Brackley Town Council has a great influences to the new station, In particular the ceremony which surrounded the official opening on 6th March 1899 may as found in historical notes.
All information in these notes is from verified primary historical sources. No secondary sources have been used.
Brackley Central Station
Conception to Opening
When the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LRy) announced their intention to construct a new main line, linking their interests in the north of the country to the capital, there was considerable interest in Brackley. The route would pass close alongside the town, and the intention was to construct a station there.
On Tuesday 9th December, 1890, Brackley Town Council gave their formal support and assent to the MS&LRy’s new “Extension to London Bill”, which was to be brought before Parliament in the 1891 session.
One of the persons called to give evidence to the Select Committee considering the 1891 Bill was Mr. Locke Stratton, a Councillor and land-owner in Brackley, and resident of Turweston. He testified at length that the railway would be of considerable benefit to the town, providing the population with a more suitable train service than did the existing L&NWRy line, and opening new markets to the local farmers. He also believed that it would attract people from London to the town for the hunting, and that they might in consequence build homes in the borough.
The 1891 Bill was ultimately unsuccessful, and on the 23rd June that year the Committee decided that the preamble had not been proved.
It was resubmitted for the 1892 parliamentary session, again with the support of the Town Council, who in February 1892 sent petitions in favour of the railway to both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Bill passed this time, but failed to get the necessary Royal Assent due to the dissolution of Parliament which took place in June 1892, and the subsequent General Election. Consequently the railway did not receive the necessary powers under the new Act (the “Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (Extension to London & .) Act 1893) until the following year’s Parliamentary session.
Brackley Central station was to be the principle station on Contract 5 (Woodford to Brackley) of the new line, and one of only two large stations (so-called “Second Class” stations) on the entire Southern Division of the new line.
Contracts 5 and 6 were to be let together, and were initially allocated to the company of J. T. Firbank, but on 21st September 1894 the railway decided that Firbanks would be better utilised on the Metropolitan Division, and instead awarded contracts 5 and 6 to Messrs. Walter Scott and Co., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Scott’s staff began work very quickly on the contract, with the first brickwork in the contract laid, just to the north of Brackley station, in November 1894.
The station itself, however, was built by a sub-contractor, John Parnell and Son, of Rugby. It was constructed to the same general standards as the other “large town” stations on the London Extension at Loughborough and Rugby, with a large Booking Hall at street level, and steps leading down to a platform containing superior accommodation to that found on the smaller “country stations”, as evidenced by the provision of both 1st and 3rd Class waiting rooms. Rugby Central and Brackley Central, the two largest stations on the Southern Division, were, in fact, practically identical at platform level, and their booking halls were similar.
The station was situated on Burwell Hill, and occupied an area of some 10 acres. The platform was 420’ long, and 30’ wide. There was a large warehouse for goods (which is extant, although today inaccurately named “The Engine Shed”) and the yard was provided with a 10-ton crane. There were a total of 1½ miles of sidings in the yard, and a large area for stacking coal was provided for the use of local coal merchants. A loading dock was provided in the yard to permit both cattle, and horses and carriages, to be loaded onto trains.
As with the other large stations on the line, parachute-type water tanks of 500 gallons (2,500 litres) capacity were provided at each end of the platform to service the locomotives of trains stopping at the station. These tanks were supplied by gravity from a header tank at the top of a tower in the up cess, opposite the Signal Cabin, and water was pumped into this header tank by an adjacent windpump.
A signal box was located off of the south end of the platform to control traffic through the station, and into and out of the yard. This was a brick-based GCR Type 4 box, constructed by the Railway Signal Company of Liverpool, and containing one of their standard direct-tappet locking lever frames of 40 levers.
The location of the station, which many questioned at the time due to its distance from the existing L&NWRy station, was determined by the necessity to maintain the high level required to cross the other company’s line to Banbury. The line here was on a gradient of 1 in 264, falling to the south, and the station was in a cutting (No. 99) of some 336,000 cubic yards capacity. The geology here was a soft friable limestone, with a bed of blue clay, and the cutting sides had slopes of 1½ to 1. In consequence of the clay bed, the cutting was very wet, and 2 drains, each of 9” diameter, were required to drain it.
During construction the railway requested permission to deviate the Turweston, Radstone, and Northampton Roads at their junction, in order that they would be required to construct only a single new bridge rather than two. In return for agreeing to this the railway offered to make an entirely new approach to the town from the new station, filling in Burwell Hill and “thus making an easy and greatly improved entrance to the town at this point, which will be in marked contrast to the steep entrance from the L&NW station at the west end of the town.”
The Booking Hall, which on other second-tier stations sat athwart the railway and gave access directly to the platforms via a stepway, was at Brackley built parallel with the railway, at the top of the embankment on the Down side of the line. This building was set back from the Northampton Road, and was approached by a lay-by enclosing a planted area.
Access to the platforms was then achieved through a footbridge over the down line to the top of the stepway on the platform. A hand operated lift was also provided between the footbridge and the platforms, and this was used by staff to transport luggage and parcels between the two levels.
The reason given for this unusual (for the GCR’s London Extension) placement of the Booking Hall was, according to the Resident Engineer for the section, that the Borough Corporation were concerned that the proposed location of the structure on the overbridge might result in “station traffic partially blocking the bridge for the important traffic from Towcester, through Brackley, to Oxford.”
It is quite easy to picture the original design of the station, by imagining a bridge carrying the Turweston Road over the railway on its original, straight, alignment to a crossroads with the Northampton Road; then rotating the booking hall to sit on that bridge and joining the booking hall directly to the stepway down to the platform. The stepway was noticeably in the correct position, relative to the Turweston Road, to accommodate this. The surviving station at Loughborough Central broadly illustrates the basic layout, but, again, the booking office at Rugby Central gives a much better idea of how the original concept for Brackley Central would have worked.
It had been hoped by some that the railway would see fit to construct an engine shed and carriage works at Brackley, but the railway had decided to locate these facilities at Woodford. However, in early 1897, following rumours of a problem encountered locating the engine shed at Woodford Halse, 1,256 people somewhat belatedly signed a petition to the directors of the railway imploring them to relocate it to Brackley, but the decision had already been taken and the shed went to Woodford as originally planned.
Coal traffic to Brackley Central commenced on Monday 25th July 1898, and the passenger station opened to regular traffic on 15th March 1899.
Opening Day – Thursday 6th March 1899
The Great Central Railway’s (as it was by then known) new line was formally opened on Thursday 6th March, 1899, by the Right Honourable Charles Ritchie, President of the Board of Trade, in a ceremony at the London terminus in Marylebone.
Although the line would not open to the public until the following week, three special trains were run from Manchester and Sheffield, collecting invited guests from the various points along the railway and conveying them to the ceremony. The second of these trains was scheduled to stop at Brackley at 11.56am to collect the locally invited guests, consisting of the Mayor (Alderman John Farmer), Alderman J.L. Stratton (a former Mayor) , Mr. and Mrs. L.F. White (the resident Engineer for the GCR), Mr. W.T. Pickering and Mr. J.T. Middleton (respectively the resident Engineer and Partner from Messrs. Scott and Co.).
The town was dressed for the occasion, with flags, bunting and flowers everywhere in evidence, and streamers crossing the main street. At 10.30 the Town Band led the students of the local school to the new station, and the majority of these were placed in several wagons belonging to Messrs. Clarke & Sons, a local coal merchant, facing the platform from where they would have an excellent view of the proceedings. The band then returned to the main entrance, and escorted the Mayor and the Corporation to the platform.
The town’s Fire Brigade had paraded in full uniform on the platform, and the Police Force, in the form of Inspector White and a number of Constables, were also present to keep order. All in, the crowd was estimated to consist of 2,000 persons, not a bad turnout at a time when the population of the town only numbered some 2,400 !
The inaugural trains were (perhaps inevitably) delayed, largely due to running-in problems with the new rolling stock, which ran hot axle boxes. Several times they had to be stopped to cool the bearings, or to remove a vehicle from a train, and the result was that the train finally arrived at 12.42, over three-quarters of an hour late. The crowd broke into cheers, and the band struck up with “See the conquering hero comes” as the guests boarded the train.
The festivities were not over when the train departed, however, and when the guests returned at 7pm, they were met at the station by a torch lit procession, and their carriage was pulled through the town to the Mayor’s residence by members of the Fire Brigade, escorted by local civic dignitaries.
The following day the below letter was sent by the town to the railway’s General Manager, Mr. William Pollitt, at Manchester.
“To the chairman and directors of the Great Central Railway Company.
We, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, representing the inhabitants of the ancient borough of Brackley, desire to take this opportunity of the opening of your new line or railway to offer to you our heartiest congratulations on the termination of your great and important work. We sincerely hope the undertaking may prove eminently successful, of material benefit to all the localities within the sphere of its influence and to the travelling public generally.
We wish to record our grateful recognition of the liberal and friendly spirit in which any suggestions on the part of the town of Brackley have been met and adopted by the company and in particular of the assistance rendered in the construction of the new road, which we are sure will be of equal benefit to the town and to the railway.
We express our appreciation of the good taste displayed by the company in planning and laying out of the station and its surroundings, so as to give an ornamental character to the approaches to the town, which is not without its own intrinsic attractions.
We are unwilling, too, that the courtesy of the engineers, contractors, and general staff invariably maintained during the work of construction should pass by unnoticed. They will leave behind them a most pleasant impression, which will long be retained and thankfully and permanently remembered.
Given under the Hand and Seal of the Mayor and Corporation of Brackley, this 6th day of March, 1899.
J. FARMER, Mayor.
C. B. BARNES, Town Clerk.”
The reply, below, was received a few days later:
“Sir, the very kind address of congratulation which his Worship the Mayor, the Aldermen and Councillors, representing the inhabitants of the ancient borough of Brackley, have been so good as to pass, and which was enclosed with your favour of the 6th inst., has to-day been laid before my Board.
I am desired in reply to say that the directors of the Great Central Railway much appreciate the kindly spirit which has prompted the Town Council in offering their congratulations in so friendly a manner.
It was also a source of very great satisfaction to my Board that the carrying out of these works should have met with the cordial approval of the Town Council, and they sincerely trust that in future the Great Central Company may be successful in developing the railway and making this great undertaking a benefit to the public generally, and that they may in no small measure contribute to the prosperity of the ancient and interesting town of Brackley, and to the comfort and convenience of its inhabitants.
William Pollitt
General Manager
Great Central Railway”