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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2023
The year 1851 found Bedfordshire served by four railways of which three were within the county boundaries. The fourth, the London & North Western, came close to the south-west of the shire and by means of its two branches was serving an area bounded by Woburn, Bedford, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard. The only main line within the county was the Great Northern, but this did not serve the county town, and Bedfordians wished to have a main line of railway running through their town. Bedford will always be regarded as a Midland Railway preserve and it would be profitable to examine the background and then the rise of the Midland.
The Midland Railway Company began as four small provincial railways which, after joining forces, decided to reach for London. The Midland Counties Railway, the Birmingham & Derby Junction Railway and the North Midland had all met at Derby. Amalgamation was the wisest policy, and the Midland Railway emerged in 1844. The tiny fourth constituent was the old Leicester & Swannington Railway which had started its life in 1832. It owed its beginning to John Ellis and George Stephenson, and its sixteen miles were devoted to the carriage of coal. The Leicester & Swannington had the wyvern of Mercia as its badge, and this the Midland adopted.
Already, in 1845 the Midland was thinking of further expansion. Leicester-Bedford-Hitchin suggested a good geographical route, and at Hitchin either the Direct Northern or the London & York would provide access to London. F. S. Williams in his Midland Railway; its Rise and Progress, states that the Leicester to Hitchin route was decided upon because of pressure put on the Midland Board by landowners at Market Harborough, Kettering and Bedford. Then there was the tempting iron ore traffic near Wellingborough, and south of Bedford, William Henry Whitbread was anxious to have the railway through his estate, offering the Midland land at no more than ￡70 an acre. However, other promoters had the same plans in mind.
During the period known as the Railway Mania three companies sent their surveyors over the Leicester to Hitchin route, while two others did the northern and southern halves respectively.
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