THE SURREY IRON RAILWAY OPENS IN SOUTH LONDON

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Surrey Iron Railway, the world's first public railway, that was opened in south London on a day like today in 1803.

The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was a horse-drawn narrow-gauge plateway that linked Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham, all then in Surrey but now suburbs of south London, in England. It was established by Act of Parliament in 1801, and opened partly in 1802 and partly in 1803.

It was a toll railway on which carriers used horse traction. The chief goods transported were coal, building materials, lime, manure, corn and seeds.

The first 13.3 km to Croydon opened on 26 July 1803, with a branch line off from Mitcham to Hackbridge.

The 13.7 km long Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway was built as an extension of the railway but by a separate company. It opened in 1805 and closed in 1838.

The Surrey Iron Railway was commercially successful only briefly, until shortly after the opening of the canal between Croydon and London in 1809. It closed in 1846.

By the end of the eighteenth century, a number of short plateways, such as those to the Caldon Low quarries and the Little Eaton Gangway, had been built. Their purpose was to convey a mineral to a nearby canal for onward transport.

The original plan for a transport connection between Wandsworth, on the River Thames, and the industries of the Wandle Valley had been a canal scheme, put forward in 1799, but doubts about the availability of water led to the adoption of a plateway. Contrary to popular belief, it was not the world's first railway authorised by Parliament independently of a canal: that was the Middleton Railway (1758). Nor was it the first public railway or the first railway company: both of those honours go to the Lake Lock Rail Road near Wakefield, Yorkshire.

The Surrey Railways Act 1801 received royal assent on 21 May 1801, and work commenced immediately with William Jessop as engineer, George Leather as resident engineer, and joint contractor with Benjamin Outram. The line started at a wharf on the Thames at Wandsworth, and ascended gently through Tooting and Mitcham to Pitlake Mead in Croydon. There was a branch from near the site of the Mitcham Junction to oil-cake mills at Hackbridge, and a number of spurs to mills and works.

It was a public toll railway, providing a track for independent goods hauliers to use their own horses and wagons. The company did not operate its own trains. Sometimes it leased out the track and the dock, and sometimes it collected tolls and kept the line in repair itself.

From about 1836, James Lyon leased the tolls and could be hired to convey goods along the railway. There were toll or gate houses at Croydon, Wandsworth and Colliers Wood. According to the Mitcham Advertiser, the Colliers Wood gate house was still standing on 7 May 1956.

The 14.5 km route followed the shallow valley of the River Wandle, then heavily industrialised with numerous factories and mills, from the River Thames at Wandsworth southwards to Croydon, at what is now Reeves Corner. A short branch ran from Mitcham to Hackbridge and Carshalton.

The railway was extended by a separate company as the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway through Purley and Coulsdon to quarries near Merstham, opened in 1805 and closed in 1838.

The advent of faster and more powerful steam locomotives spelled the end for horse-drawn railways.

In 1823, William James, a shareholder in the railway, tried to persuade George Stephenson to supply a locomotive. Stephenson realised that the cast-iron plateway could not support the weight of a locomotive and declined. A steam railway arrived in Croydon with the opening of the London and Croydon Railway in 1839.

In 1844, the proprietors sold the railway to the L&SWR, which sold it to the London and Brighton Railway so that the L&BR could use the trackbed to extend from Croydon to Earlsfield and then join the L&SWR line into Nine Elms and eventually Waterloo. However, the sale did not proceed, and on 3 August 1846 the Surrey Iron Railway obtained an Act of Parliament authorising its closure, which took place on 31 August 1846. Part of the route was used for part of the West Croydon to Wimbledon Line, part of the LB&SCR from 1856, and some of the route is in use by London Tramlink: routes 3 & 4 between Wandle Park & Waddon Marsh, and route 3 at Mitcham.

The railway closed in 1838 when it was purchased by the London and Brighton Railway Company. The company ordered the rails to be taken up and were subsequently sold. Through Croydon, the old tramway became Tramway Road and was later renamed Church Road. 

More information: Railway Wonders Of The World

I just like being on my own on trains, travelling. 
I spent all my pocket money travelling 
the London Underground and Southern Railway, 
what used to be the Western region, 
and in Europe as much as I could afford it. 
My parents used to think I was going places, 
but I wasn't, I was just travelling the trains.

Tony Judt