The Ambergate, Nottingham and Boston and Eastern Junction Railway (AN&B&EJR) was a British railway company, which hoped to connect Lancashire with the port of Boston, in Lincolnshire, England. It was authorised in 1846 but was unable to raise much money. It opened a standard gauge line from a junction near Nottingham to Grantham in 1853. At Nottingham it was to rely on the Midland Railway, but that company was hostile and obstructive.
The Ambergate company was leased to the Great Northern Railway in 1855, and they built their own Nottingham station, opened in 1857. In 1860 the company changed its name to the Nottingham and Grantham Railway and Canal Company. In 1875 the Great Northern Railway opened a line into Derbyshire and the former Nottingham to Grantham line became an important trunk route, particularly for goods and mineral traffic.
The original line from Colwick to Grantham is still in use as the Nottingham–Grantham line. The freight traffic has greatly diminished, but the line is used for long distance passenger trains between Liverpool and Norwich, as well as from Nottingham to Skegness.
Origins
In the speculative days of railway mania, many railways were proposed and much investors' money was committed to railway schemes. Surveys were carried out, and parliamentary draughtsmen were employed, not always prudently.
The Ambergate, Nottingham and Boston and Eastern Junction Railway was authorised on 16 July 1846 by the (9 & 10 Vict. c. clv) to build a line linking the manufacturing districts of Lancashire with the collieries of Nottinghamshire, and the port of Boston, Lincolnshire. A partner in this scheme was the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway, authorised on the same day. It was to connect Cheadle (now Cheadle Hulme) on the London and North Western Railway south of Stockport, and Ambergate. The was itself a combination of two railways authorised in the 1845 session of Parliament, but not yet built: the , and the .
By the act, the Grantham Canal and the Nottingham Canal companies were to be acquired by the Ambergate company on completion of certain administrative processes.
In 1839 the Midland Counties Railway had opened a line at Nottingham; the station there was at Carrington Street.The present-day station was built in 1904. In 1844 the company merged with others and formed the Midland Railway, and in 1846 its line to Lincoln was opened.
The through route would rely on running over the Midland Railway from Bulwell to Colwick, a distance of about crossing Nottingham.The last into Nottingham from Ambergate would be joint with the Midland, and the first three miles out towards Colwick would be on the Midland Railway's Lincoln branch, according to Wrottesley, volume 1 page 69
Construction and opening
Following the peak of the railway mania, there was a collapse in confidence in railway schemes, and money was almost impossible to come by for some time. In 1849 Parliament granted an extension of time, and permitted the proposed lines west of Nottingham and east of Grantham to be abandoned. The company managed to build from Colwick Junction (where it left the Midland Railway's Nottingham to Lincoln line) to a temporary station at Grantham adjacent to the canal basin near Dysart Road. The Great Northern Railway was being constructed at the time but had not reached Grantham yet. Sidings and a warehouse were constructed at Colwick. The engineer was John Underwood.
The double-track line opened for passengers on 15 July 1850, with goods trains starting one week later. There were four trains each way daily, with two on Sundays. E B Wilson & Co were the contractors for working the line at first, but Neale & Wilson of Grantham took over after a period.Leleux says (page 124) "The initial service of four trains each way daily proved too optimistic, being reduced to one daily after a fortnight." This seems an extraordinary move. For two years it was the only railway at Grantham.
Prospective purchasers
Notwithstanding its shaky finances, the Ambergate line was an attractive potential acquisition for a larger company. The Great Northern Railway had offered to purchase it as soon as it was authorised as it would give useful access to Nottinghamshire, but the line's own directors refused, expecting its value to increase. Now in April 1851 the London and North Western Railway and the Midland Railway, working together, offered to acquire the company, offering 4% on its capital. The directors of the Ambergate company agreed, but the shareholders rejected the offer; this was probably due to the influence of Graham Hutchinson, a director of the GNR: he had foreseen the value of the Ambergate company to the GNR and had acquired a commanding number of shares.
Accordingly on 31 March 1852 the Great Northern company agreed to work the Ambergate company and pay 4% on its paid-up capital. This was agreed to by the proprietors on 19 May 1852, but the Midland Railway, whose offer had been rejected, arranged for an injunction against the proposed working arrangement, arguing that the funds of the GNR ought not to be used for such a purpose. The injunction was granted, and the intended arrangement could not proceed.
A battle at Nottingham The Ambergate company had been using a temporary station at the Old Canal Wharf at Grantham, waiting for the Great Northern Railway to open the main (joint) station in the town. The GNR did so and on 2 August 1852 the Ambergate trains transferred to the GNR station. The old Wharf reverted to goods station status. The GNR advertised a through passenger service from London to Nottingham, which was quicker than the existing LNWR and Midland Railway service. This was a through coach off the 11 a.m. departure from London King's Cross,Actually the Maiden Lane temporary station, which was referred to as "King's Cross" at the time. and the train was drawn by a GNR locomotive when it arrived at Nottingham. The Midland Railway management considered that this was in breach of the injunction, and forced the arriving locomotive into a disused shed at Nottingham, and removed the rails giving access to it. The GNR went to litigation; they had only hired the locomotive out to the Ambergate company, who were working the train with their own men. However the outcome of the legal proceedings was not decisive, and it was some considerable time before the locomotive was released.
The Midland Railway continued obstructive measures at Nottingham, and when through goods traffic from Nottingham to the Great Northern Railway system arrived on 19 August, it had to be carted to Colwick. Finally on 24 May 1853 a traffic pooling arrangement was agreed, and the hostility cooled off.
Nottingham access, and working by the Great Northern Railway
The Nottingham situation was intolerable, and in 1853 the Ambergate company applied for an act of Parliament for an independent line from Colwick into Nottingham. This failed in Parliament, but the following year a similar bill was passed as the (17 & 18 Vict. c. cxxxviii) on 3 July 1854. The Ambergate company could build a line from Colwick to a station in East Croft near London Road, together with a connection to the Midland Railway there.
The Ambergate company obtained a second act of Parliament, the (17 & 18 Vict. c. ccxiv) on 31 July 1854, allowing it to agree with the GNR to work the line or to lease it. The Midland secured a clause giving the Ambergate or the GNR five years to build their own station at Nottingham: the Midland station at Nottingham was not to be used by the Ambergate or the GNR (except for traffic working through to the west of Nottingham) after five years from the passing of the Act or when the Ambergate's own station was opened. The GNR and the Ambergate company agreed the working arrangement on 30 March 1855, effective three months later.Wrottesley; Leleux says "for 999 years as from 2 April 1855".
The new Nottingham station opened on 3 October 1857; it was called Nottingham London Road, and consisted of two passenger platforms with four intervening sidings. The company transferred its offices there in addition. There was a new engine shed, and the ancillary buildings were ready by March 1858. The connection to the Midland Railway at Colwick was severed by July 1857. The GNR paid for the installation of the electric telegraph on the line. From the opening of London Road, the GNR operated an omnibus service to the Midland station, and operated its own cartage in the town.Nottingham gained city status in 1897.
Anderson describes the London Road Low Level station:
[London Road] High Level station paled architecturally in comparison with the grand old Low Level terminus which faced it across a forecourt and service road. Though similarly constructed in red brick, the earlier building had an immensely complex frontage incorporating ample and vigorous stone embellishments such as balustrades, cornices and dripstones. Ornate gables and parapets were decorated with diaper patterning, the roof was crowned by a truncated spire capped with ornamental railings, and a projecting porte-cochere provided cover for waiting road carriages.
The Ambergate company changed its name to the Nottingham and Grantham Railway and Canal Company by the (23 & 24 Vict. c. xxxvi) of 15 May 1860. Soon afterwards the GNR exercised its option to lease the company. The annual rental was 4.125% on capital of £1,014,000. The agreement gave the GNR the right to purchase outright on payment of the capital at par, but this was never done.
Derbyshire Extension Railway
The Great Northern Railway got its Derbyshire Extension Bill through Parliament as the Great Northern Railway (Derbyshire and Staffordshire) Act 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. cxxxix); it was mainly intended for mineral traffic. It left Colwick by a triangular junction, and swept round the north of Nottingham through Ilkeston and Derby as far as Burton upon Trent. It opened in 1875, and consolidated the position of Colwick as an important goods and mineral marshalling yard and depot.
Avoiding Grantham By the Great Northern Railway (Additional Powers) Act 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. xc) of 7 July 1873 the GNR obtained powers to construct the Sedgebrook and Barkstone Junction line. (The railway used the spelling "Barkstone" until December 1916.) This was built with the main aim of simplifying the movement of coal from Nottinghamshire to Lincolnshire without reversal at Grantham. It was originally planned to extend from Allington Junction, near Sedgebrook on the Nottingham and Grantham line, to a junction with the main line at Barkston, south of the junction with the Boston and Sleaford line. However on 10 January 1874 a passenger train from Boston overran signals at that junction, and fouled the path of an up Anglo-Scottish express service. The engine of the express struck the branch train's carriages and then grazed wagons of a passing down train. The fireman and a passenger were killed. As a result it was decided to take the new line under the main line north of Barkston station and make the junction directly with the Boston line, a deviation authorised by the Great Northern Railway Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. cx) of 29 June 1875.
The new bridge was completed on 18 January 1875; the line was made double-track, from Allington Junction to Barkston East Junction. The line opened on 29 October 1875, with three freight trains each way daily; it was soon used extensively in summer by passenger trains from Nottingham and Leicester to the resort town of Skegness. There were no intermediate stations or signal boxes but the long section was broken in May 1883 by opening a signal box at Marston, from Allington Junction.