A few days ago, looking at some change, I noticed a £2 coin with an image of a steam loco upon it, one I hadn’t seen for a very long time which was the 2004 minted Richard Trevithick coin celebrating the then 200th Anniversary of the first steam locomotive, now 21 years past.
This coin is a good reminder that the genesis of ‘railways’ is not firmly rooted in 1825 with the Stockton and Darlington Railway (notwithstanding the importantance of that line to the development of early railways).
Indeed, the 2004 development of the first steam locomotive preceded the Stockton and Darlington by 21 years, when George Stephenson himself would have been only 22 years of age (the locomotive ran on 21st February 1804, before George’s 23rd birthday), Richard Trevithick, who built the loco was only 32 at the time this loco ran, celebrating his 33rd birthday about two months later on 13th April.
Of course, the evolution of the waggonways, goes back even further; the Causey Arch was completed in 1726, so by 1804 had already stood for 78 years by the time Trevithicks loco took to the rails, and was 99 years ahead of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and at its peak, the Causey Arch was reputedly crossed by 900 horse-drawn wooden waggons every day.
The Tanfield Waggonway itself can trace a lineage back to Huntingdon Beaumont in Bedlington and Blyth, Northumberland, who arguably introduced the waggonway to the Great Northern Coalfield in 1609; which whilst unsuccessful for Beaumont himself (dying in debt in 1624), it was taken up by others to great effect over the following two centuries, leading to the transition to early railways and eventually the modern railway we know and love today.
This isn’t to take away from the ‘Railway200’ celebrations in any way, but hopefully to highlight that A LOT OF RAILWAY HISTORY HAPPENED BEFORE 1825 which isn’t in the public conciousness, but should be better celebrated and known about, as it tells a much wider story of technology that originated thousands of years ago in Ancient Greece (the Diolkos Railway), but in Britain, and especially North East England, the technology advanced massively, resulting in the modern railway system that Britain developed and was mirrored worldwide.
Let’s celebrate Beaumont, Trevithick, and many more alongside the Stephensons, and the forthcoming 200ths of many other major railways both in the UK and further afield.
Ryan Hogg 