79-883: The Avonmouth Docks are part of the Port of Bristol , in England . They are situated on the northern side of the mouth of the River Avon , opposite the Royal Portbury Dock on the southern side, where the river joins the Severn estuary , within Avonmouth . Accessible via a 210 metres (690 ft) long and 30 metres (98 ft) wide lock , today the docks are one of the UK's major ports for chilled foods, especially fruit and vegetables. Land-side freight access and distribution
158-418: A Freeport , saying they were an "excellent" way to boost investment in left-behind parts of the country. The Bristol Port Company welcomed the news, seeing it having the potential to boost investment opportunities in and around UK ports. However some port and trade experts predicted the main effect would be to divert activity into the port from the surrounding region rather than create new jobs. As of 2010 ,
237-514: A branch led to the MR Nottingham station. The Great Northern Railway by then passed through Grantham and both railway companies paid court to the fledgling line. Meanwhile, Nottingham had woken up to its branch line status and was keen to expand. The MR made a takeover offer only to discover that a shareholder of the GN had already gathered a quantity of Ambergate shares. An attempt to amalgamate
316-763: A few miles north of Matlock in 1849. However the M&;BR had become part of the LNWR in 1846, thus instead of being a partner it had an interest in thwarting the Midland. In 1863 the MR reached Buxton, just as the LNWR arrived from the other direction by the Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway . In 1867 the MR began an alternative line through Wirksworth (now the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway ), to avoid
395-473: A mustard gas shell, which was disposed of by the 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment RLC at Porton Down . The site was closed off for a year while experts from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory conducted a series of tests. In late 2013 MoD clearance was given, allowing the site to be redeveloped as a 485,000 square feet (45,100 m) supermarket distribution centre for Asda , and
474-726: A new deepsea container terminal is planned in Avonmouth. 51°30′12″N 2°42′58″W / 51.50329°N 2.71621°W / 51.50329; -2.71621 Midland Railway The Midland Railway ( MR ) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 . The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby , where it had its headquarters. It amalgamated with several other railways to create
553-402: A private company owned by Terence Mordaunt and David Ord . The business trades as The Bristol Port Company (BPC). Since then over £600 million has been invested in the docks and the annual tonnage throughput has increased from 4 million tonnes to 14 million tonnes. Up to 2014, the company made several applications to buy the site's freehold but these were rejected. Following
632-664: A recycling plant for SITA UK. The docks were operated by the Port of Bristol Authority, part of Bristol City Council , until 1991, when the council granted a 150-year lease to the Bristol Port Company, who now operate the docks together with Royal Portbury Dock. The bulk coal terminal discharged imported coal from both the Royal Edward and Royal Portbury docks, via a rail-loading system managed by DB Cargo UK , located just south of St Andrews Road railway station on
711-403: A referendum in 2012, the city voters created the role of Mayor, subsequently electing George Ferguson . In March 2015 he and his cabinet decided to sell the freehold for £10 million but retain a 12.5% non-voting stake in the company. The city's council members voted on 2 June to object to the decision on the grounds of poor value for money, and referred it back to the mayor. Two weeks later
790-545: Is a marvel of Gothic Revival architecture , in the form of the Midland Grand Hotel by Gilbert Scott , which faces Euston Road , and the wrought-iron train shed designed by William Barlow . Its construction was not simple, since it had to approach through the ancient St Pancras Old Church graveyard. Below was the Fleet Sewer, while a branch from the main line ran underground with a steep gradient beneath
869-713: Is via either the M5 motorway or the Henbury Loop Line , whilst rail-passenger access is via Avonmouth railway station on the Severn Beach Line . Bristol Harbour had always been a major centre of trade within the wider UK economy, due to its strategic location to the west of the country, allowing access to both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean . Coastal trade was also important, with
SECTION 10
#1732772764555948-640: The Avon Gorge , to a pier terminus at Avonmouth. Bricks for the project were supplied by the Crown Brick Works, a venture set up by a partnership including Edwin Stride and his sons Jared and Jethro. The other partners were George Davis, with William and Jarman Peters. The brickworks are visible on the 1879 OS 25" map of the area. The company was dissolved in 1886. As built, the BPRP was isolated from
1027-636: The Bedford to Hitchin Line , joining the GN at Hitchin for King's Cross. The line began its life in a proposition presented for the shareholders by George Hudson on 2 May 1842 as: "To vest £600,000 in the South Midland Railway Company in their line from Wigston to Hitchin." a full decade before realisation. The delay was partly due to the withdrawal of GN's interest in the competing scheme,
1106-639: The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway found a place elsewhere in Hudson's empire with the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway , though he later returned. The MR was in a commanding position having its Derby headquarters at the junctions of the two main routes from London to Scotland, by its connections to the London and Birmingham Railway in the south, and from York via the York and North Midland Railway in
1185-514: The London, Midland and Scottish Railway at grouping in 1923. The Midland had a large network of lines emanating from Derby, stretching to London St Pancras , Manchester , Carlisle , Birmingham , and Bristol . It expanded as much through acquisitions as by building its own lines. It also operated ships from Heysham in Lancashire to Douglas and Belfast . A large amount of the Midland's infrastructure remains in use and visible, such as
1264-515: The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in 1912. It had running rights on some lines, and it developed lines in partnership with other railways, being involved in more 'Joint' lines than any other. In partnership with the GN it owned the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway to provide connections from the Midlands to East Anglia, the UK's biggest joint railway. The MR provided motive power for
1343-763: The Midland Counties Railway , the North Midland Railway , and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway , the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway joined two years later. These met at the Tri-Junct station at Derby, where the MR established its locomotive and later its carriage and wagon works. Leading it were George Hudson from the North Midland, and John Ellis from the Midland Counties. James Allport from
1422-655: The Midland Main Line and the Settle–Carlisle line , and some of its railway hotels still bear the name Midland Hotel . The Midland Railway originated from 1832 in Leicestershire / Nottinghamshire , with the purpose of serving the needs of local coal owners. The company was formed on 10 May 1844 by the Midland Railway (Consolidation) Act 1844 ( 7 & 8 Vict. c. xviii) which merged
1501-728: The North British Railway had built the Waverley Line through the Scottish Borders from Carlisle to Edinburgh. The MR was obliged to go ahead and the Settle to Carlisle opened in 1876. The Nottingham direct line of the Midland Railway opened for goods traffic on 1 December 1879 and for passenger traffic on 1 March 1880. By the middle of the decade investment had been paid for; passenger travel
1580-663: The Severn Beach line . At the Royal Edward, a Gottwald HSK 260 Harbour Crane can unload up to 10,000 tonnes of coal per day; whilst two 2,500 tonne rapid bulk-handling conveyors at Royal Portbury discharge into a conveyor system which runs under the River Avon in a tunnel. Freight trains are moved automatically under the bunkers at 0.8 kilometres per hour (0.50 mph), allowing a 1,750 tonnes (1,930 tons) train to be fully and automatically loaded in under 36 minutes. Port of Bristol The Port of Bristol comprises
1659-615: The Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway , and was a one-third partner in the Cheshire Lines Committee . In 1913, the company achieved a total revenue of £15,129,136 (equivalent to £1,880,400,000 in 2023) with working expenses of £9,416,981 (equivalent to £1,170,440,000 in 2023). With the onset of the First World War in 1914, unified Government control of the Midland, and all the main line railways,
SECTION 20
#17327727645551738-726: The Avon Gorge always presented a challenge, and became more and more difficult as ships got larger. In 1877, Avonmouth Old Dock, the first of the Avonmouth Docks , was opened, and in 1884 the Bristol Corporation acquired both the Avonmouth and Portishead Docks by the Bristol Dock Act 1884 ( 47 & 48 Vict. c. cclv). In 1908 the Royal Edward Dock was built at Avonmouth to the north of
1817-608: The Bedford and Leicester Railway, after Midland purchased the Leicester and Swannington Railway and the Ashby Canal and Tramway, which were to have been the feeder lines. With the competition thwarted there was less rush to have this line as well as its branch lines to Huntingdon (from Kettering) and Northampton (from Bedford) finished. Both these branches were subsequently built by independent companies. While this took some of
1896-578: The Bristol to Birmingham route. While the two parties were bickering over the price, the MR's John Ellis overheard two directors of the Birmingham and Bristol Railway on a London train discussing the business, and pledged that the MR would match anything the Great Western would offer. Since it would have brought broad gauge into Curzon Street with the possibility of extending it to the Mersey, it
1975-643: The GWR and the MR posed a threat to the Port of Bristol. The MR had no access over the GWR routes into either Bristol Harbour or Avonmouth docks, and so drew up options to either acquire the Avonmouth Docks Co., or build new docks on the opposite bank at Portbury. The result was that in 1884, the Bristol Corporation bought Avonmouth Docks and the BPRP to control port facilities in the area. The Clifton Extension Railway initially ran from Clifton Down to Narroways Hill Junction north through Bristol, then part of
2054-585: The GWR; and over a viaduct from Narroways Hill to the MR's Bristol to Gloucester Line near Fishponds . The line was managed by the Clifton Extension Railway Joint Committee, a triumvirate of the Port Authority, City Council plus the GWR and MR; but in 1894 responsibility was passed to the Great Western & Midland Railways Joint Committee. Services began to Clifton Down on 1 October 1874. The Royal Edward Dock
2133-634: The LNWR was settled before the Settle and Carlisle was built, but Parliament refused to allow the MR to withdraw from the project. The MR was also under pressure from Scottish railway companies, which were eagerly awaiting the Midland traffic reaching Carlisle as it would allow them to challenge the Caledonian Railway 's dominance on the West Coast traffic to Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Glasgow and South Western Railway had its own route from Carlisle to Glasgow via Dumfries and Kilmarnock, whilst
2212-540: The LNWR, in what became known as the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee . Continuing friction with the LNWR caused the MR to join the MS&;LR and the GN in the Cheshire Lines Committee , which also gave scope for wider expansion into Lancashire and Cheshire, and finally a new station at Manchester Central . In the meantime Sheffield had at last gained a main-line station. Following representations by
2291-463: The Leicester and Hitchin railway cost £1,750,000 (equivalent to £222,460,000 in 2023). By 1860 the MR was in a much better position and was able to approach new ventures aggressively. Its carriage of coal and iron – and beer from Burton-on-Trent – had increased by three times and passenger numbers were rising, as they were on the GN. Since GN trains took precedence on its own lines, MR passengers were becoming more and more delayed. Finally in 1862
2370-520: The MR joined with the Manchester and Birmingham Railway (M&BR), which was also looking for a route to London from Manchester, in a proposal for a line from Ambergate . The Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway , it received the Royal Assent in 1846, in spite of opposition from the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway . It was completed as far as Rowsley
2449-672: The MR was a connection between Sheffield and Manchester, by a branch at Dore to Chinley , opened in 1894 through the Totley and Cowburn Tunnels, now the Hope Valley Line . In the 1870s a dispute with the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) over access rights to the LNWR line to Scotland caused the MR to construct the Settle and Carlisle line, the highest main line in England, to secure access to Scotland. The dispute with
Avonmouth Docks - Misplaced Pages Continue
2528-530: The Mayor's cabinet resolved to sell the freehold. Following criticism by the editor of Money Week magazine, George Ferguson told the Financial Times the deal was exceptional value for the city. First Corporate Shipping donated £25,000 to both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt during the 2019 Conservative party leadership contest. The Port of Bristol is one of the six sites Boris Johnson proposed for
2607-432: The Midland, but it still had designs on Manchester. At the same time the LNWR was under threat from the GN's attempts to enter Manchester by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway . In 1850 the MR, though much more secure, was still a provincial line. Ellis realised that if it were to fend off its competitors it must expand outwards. The first step, in 1853, was to appoint James Allport as general manager, and
2686-577: The area called "Welsh Back" concentrating on trows with cargoes from the Slate industry in Wales , stone , timber and coal. However, by the 18th century the docks in Liverpool grew larger and so increased competition with Bristol for the tobacco trade. The limitations of Bristol's docks were causing problems to business, so in 1802 William Jessop proposed installing a dam and lock at Hotwells to create
2765-639: The banks of the Rivers Avon and Frome , at their confluence upstream of the Avon Gorge which connects the city with the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel . This part of the port was known as the Bristol City Docks, and is now more usually known as Bristol Harbour . The Avon and Frome are small, shallow rivers incapable in themselves of accommodating ocean-going ships, even those of the age of sail, as can still be seen by inspecting
2844-577: The branch of the Avon known as the New Cut at low tide. The harbour depended on the extreme tides (14 m, 46 ft) experienced in the Bristol Channel. Ships that wished to enter the harbour waited for the tide to begin to rise and floated up the river, through the Avon Gorge , and into the harbour on the tide. Ships leaving the harbour set out at the high tide, and floated down to the sea with
2923-428: The centrepiece of many leisure, residential and retail developments in and around Bristol city centre . A sand company was the last to use the docks commercially in 1991. The closure of the power stations at Portishead also made the Portishead Dock redundant, and it was finally closed in 1992. In 1991, Bristol City Council sold a 150-year lease of the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks to First Corporate Shipping Ltd,
3002-415: The chemical plant began at Avonmouth in 1917, but did not finish until 1923, costing £800,000. The plant came into operation from spring 1918, producing 20 tonnes (22 tons) of dichloroethyl sulphide using the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process ; the chemical agent was then placed into shells on site. Although the first product did not arrive in France until September 1918, two months before the Armistice , it
3081-466: The cities concerned were provided with a rail service, it would make it more difficult to justify another line. They were approved while the bill for the direct line was still before Parliament, forming the present day Lincoln Branch and the Syston to Peterborough Line . The Leeds and Bradford Railway had been approved in 1844. By 1850 it was losing money but a number of railways offered to buy it. Hudson made an offer more or less on his own account and
3160-476: The coalfields that became its major source of income. Passengers from Sheffield continued to use Rotherham Masborough until a direct route was completed in 1870. Meanwhile, it extended its influence into the Leicestershire coalfields, by buying the Leicester and Swannington Railway in 1846, and extending it to Burton in 1849. After the merger, London trains were carried on the shorter Midland Counties route. The former Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway
3239-432: The commercial, and former commercial, docks situated in and near the city of Bristol in England. The Port of Bristol Authority was the commercial title of the Bristol City , Avonmouth , Portishead and Royal Portbury Docks when they were operated by Bristol City Council , which ceased trade when the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks were leased to The Bristol Port Company in 1991. The Port of Bristol grew up on
Avonmouth Docks - Misplaced Pages Continue
3318-414: The council in 1867 the MR promised to build a through line within two years. To the MR's surprise, the Sheffield councillors then backed an improbable speculation called the Sheffield, Chesterfield, Bakewell, Ashbourne, Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway. This was unsurprisingly rejected by Parliament and the Midland built its "New Road" into a station at Pond Street. Among the last of the major lines built by
3397-542: The decision was taken for the MR to have its own terminus in the Capital, as befitted a national railway. On 22 June 1863, the Midland Railway (Extension to London) Bill was passed: The new line deviated at Bedford, through a gap in the Chiltern Hills at Luton , reaching London by curving around Hampstead Heath to a point between King's Cross and Euston. The line from Bedford to Moorgate opened for passenger services on 13 July 1868 with services into St Pancras station starting on 1 October 1868. St Pancras station
3476-419: The docks were enlarged from 1941, adding more facilities for unloading oil and petrol, plus a new oil products supply pipeline to London via the Government Pipelines and Storage System . By the 1960s, the larger container ships could not navigate the River Avon to enter the Royal Edward, necessitating the need for the planning of the construction of the Royal Portbury Dock on the south bank. Whilst much of
3555-444: The ebbing tide. In the 1800s the harbour was enclosed by locks , together with a diversion of the River Avon, resulting in its alternative name of the Floating Harbour , the Float, taken from the fact that the ships were able to float at all times, rather than resting in the mud at low tide, as had previously been the case. Shipping Masters appointed under the Merchant Shipping Act included Henry Hellier Peters. The navigation of
3634-519: The famous Imperial Smelting Process was developed. From 1967, the Avonmouth Works was home to the largest and most efficient zinc blast furnace in the world. Consolidated Zinc, having failed to develop suitable new mining projects, merged from 1962 with the Rio Tinto Company, a mining company. The resulting company, known as the Rio Tinto - Zinc Corporation (RTZ), and its main subsidiary, Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA), would eventually become today's Rio Tinto Group . With smelting cheaper elsewhere in
3713-419: The floating harbour. Construction of the £530,000 scheme began in May 1804, including the construction of the Cumberland Basin , the tidal new cut and a feeder canal to Temple Meads . Entrance was via locks, which had a maximum width of 45 ft (13.7 m). The harbour was officially opened on 1 May 1809. However, the harbour improvements cost more than anticipated, requiring increased levies to pay back
3792-403: The former warehousing was redeveloped as residential housing, the residual quays were redeveloped for new cargos. Today these range from the export of scrap-metals, dredged aggregates, vegetable oil and domestic coal; with regional container services from and to Ireland , Europe and Scandinavia, all linked to the rail network via the Henbury Loop Line . During the later part of World War I , it
3871-416: The hope being that this would usher in a new era for the port of Bristol. Around the same time the supporting Bristol Port Railway and Pier was constructed. The BPRP was built and held via a separate sister company, running north for 5.75 miles (9.25 km) from Hotwells (originally called Clifton), northwards to west of Bristol city centre between the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Bridge Valley Road along
3950-528: The line gave the MR an exit to the north, which became the start of the Settle and Carlisle line, and it gave the MR a much more convenient station at Leeds Wellington . In spite of the objections of Hudson, for the MR and others, the "London and York Railway" (later the Great Northern Railway ) led by Edmund Denison persisted, and the bill passed through Parliament in 1846. In 1851 the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway completed its line from Grantham as far as Colwick , from where
4029-447: The line with the GN was foiled by Ellis, who managed to obtain an Order in Chancery preventing the GN from running into Nottingham. However, in 1851 it opened a new service to the north that included Nottingham. In 1852 an ANB&EJR train arrived in Nottingham with a GN locomotive at its head. When it uncoupled and went to run round the train, it found its way blocked by a MR engine while another blocked its retreat. The engine
SECTION 50
#17327727645554108-444: The merger of the standard gauge Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and the broad gauge Bristol and Gloucester Railway . They met at Gloucester via a short loop of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway . The change of gauge at Gloucester meant that everything had to be transferred between trains, creating chaos, and the C&GWU was owned by the Great Western Railway , which wished to extend its network by taking over
4187-421: The mouth of the River Avon and with direct access to the Severn estuary and Bristol Channel . In 1972, the large deep water Royal Portbury Dock , across the river mouth from the Royal Edward Dock was constructed, again with direct access to the Bristol Channel. These developments rendered the old Bristol City Docks in the Floating Harbour redundant as a commercial dock, and they have since been redeveloped as
4266-400: The much cheaper docks at Avonmouth and Portishead . The present entrance lock was designed by Thomas Howard and opened in July 1873, with a width of 62 ft (18.9 m). Due to numerous geographic and tidal restrictions along the River Avon, the Avonmouth Docks Co. was formed to build the new docks at Avonmouth. The new docks, now called Avonmouth Old Dock, were opened in February 1877,
4345-430: The new National Smelting Company (NSC). Before the outbreak of WW1, much of Britain's zinc had originated in Australia , but had been smelted in Germany . The NSC was therefore publicly commissioned to build a new zinc smelting works and sulphuric acid plant at Merebank, Avonmouth. With the nearby No.23 Filling Factory at Chittening , plus the main plant at Banbury and a third plant at Hereford , construction of
4424-550: The next was to shake off the dependence on the LNWR to London . Although a bill for a line from Hitchin into King's Cross jointly with the GN , was passed in 1847 it had not been proceeded with. The bill was resubmitted in 1853 with the support of the people of Bedford, whose branch to the LNWR was slow and unreliable, and with the knowledge of the Northamptonshire iron deposits. The Leicester and Hitchin Railway ran from Wigston to Market Harborough , through Desborough , Kettering , Wellingborough and Bedford , then on
4503-421: The north. Almost immediately it took over the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway and the Erewash Valley Line in 1845, the latter giving access to the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfields. It absorbed the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway in 1847, extending the Erewash Valley Line from the latter between Chesterfield and Trent Junction at Long Eaton , completed to Chesterfield in 1862, giving access to
4582-432: The pressure off the route through Rugby, the GNR insisted that passengers for London alight at Hitchin, buying tickets in the short time available, to catch a GNR train to finish their journey. James Allport arranged a seven-year deal with the GN to run into King's Cross for a guaranteed £20,000 a year (equivalent to £2,410,000 in 2023), . Through services to London were introduced in February 1858. The construction of
4661-435: The problem of the Ambergate line. The section from Wirksworth to Rowsley, which would have involved some tricky engineering, was not completed because the MR gained control of the original line in 1871, but access to Manchester was still blocked at Buxton. At length an agreement was made with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) to share lines from a branch at Millers Dale and running almost alongside
4740-407: The required loans, and hence reducing the competitive advantage to Liverpool. By 1867, ships were getting larger and the meanders in the river Avon prevented boats over 300 ft (91 m) from reaching the harbour. A scheme was proposed to install a much larger lock at Avonmouth to make the entire river a floating harbour, and to straighten the sharper bends, was but was dropped after work began on
4819-460: The rest of the national railway network, having not been intended for anything more than local traffic distribution - a docks railway. However, due to the position of Clifton station and the large amount of developed land in the Hotwells area, an extension towards the city's main station at Bristol Temple Meads , would have been prohibitively expensive. Instead, a link was proposed from the BPRP at Sneyd Park , running under Clifton Down and through
SECTION 60
#17327727645554898-420: The station to join the Metropolitan Railway , which ran parallel to what is now Euston Road. The construction of the London Extension railway cost £9,000,000 (equivalent to £1,022,840,000 in 2023). From the 1820s proposals for lines from London and the East Midlands had been proposed, and they had considered using the Cromford and High Peak Railway to reach Manchester ( See Derby station ). Finally
4977-412: The suburbs to connect to the main lines of the Midland Railway and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway . The connection was authorised in 1867, but the BPRP was in financial difficulties, and so unable to complete the line. It entered into negotiations with the MR and Great Western Railway , the latter now the owner of the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. However, fierce competition between
5056-400: The symbols of Birmingham, Derby, Bristol, Leicester, Lincoln and Leeds. The wyvern , a legendary bipedal dragon, was used extensively as an emblem by the Midland, having inherited it from the Leicester and Swannington Railway . The MR, which used a wyvern sans legs (legless) above its crest, asserted that the "wyvern was the standard of the Kingdom of Mercia", and that it was "a quartering in
5135-424: The then Prince of Wales cut the first sod, which included the construction of a 267 metres (876 ft) dry dock . The complex was opened by the then King Edward VII in 1908. Throughout its life, the shore side dock facilities have been redeveloped to keep the docks operational. By 1911, 27 storage tanks for oil had been added on the north west quay, and new grain silos were built in 1928. During World War II
5214-406: The town arms of Leicester". The symbol appeared on everything from station buildings and bridges down to china, cutlery and chamber pots in its hotels, and was worn as a silver badge by all uniformed employees. However, in 1897 the Railway Magazine noted that there appeared "to be no foundation that the wyvern was associated with the Kingdom of Mercia". It has been associated with Leicester since
5293-432: The whole system was so overloaded that no one was able to predict when many of the trains would reach their destinations. At this point Sir Guy Granet took over as general manager. He introduced a centralised traffic control system, and the locomotive power classifications that became the model for those used by British Railways. The MR acquired other lines, including the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway in 1903 and
5372-400: The world, the site ceased production in the 1970s, but remained open as a stock-holding and distribution centre until 2003. In 2012 SITA UK started redevelopment of the site, but after construction workers were affected by mustard-gas type symptoms, the Ministry of Defence were called in to test and approve the site. However, after MoD approval, a few months later construction workers found
5451-427: Was designed by consulting engineers Benjamin Baker and John Wolfe-Barry , who had worked together on several dock projects, together with Baker’s partner A.C. Hurtzig, and C.A. Brereton. The docks run south to north along the banks of the River Severn , closer to that river than the existing Avonmouth Docks, and is the northernmost and largest of the three docks that form the Port of Bristol . Work began in 1902, when
5530-416: Was imposed through the medium of the Railway Executive Committee. The Midland retained its private sector independence, being given income to match 1913 levels, but was required to undertake huge volumes of military traffic, largely freight, with little opportunity to maintain the network and rolling stock. At the end of the war, the railways were worn out and it was obvious that resumption of pre-war business
5609-470: Was impossible. The Government passed the Railways Act 1921 by which all the main line railways were amalgamated into one or other of four new large concerns, in a process known as the "Grouping". The Midland Railway was a constituent of the new London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) from the beginning of 1923; it was the largest joint stock company in the world. The MR operated ships from Heysham to Douglas and Belfast . The coat of arms combines
5688-420: Was increasing, with new comfortable trains; and the mainstay of the line – goods, particularly minerals – was increasing dramatically. Allport retired in 1880, to be succeeded by John Noble and then by George Turner. By the new century the quantity of goods, particularly coal, was clogging the network. The passenger service was acquiring a reputation for lateness. Lord Farrar reorganised the expresses, but by 1905
5767-436: Was left with the traffic to Birmingham and Bristol , an important seaport. The original 1839 line from Derby had run to Hampton-in-Arden : the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway had built a terminus at Lawley Street in 1842, and on 1 May 1851 the MR started to run into Curzon Street . The line south was the Birmingham and Bristol Railway , which reached Curzon Street via Camp Hill . These two lines had been formed by
5846-595: Was progressing slowly through the Lake District, and there was pressure for a direct line from London to York. Permission had been gained for the Northern and Eastern Railway to run through Peterborough and Lincoln but it had barely reached Cambridge . Two obvious extensions of the Midland Counties line were from Nottingham to Lincoln and from Leicester to Peterborough. They had not been proceeded with, but Hudson saw that they would make ideal "stoppers": if
5925-628: Was proposed to make Avonmouth the UK centre of production of dichloroethyl sulphide , also known as mustard gas . However, its production was against the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 , which explicitly forbade the use of "poison or poisoned weapons" in warfare. Under the cover of the Official Secrets Act , the Ministry of Munitions under its then Minister Winston Churchill nationalised many small smelting works under
6004-518: Was shepherded to a nearby shed and the tracks were lifted. This episode became known as the "Battle of Nottingham" and, with the action moved to the courtroom, it was seven months before the locomotive was released. The London and Birmingham Railway and its successor the London and North Western Railway had been under pressure from two directions. Firstly the Great Western Railway had been foiled in its attempt to enter Birmingham by
6083-464: Was something that the other standard gauge lines wished to avoid, and they pledged to assist the MR with any losses it might incur. In the event all that was necessary was for the later LNWR to share Birmingham New Street with the Midland when it was opened in 1854, and Lawley Street became a goods depot. The MR controlled all the traffic to the North East and Scotland from London. The LNWR
6162-527: Was taken over by a group of British industrialists with interests in metals and chemicals, under whom it was revived. In 1929 the NSC was bought by Australia's Imperial Smelting Corporation, which in 1949 merged with Zinc Corporation to become Consolidated Zinc . After the consolidation, the smaller NSC plants were closed down to concentrate production on Avonmouth - now known as the Britannia smelting works - where
6241-968: Was used that same month during the breaking of the Hindenburg Line within the Hundred Days' Offensive . By November 1918, Chittening had produced 85,424 mustard gas shells. The human cost of producing mustard gas was high. In December 1918 the chemical plant's medical officer reported that in the six months it was operational, there were 1,400 illnesses reported by its 1,100 mostly female workers - all medically attributable to their work. Three people died because of accidents, four died from associated illnesses, and there were 160 accidents resulting in over 1,000 burns. At Chittening there were reported 1,213 cases of associated illness, including two deaths which were later attributed to influenza . After World War I, demand for zinc and for sulphuric acid greatly fell, and after running into commercial difficulties it
#554445