Chippenham and Calne Line

The Chippenham and Calne line was a five mile long single-track branch railway line that ran along the valley of the River Marden in Wiltshire, England, from Chippenham on the Great Western Main Line to Calne, via two intermediate halts. Built by an independent company and opened in 1863, the line was sold in 1892 to the Great Western Railway company.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) opened its main line from London to Bristol in 1841, with a station at Chippenham. Calne was an important market and industrial town not far away, and at the time it had 16 mills within three miles, and moreover housed the largest bacon factory in England.

Seeing themselves at a disadvantage by not being on the railway, a meeting of interested parties was held on 3 November 1859, and this led to a public meeting on 8 November 1859, proposing a railway connecting the town with Chippenham and the main line. This was supported with great enthusiasm; only James C Hale, proprietor of the Calne branch of the Wilts & Berks Canal, was not happy. £15,000 of share subscriptions were promised before the meeting closed. James Baird Burke was to be the engineer, and his estimate of the construction cost was £26,663.

The formal subscription proceeded and four members of the Harris family—proprietors of the bacon factory—subscribed over 50% of the capital. All seemed to be going well but a disturbing letter was soon received: it had been understood that the GWR would be supportive, but the letter warned that income on the line might not cover the operating costs of the line for several years, and that any profits would fail to contribute to repaying the capital cost.

James Burke's authority as the Company's engineer seems to have been in question, for on 19 November 1859 a "joint engineer" was appointed: James Samuel, formerly Resident Engineer for the Eastern Counties Railway was given the job. It is likely that he had been given a particular task, for on 14 December 1859 he reported that he estimated the construction cost of the line to be £32,000; on presenting this information he withdrew from involvement with the scheme.

The Directors now had a serious problem in maintaining momentum; they wrote to Burke offering £1,950 as his fee if he could bring about construction of the line for £27,000, but only £1,000 if the sum was overrun. He accepted this arrangement, and it was apparently modified by negotiation later to £1,650 if he was successful, and £1,000 if not.

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