In the mid-nineteenth century the railway industry was exciting and new. Uttoxeter, like other towns, was busy developing its infrastructure to take account of the new opportunities. The Uttoxeter Canal had ceased to make money and the shareholders of the Trent & Mersey Canal signed an agreement with the North Staffordshire Railway company to exchange canal stock for NSR stock. The Uttoxeter Canal was abandoned in 1847 and part of the Churnet Valley Railway was laid on its site, linking Uttoxeter to Leek and Macclesfield. Another railway line was opened in August 1848, west towards Stoke and east towards Derby. A third line towards Stafford was surveyed and planned in 1845 but building did not start until 1861.
Along with these developments came three passenger stations – one at Bridge Street on the Stoke Uttoxeter line, one at Dove Bank on the Churnet Valley line, and one at the Junction near the racecourse, which also had a turntable for engines. Where did a small market town like Uttoxeter find enough people to staff such a new enterprise?
Of the forty-four people (all men) who identified themselves as railway workers of various kinds in the 1851 census for Uttoxeter only seven were born in Uttoxeter, twelve came from other parts of Staffordshire or Derbyshire, but the majority were from further afield. Six of these were boarders or lodgers, maybe only staying in the town for a short time. For example, the two station masters were lodgers – Edwin Stocker (aged 21) from Lancashire and Richard Bartlett (aged 32) from Oxfordshire. The railway station inspector, Henry Workman (aged 32), had been born in Gloucester and spent his early working life in London.
All of the skilled workers – guards, engine drivers, engineers, pointsmen, platelayers – had come to Uttoxeter in recent years (deduced by the birthplaces of their children) from Lancashire, Middlesex, Kent, Sussex and Cheshire. Thomas McNeal, a railway guard (aged 35) from Lancashire was living with his family, all of whom had been born in Lancashire except his last daughter, aged 2, who was born in Uttoxeter. George Douglas (aged 28), a railway engineer, from Middlesex had obviously spent some time in the north east. He came to Uttoxeter with his wife who was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; his 6 year old daughter and the family servant were born in Durham. Thomas Kemp, an engine driver (aged 31) was born in Kent, his wife was from Lancashire but his son had been born in France. It is perhaps unsurprising for a new industry that most of the workers were under the age of 35.
There were two exceptions to this youthful workforce – the railway gatekeeper at Balance Hill, William Crook, born in Devon, was 61. James Snape at the Hockley Road railway gate was also 61. Two other railway gatekeepers, however, at Spath and Crakemarsh were in their early 30s.
Among the less specialised railway occupations there were jobs for Uttoxeter men. Of the sixteen railway labourers, slightly fewer than half came from outside Staffordshire or Derbyshire. However, three men came from Ireland with their families to work as railway labourers. John Moore from County Tyrone was a labourer but his two sons worked as railway engine cleaners. The local counties supplied five of the seven railway porters, a railway clerk and railway agent, jobs which had more in common with traditional local work in a busy market town.
In the late-nineteenth century the railways continued to flourish and were well used by the local industries. A new station was opened in 1881 with four platforms serving all the main lines.
Sadly during the late 1950s and 1960s the lines to Leek and Stafford were closed and the only remaining railway is the Stoke Derby line.
Sources
1851 census for Uttoxeter
Alan Smith, revised by Helena Coney 2015, Railways in Uttoxeter (Unpublished Study)
Local History Lab 