Fourth Series

Vol. II. No. 3

1 December 1921

I

EARLY RAILWAY TIME TABLES 1

BY E. H. DRING

N the history of all developments nothing is so striking as the contrast between the humble initial effort and the completed production, whether it be owing to natural forces or human skill. This is forcibly exemplified in the study of Bradshaw's Railway Guides and by a comparison of the first infant issue of Bradshaw's Railway Guide with the latest matured issue of last month. Like the grain of mustard seed which from the least of seeds became a tree in which the birds of the air lodged, so has this humble production of 19 October 1839 grown up into a national institution of large volume and value. What books do you consult most?' a political adherent once asked John Bright in the midst of an arduous campaign. The Bible' and 'Bradshaw' was the reply of the statesman. There be people who say neither can be understood without a commentary, but I leave the discussion of such a statement to theologians and commercial travellers. In my own experience I have heard many women who knew the Bible well and could expound it, but I never remember meeting a woman who could understand Bradshaw. George Bradshaw who was the founder of this enterprise was a Quaker and a map maker and engraver by calling, and 1 Read before the Bibliographical Society, 17 October 1921.

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in giving you some details of his career I cannot do better than extract a few passages from the Dictionary of National Biography.

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BRADSHAW (GEORGE), (1801-1853), originator of railway guides, only son of Thomas Bradshaw, by his wife, Mary Rogers, was born at Windsor Bridge, Pendleton, Salford, on 29 July 1801. His parents taxed their limited means to give a good education to their only child by placing him under the care of Mr. Coward, a Swedenborgian minister; thence he removed to a school kept by Mr. Scott at Overton, Lancashire. On leaving school he was apprenticed to Mr. J. Beale, an engraver, who had acquired some reputation by the execution of the plates of The art of Penmanship Improved,' by Duncan Smith, 1817. In 1820 he accompanied his parents to Belfast, and there established himself as an engraver and printer, but, not finding adequate occupation, returned to Manchester in the following year. His attention had been for some time directed to the engraving of maps, and in 1827 he determined to devote himself more especially to that branch of art. The first map projected, engraved, and published by him was one of Lancashire, his native county. This was followed in 1830 by his map of the Canals of Lancashire, Yorkshire, &c. This map eventually became one of a set of three known as 'Bradshaw's Maps of Inland Navigation'. This was followed by a still more ambitious Railway map of Great Britain, showing the levels of the lines, which was published in 1838. His Railway Time Tables appeared in the following year. Bradshaw when a young man joined the Society of Friends, and was an active coadjutor of Cobden, Pease, Sturge, Scoble, Elihu Burritt, and others in holding peace conferences, in attempts to establish an ocean penny postage, and other philanthropic labours. Part of this time he devoted to the establishment of schools for the poorer classes. Bradshaw joined the institution of Civil Engineers as an associate in February 1842. In August 1853 he went to Norway on a tour combining business and recreation, and on 6 Sept., while on a visit to a friend in the neighbourhood of Christiania, he was seized by Asiatic cholera, and died in a few hours. He was buried in the cemetery belonging to the Cathedral of Christiania.

He married on 16 May 1839, Martha, daughter of William Darbyshire of Stretton, near Warrington, and left a son, Christopher.

It has often been stated that Bradshaw was the originator of Time Tables, while others have claimed priority, but by the term 'originator of Time Tables' must obviously be understood the originator of collecting the time tables of various companies and publishing them together in a portable

For the convenience of Merchants and others, the First Class evening train of Carriages does not leave Manchester on Tuesdays and Saturdays until Half-past Five O'Clock.

The journey is usually accomplished by the First Class Carriages under two hours.

In addition to the above trains it is intended shortly to add three or four more departures daily.

The Company have commenced carrying GOODS of all kinds on the Rail-way.

January, 1831.

Fig. 1. Time Bill of 1831. Reduced.

form. Long before 1839 the various Companies announced the times of the starting of the trains by means of small posters, pasted up on the stations and booking offices (see Fig. 1). Further in the various Railway Companions and Travellers' Guides, of which a large number were printed. during the thirties and forties, describing the local routes and places of interest along the line of route, the times of departure and arrival with other useful information were given. The earliest one I know is 'Freeling's Liverpool and Manchester Railway Companion and Guide to both Towns', which from internal evidence was published in July or August 1836, and this gives the times of trains, fares, &c., &c.

Among the claims put forward for projecting pocket Time Tables there may be mentioned those of W. J. Adams (Athenaeum, 27 December 1873 and 24 January 1874), R. D. Kay (ibid. 17 January 1874), and John Gadsby (Notes and Queries, 6th Series xi. 15, 1885). But so far as I can trace nobody seems to have mentioned E. C. and W. Osborne, who I think approximate more nearly than any one else to being a rival to Bradshaw in the claim for priority.1 The first two claimants, Adams and Kay, may be dismissed for lack of evidence. Gadsby's claim has been shown to be unfounded by the reprint of the first issue of Gadsby's Railway List, which is dated January 1840. There remain the Osbornes. Their Time Table is a small Table of the Grand Junction, London & Birmingham & Birmingham & Derby Railways. Price 6d., published by E. C. and W. Osborne, Birmingham, on an indefinite date but before 18 November 1839. I, however, do not think that the date was before 19 October; it was moreover a rival to Bradshaw No. 2 not No. I.

My reasons for thinking that Bradshaw was the original conceiver of the portable form of time table are :

1 But see Bridgen, post, p. 172.

(1) on account of it having two engraved maps of the railroads in Lancashire and Yorkshire and three engraved plans of Liverpool, Manchester, and Leeds;

(2) on account of the method in which it was printed. Even if it be admitted that Osborne's Table appeared in October 1839 (and the trains shown are certainly before the alterations made in the mid-November issue of Bradshaw), the preparations for Bradshaw's publication must have taken him