Northampton Street Tramways

Northampton Street Tramways Company

Postcard commemorating the end of horse-drawn services in 1904
Operation
Locale	Northampton, England, United Kingdom
Open	4 June 1881
Close	21 October 1901
Status	Closed
Infrastructure
Track gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Propulsion system(s)	horse
Depot(s)	Abingdon Street

The Northampton Street Tramways Company operated an horse powered tramway service in Northampton between 1881 and 1901.

On 9 January 1880, the Northampton Street Tramways Company was founded at a meeting in London. It quickly gained parliamentary approval for a network of 7 lines to be built in Northampton.

Jabez Spencer Balfour was the chairman of the company. The Vice-Chairman was W.J. Pierce (Mayor of Northampton 1880-81). The directors were J. Pelton, D.B. Miller, and H.S. Freeman. The company signed a contract on 14 March 1881 and construction began.

Major General Hutchinson of the Board of Trade inspected the works at 09.00 hrs on 4 June 1881. Following some remedial works, there was an inaugural run for local dignitaries, and the tramway opened to the public on the same day at 18.00 hrs.

Stables had been erected on land behind 72 Abindgon Street in the town centre. The entrance to the depot was through a narrow passageway, but the land at the back provided space for 31 horses, 8 cars, a smithy, granary and fodder store. There was also a paddock and small grazing area for sick animals, but this was later built on with extensions to the depot.

The first route ran from All Saints church in the town centre, along Abington Street and Kettering Road to the White Elephant (then the Kingsley Park Hotel). It ran west down Gold Street to St James' End.

There was also a route along St Georges Terrace, Kingsthorpe Hollow to Kingsthorpe. This part of the system was extended around 1883.

In 1884 the St James' route was extended along Weedon Road. In 1893 an extension was built along Wellingborough Road towards Weston Favell. This opened on 18 May 1893.

By 1885 there was dissent amongst the shareholders. At the meeting in August a deficit of £139 was declared, but a motion that this be not accepted was carried. There were allegations of mismanagement and falsification of the accounts. The resignation of the directors was not accepted, and an Extraordinary Meeting was arranged. This failed to resolve the issue and a further meeting was arranged where several of the board of directors were replaced. Six months later they reported that there was now a credit balance of £154. The company took drastic measures to achieve this, having replaced many of the poor quality horses, they dismissed all of the conductors and employed 14- to 16-year-old boys who worked for 7 shillings per week. This caused great ill feeling (as there was already considerable unemployment). Sunday services were withdrawn. Further economies were put into effect - some of the 1881 cars were modified to remove the upper deck, stairs, and lower deck windows, to reduce the weight so that they could be operated by one horse rather than two. This resulted in an immediate improvement in the company fortunes. Cost of operating the horses fell from £2,088 in 1885 to £1,476 in 1887.