Clarence Railway

The Clarence Railway was an early railway company that operated in north-east England between 1833 and 1853. The railway was built to take coal from mines in County Durham to ports on the River Tees and was a competitor to the (S&DR). It suffered financial difficulty soon after it opened because traffic was low and the S&DR charged a high rate for transporting coal to the Clarence, and the company was managed by the Exchequer Loan Commissioners after July 1834. An extension of the Byers Green branch was opened in 1839 by the independent West Durham Railway to serve collieries in Weardale.

The Stockton and Hartlepool Railway opened in 1841 to connect the Clarence to Hartlepool Docks and the Hartlepool West Harbour & Dock opened in West Hartlepool in 1844. On 17 May 1853 the Clarence Railway, Hartlepool West Harbour & Dock and Stockton and Hartlepool Railway were merged to become the West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway. The West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway became part of the North Eastern Railway in 1865.

The S&DR opened in 1825 linking with the coal fields in the Shildon area via Darlington, although a more direct, northerly route to Stockton had support in that town. The promoters of a competing Tees and Weardale Railway, supported by Christopher Tennant, petitioned Parliament in 1823 for permission for a railway from the coal field south of Durham to the River Tees to allow onward transport by sea. This application failed as the standing orders had not been complied with, and another in 1824 failed, partly due to opposition to use of steam locomotives. By 1826 the S&DR had outgrown the port in Stockton and initially a port was proposed on the north bank of the Tees near Haverton Hill, but a branch to Middlesbrough on the south bank was proposed at a meeting in July 1827, and this was ratified by the shareholders that October.

The Tees & Weardale promoters developed a new scheme to transport coal to Haverton Hill: a main line that formed a junction the S&DR at Simpasture, a branch to the Deanery estate and a branch to Stockton that would provide a shorter route than the S&DR. This route didn't go into Weardale, so it was named Clarence Railway after the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV. The line was surveyed by Tennant with Edward Steel, an early assistant of Stephenson, the railway was supported by a town meeting in Stockton, and Henry Blanshard leased Coxhoe colliery for a high price from the Hale sisters, on condition they use their family's influence to promote the railway.

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