Whitby and Pickering Railway
| Fate | acquired by York and North Midland Railway |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1832 |
| Defunct | 1845 |
The Whitby and Pickering Railway (W&P) was built to halt the gradual decline of the port of Whitby on the east coast of England. Its basic industries, whaling and shipbuilding, had been in decline and it was believed that opening transport links inland would help regenerate the town and port.
Until the turnpike to Pickering was opened in 1759, Whitby was better connected to the rest of the country by sea than by land; even then the difficult climb over the high moors was an obstacle. Stagecoach services did not start until 1795 and mail coaches (thrice weekly) until 1823.
The Whitby and Pickering Railway opened in stages in 1836 (one of the earliest railways in Yorkshire) and was worked by a horses until it was absorbed into the York and North Midland Railway in 1845 and was converted into a conventional double tracked steam-worked railway.
In 1795 it was proposed to construct a canal from Whitby to Pickering along much the same course as the later railway. After the success of the , which had a number of Whitby backers, attention switched to the possibility of a railway from Whitby to either or Pickering. Many pamphlets were issued for or against the various proposals; copies of some can be found in the library of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1832 George Stephenson was asked to report on the rival routes. Stephenson's report favoured a horse-worked railway to Pickering and his conclusion was accepted at a meeting in Whitby on 14 September 1832. The Whitby and Pickering Railway bill received the royal assent, from William IV, on 6 May 1833.
The directors of the W&P Company mainly came from Whitby or the immediate area and represented a cross section of the business community, including bankers, solicitors, shipbuilders and ship owners. The shareholders came from a wider area, some from London but those from the immediate area predominated.
The W&P directors invited the first tenders for the construction of 3 miles (4.8 km) at the Whitby end of the railway by August 1833 and in October 1834 tenders for the final 8.5 miles (the 'central division' of the railway) were invited. The tender was awarded to Hamer and Pratt, who had just finished work on the Leeds and Selby Railway.
...
Wikipedia