The railway revolution and its impact on our ancestors.

[MollyC]

John Shortridge was a stonemason by trade, who left Liverpool for Glossop about 1840, to work on building the railway to Sheffield.  He settled in Sheffield, probably built Wybourn House.  His eldest daughter Sarah was married 31 March 1851.  On the census she is still at home with the family, but father is absent.  But the census was 30 March, wedding next day, but no father?

He was found in a hotel in Covent Garden - "Public Works Contractor".  On the morning of the 31st he must have taken a cab to St. Pancras, travelled via the Midland railway to Eckington, N. Derbyshire; then changed on to his own railway (MS&L) to Sheffield Bridgehouses (temporary station) and taken a cab to Wybourn House - in time to get changed and escort Sarah to her wedding!  In the afternoon perhaps?

He had complete faith in the railway system as it then was.

[andrewalston]

Came across an ad in the Edinburgh Evening Courant in 1851, for the Caledonian Railway, which would go via Carlisle.
RETURN TICKETS TO LONDON AND BACK BY THE NIGHT MAILS EVERY EVENING
Return Tickets..
Leaving Edinburgh at 9.15pm and Glasgow at 9.5pm
FIRST CLASS £5, SECOND CLASS £4.
To return within 14 days by the Train leaving Euston at 8.45pm.

There were also special Excursion Trains every Friday evening with fares £4 and £3, with 3rd class at £2, return in either 7 or 14 days.

Assuming an average speed of 30mph, the 400-ish miles from Glasgow or Edinburgh would take less than 14 hours. Peak speeds could be in excess of 50mph, but fuel costs would be lower at less.

[Viktoria]

Whew!
When most working class people earned about 50 pence( ten shillings in those days ) a week that was expensive .
Granted some people did stay in their area but some did travel, for work.
Given that the Textile industry was leaving the home and going into mills ,
people had to travel as Cottage industries were dying out because broader cloth was wanted.
The oldest Railway Station in The World is in Manchester, it is very close to The Museum of Science and Industry.

Viktoria.

[coombs]

14 hours in 1851 from London to Scotland on a train, about 300 miles or so. That sounds right, and again it is nothing at all like sailing on a ship from London to Sydney in 1851, in a 12000 mile or more voyage to the other side of the world.

[andrewalston]

The reason I looked for 1851 was because that was the year of the Great Exhibition.

Research has revealed that people would put a little away each week (often in a "club") to pay for the visit to the Crystal Palace, and accommodation whilst in London.

Thomas Cook arranged for 150000 such visits.

[EdinKath]

I found Bradshaw's timetable for 1850 on this site: https://timetableworld.com/timetables.php
On p.96 it says London to Carlisle was 11.5 hours or 9.5 express and another 4 to Glasgow or Edinburgh.
I can't find the fares from London but (if I'm reading it right) Carlisle to Glasgow was 13s 2d in second class. Would there have been children's fares then? It's a long journey to be in the baggage car if the kids were posted!

[MollyC]

That's useful.  Bradshaw's 1850 (pp 64, 82) allows me to trace John Shortridge's journey at #18 above.  First departure was from Euston Square at 6.15am.  There was a 20 minute pause at Derby - for coal and water? - arriving Eckington 1.50pm, depart 1.58pm.  It is not clear what time the connection arrived in Sheffield, probably before 2.30pm.
If he had stayed on the Midland and travelled via Rotherham, then 6 miles back to Sheffield (Wicker), he would not have arrived until 2.50pm.

A late afternoon wedding I think.

[Andy J2022]

I'd be very surprised if the hotel owner filled in the census form on the Sunday which was the actual census day. I imagine the guests would have been asked if they would be there on Sunday in the week leading up to the census. If that was the case then he could have taken a train on Sunday and have been at the wedding with plenty of time to spare.

[MollyC]

So he might have been on the census twice.  The odd thing was the household at Wybourn House consisted of wife and children, cook and maid, followed by the eldest son Richard and his wife who had married the previous year.  They had been added at the end as if they had arrived late.  They lived in Barnsley, from which there was no through railway service yet, so had probably stayed the night.