railway bridge, Shap (2)
 railway bridge, Shap
 railway sidings, Shapbeck Quarry
 railway bridge, Shap Rural (2)
 Shapbeck Bridge, Thrimby
 railway bridge, Thrimby
 railway bridge, Thrimby (2)
 railway tunnel, Little Strickland
 railway bridge, Thrimby (3)
[railway bridge, Thrimby (4)]
[railway bridge, Thrimby (5)]
 Thrimby Bridge, Thrimby
[railway bridge, Thrimby (6)]
 Bolton-le-Sands Station, Lancashire
 Great Strickland Bridge, Lowther
[railway bridge, Lowther]
[railway bridge, Lowther (2)]
 Melkinthorpe Bridge, Lowther
[railway bridge, Lowther (3)]
 Clifton and Lowther Station, Clifton
 railway bridge, Clifton
 railway bridge, Clifton (2)
 Townend Road Bridge, Clifton
 railway bridge, Clifton (6)
 railway milepost, Clifton
 Eden Valley Junction, Clifton
[railway bridge, Clifton (9)]
 railway bridge, Clifton (8)
 railway bridge, Clifton (7)
[railway bridge, Clifton (10)]
 Hughscrag Viaduct, Yanwath etc
 Hughscrag Bridge, Yanwath etc
 Yanwath Bridge, Yanwath etc
 railway bridge, Yanwath etc
[railway bridge, Yanwath etc (2)]
 Eamont Bridge Junction, Dacre
[railway bridge, Penrith (5)]
[railway bridge, Penrith (4)]
 railway bridge, Penrith (6)
 Penrith Junction, Penrith
 engine shed, Penrith
 Penrith Station, Penrith
 railway bridge, Penrith (3)
[railway bridge, Penrith (7)]
 TPO apparatus, Penrith
 railway bridge, Penrith (2)
 Thacka Lane Bridge, Penrith
 railway bridge, Penrith
[railway bridge, Penrith (8)]
 Kettleside Bridge, Penrith
 Catterlen Bridge, Catterlen
[railway bridge, Catterlen]
 railway bridge, Kitchenhill
 railway bridge, Hesket (13)
 railway bridge, Hesket (7)
 railway bridge, Hesket (12)
 railway bridge, Brockleymoor
 Plumpton Station, Hesket
 railway bridge, Hesket (6)
[railway bridge, Hesket (8)]
 Calthwaite Station, Hesket
 railway bridge, Hesket (2)
[railway bridge, Hesket (9)]
 railway bridge, Hesket (3)
 railway bridge, Hesket (4)
 railway milepost, Hesket
 railway bridge, Hesket (5)
 railway bridge, Southwaite
 Southwaite Station, Hesket
 railway bridge, Southwaite (2)
[railway bridge, Hesket (10)]
[railway bridge, Hesket (11)]
 Birkthwaite Road Bridge, Hesket
 railway bridge, Wreay
 Wreay Station, Wreay
 railway bridge, Wreay (2)
 railway milepost, Wreay
[railway bridge, St Cuthbert Without]
[railway bridge, St Cuthbert Without (2)]
 railway bridge, St Cuthbert Without (3)
 railway bridge, St Cuthbert Without (4)
 Brisco Station, St Cuthbert Without
 Carnforth Junction, Lancashire
 Carnforth Station, Lancashire
 Station South Junction, Lancashire
 Upperby Junction West, Carlisle
 railway bridge, Upperby
 Upperby Bridge Junction, Upperby
 railway footbridge, Upperby
 engine shed, Carlisle (6)
 LNWR Locomotive Works, Carlisle
 engine shed, Carlisle (5)
 St Nicholas Bridges, Carlisle
 LNWR Goods Depot, Carlisle
 engine shed, Carlisle (4)
 railway bridge, Carlisle (2)
 MandC and LandC Junction, Carlisle
 Carlisle Citadel Station, Carlisle
6.6.1844: authorized -  

19.12.1846: opened -  

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