User:Ansbaradigeidfran/Sandbox2

History

Following the Tudor reconquest of Ireland, a weekly postal service (by horseback) to Ireland via Chester and Liverpool was established in October 1572, changing to Holyhead by 1576. By Cromwell's time the service operated three times a week. The development of Turnpike roads in the eighteenth century brought the whole journey to approximately 45 hours in 1797. After the Act of Union 1800, however, Elected Irish members had to travel to London to attend the new United Kingdom Parliament, and sought travel and postal facilities more similar to those of their English and Scottish counterparts. Thomas Telford's A5 road, completed in 1826, and his Menai suspension bridge, further reduced the journey time to under 27 hours by 1836.

As long-distance railways were built in Britain, the London and Birmingham Railway, Grand Junction Railway, and Liverpool and Manchester Railway (which later merged to form the London and North Western Railway) formed a complete path from London to Liverpool. Steam trains were far quicker than horse and carriage, and Liverpool won the lucrative mail contract in 1839. Even using steam packet ships, the seaborne portion of the journey was comparatively slow, and the most expedite route would be a railway across Wales, with a shorter sea crossing from a port nearer to Dublin.

Competition among the Welsh ports

A key criteria Welsh port to carry the Irish Mail was shelter from the prevailing winds. Three locations in North Wales were considered, and each had their supporters. Holyhead had the advantage of an existing port, but would require laying a railway either through mountainous Snowdonia, or along the coast, crossing the river Conwy , and would regardless have to cross the Menai Strait, a feat only recently achieved in 1826 by Telford's Menai suspension bridge. The Orme's Bay, at Llandudno, would eliminate the troubles of the Strait and the river Conwy, but was only about 40 miles closer than Liverpool. Porth Dinllaen would give the shortest sea crossing, but its remote location would require considerable expense to reach it.

Early proponents of a railway to Porth Dinllaen included Henry Archer, manager of the Ffestiniog Railway,, as well as William Maddocks, a significant landowner in the Porthmadog area who had earlier promoted local turnpike roads. After meetings in Dublin in August 1835 and Caernarfon in January 1836, a committee Charles Vignoles and John Urpeth Rastrick were asked to survey routes from Porth Dinllaen toward London. During the summer of 1836 Vignoles surveyed four routes through Mid Wales in an attempt to avoid steep gradients, with mileages to London varying between 244 and 267 miles. While examining these four routes, the committee asked Vignoles to a route from Chester to Bangor, and thence to Holyhead or Porth Dinllaen. Other schemes already proposed linking Chester to Crewe and Birkenhead. A railway to Holyhead would need to cross the Menai Strait, but the route from Bangor to Porth Dinllaen would require the expense of four tunnels and four viaducts. Also that year, the the St. George's Harbour & Railway promoted its railway from Crewe to Ormeshead (Orme's Bay), and further south, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was surveying a route from Gloucester to New Quay for the Great Western Railway.

The government established an Irish Railways Commission in December 1836, which appointed Vignoles as engineer. Vignoles reported on the surveys he had already carried out, and was asked to complete his work on evaluating the Mid Wales route. He discounted the coastal route from Chester on account of the tunnels required at the headlands of Penmaenbach and Penmaenmawr, and noted that 'the construction of a second bridge across the Straits of Menai ... is too great an undertaking to be seriously contemplated'. He felt his original route via Bala and Llangollen to Porth Dinllaen would be most practical for Irish traffic (particularly if a planned railway from Chester to Ruabon was constructed), and that the coastal route would only be applicable for a railway to Holyhead or Orme's Bay.

The St George's Harbour and Railway bill for the rout to Orme's Bay was put before parliament in 1837, but it was not passed. Rival schemes, including the Chester and Birkenhead and Chester and Crewe railways obtained Royal Assent in that session. The Chester and Crewe naturally supported a coastal railway for the Irish Mail, and Orme's Bay proposal was revived. The scheme still found significant opposition:

Our men of business ... say "If people from Ireland will pass by Holyhead, why should they stop at the Ormesheads, and not proceed to Liverpool?" Again, the Government may project some other line, and then their outlay would be totally lost. For myself, I am perfectly satisfied that the only rational plan is to lay down a railway from Chester to Holyhead, by way of the Ormesheads. No half measures will stand long in these days. - Anonymous, Herepath's Railway Journal, October 1838

The correspondent further noted that the Chester and Crewe, despite being asked to support the proposal, were not doing so for the same reasons.

In late 1838, engineers Francis Giles and George Stephenson both stated their belief that the best route was from Chester to Holyhead, with a new bridge over the Conwy estuary and hauling carriages over the Menai Bridge by means of rope (having detached the locomotives). They likewise opposed Vignoles' routes to Porth Dinllaen. Vignoles in return published a defence of his proposed line.

The government now took a more active role, its surveyors reported in May 1840 that of the three ports, "Holyhead is the most fit and eligible point for the departure and arrival of the [mail] packets on the eastern side of the channel". This was also the opinion of a survey for the Lords of the Admiralty in 1843. Even in light of official support for Holyhead (which would most easily be reached from Chester), Porth Dinllaen and Orme's Bay still had their proponents, and Brunel's Great Western Railway were supporting the South Wales Railway, with an eye on Irish traffic. This in turn was met with renewed support from the Chester and Holyhead scheme from the London and Birmingham Railway and the Grand Junction Railway (who had acquired the Chester and Crewe railway in 1840, shortly before it's opening).

A bill for the Chester and Holyhead Railway was presented to the House of Commons on 14 March 1844, and was referred to a committee. Concern over the means of crossing the Menai Strait led to the portion from the River Ogwen (east of Bangor) to Llanfairpwll being withdrawn from the bill, as George Stephenson, the Chester and Holyhead's engineer, preferred to start work as early as possible. The Duke of Wellington spoke against the bill in the House of Lords, suggesting that the merits of Porth Dinllaen should be considered further. The bill was eventually passed by both houses, and received Royal Assent on 4 July 1844. Half the £2,000,000 capital was provided by the LBR and GJR, and the rest by the Chester and Holyhead Company.

Parliament's approval did not silence other proposals entirely, however. During the Railway mania of 1845-46 a number of competing railways were announced, including some atmospheric railways. These other routes either sought to shorten the route south from the CHR or to obviate it completely, but as with many schemes of that time, they did not come to fruition.