The railway revolution and its impact on our ancestors.

[coombs]

In the mid 1840s the railways boomed, and it made travelling around the UK for our ancestors much easier and faster. Actually the speeds of the trains was about 30 to 40mph so for example a train ride from Oxford to London in say 1860 probably took only a couple of hours.

For instance a Birmingham resident who wanted to move to London in 1855 could be in London in just a few hours on the train journey.

In 1851 my ancestor is listed as a railway labourer in Oxford in that year's census, as was a neighbour of his. I wonder if he was helping build the Birmingham And Oxford Junction Railway which opened fully in October 1852 (after the first phase, the Oxford to Banbury section opened in 1850). He may have just been a goods labourer though.

[BumbleB]

Do you have him in 1841 and/or 1861?  Does his occupation possibly have anything to do with railways in those censuses?

[coombs]

Do you have him in 1841 and/or 1861?  Does his occupation possibly have anything to do with railways in those censuses?

In 1841 he is an "M.S" so male servant. In 1861 he is a cricketer.
In his 1850 and 1852 children's baptisms he is just said to be "labourer", same for his 1855 and 1857 children's baptisms. So probably hard to say if he worked in railway construction or just a general labourer such as goods/maintenance or so. Or he may have only worked at the railways temporarily. TNA may have info on any surviving Birmingham to Oxford Junction workers records.

Looking at adjacent pages of the 1851 census the enumerator goes into a bit more detail about labourers, such as "in a coffee house" or "at a warehouse".

[BumbleB]

Not easy, then!

[coombs]

Seems not.

On another note one 3xgreat grandmother moved from a village just outside Oxford to Oxford then later to London then to Foulness in Essex in 1866. She had a sister in Bilton, Rugby. I am sure she would have gone to see her up there occasionally, or her sister came to Essex, and the whole journey would take about 6 hours if you factor in the journey from Essex to London, then having to get to the relevant London railway station (maybe Euston) to take her to Rugby.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Probably take nearly as long now.

[Caw1]

I have one side of my family who were involved with the railways almost from the beginning… I can tell where they moved around with the births of children who were recorded in many different towns along the routes.
The men of this side were all Boiler makers and that included the ones who moved to Australia!
So if anyone has family with the surname Harris ( later it became Harriss) we could be related! Also with the surname Austin.
It’s been a fun journey ( excuse the pun) following them around the country from Essex to Wiltshire and further north!

Caroline

[KGarrad]

My Great-Grandfather, Abraham Garrad (1843-1897) born Braintree, Essex worked at various railway stations.
First at Maldon, Essex (1861 census), then at Melton, Suffolk (1871 census).
He then moved west and, by 1881 was to be found at Midsomer Norton, Somerset.
He stayed with the Somerset & Dorset Railway for the rest of his life.
In 1891 he was the Stationmaster at Shillingstone (aka Shilling Okeford).
His death was in 1897 at Pylle, Somerset.

My maternal great-grandfather moved from Kent to South Wales by train, looking for work.
His family and goods followed, but furniture was largely destroyed on the journey.

[andrewalston]

Speed was something which drove the construction of the world's first inter-city railway, the Liverpool and Manchester line. Business people could travel from one place to the other for a meeting, and then return the SAME DAY.
 
I have a branch which went into the railways early, and moved around.
Thomas Dunbabin was born in 1818 at Sutton Weaver in Cheshire. By 1841 he was an Engine Tenter (fireman) at Derby, headquarters of the Midland Railway.
His first child was born at Brentwood in Essex in 1843. Brentwood at this time was the temporary terminus of the Eastern Counties Railway, which later became part of the Great Eastern. The following year he was back in Derby. He then returned to East Anglia, re-marrying in Wisbech following the death of his first wife. By 1851 he was settled in King's Lynn, Norfolk, where he died in 1894.
His brother George also went engine driving. In 1851 he was at Burton on Trent. He is recorded at Fenton in Stoke-on-Trent, Lowestoft in Sufflok, Orpington, Canterbury and Sydenham (all in Kent), Fulham in Middlesex, Olney in Buckinghamshire, and ended up at Sharpness Docks on the Severn estuary, where he died in 1897.

One of my great grandfathers was born in Lancaster, his birth being registered on 8 Mar 1871. By the census, the family are in Barrow in Furness, too far to walk but straightforward by train. His father died in Ulverston; his mother died 38 years later back in Lancaster. Several families I've researched also appear to "commute" along the north side of Morecambe Bay.

If there was work, there was a train to get you there.