Description:The Sutherland Papers include a wide variety of documents relating to Wolverhampton’s railway history during the early nineteenth century. Sketch maps of the projected Birmingham to Liverpool railway at Wolverhampton from 1824 feature amongst the papers of William Lewis, the Leveson-Gower family’s Trentham Agent. In addition, the collection includes printed notices, letters and memoranda from the Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway Company from the 1840s relating to the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton railway line.
These documents reflect the development and expansion of the railway network at this time, particularly around centres of trade and industry such as Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The letters and printed notices sent to the Dukes of Sutherland indicate the importance of local landowners to the progress of the railways in the Midlands, the railway companies requiring written consent and legal permission to construct on property owned by wealthy individuals.
Many of the printed notices sent to the Dukes of Sutherland from the ‘Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway’ concern the construction of railway lines on land owned by the Leveson-Gower family. One notice dated 9th December 1844 informs George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), the second Duke, of an application made by the railway company to Parliament ‘for “An Act for making a Railway from Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, to Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, with Branches thereto, to be called ‘The Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway”'. The notice states that ‘the property mentioned’ in their proposal ‘required for the purposes’ of the railway line was land in which the Duke was ‘interested’.
On the reverse of the document are details about the land required to construct the railway line. This included pasture and a ‘cottage and garden’ in ‘the parish of Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford’. The document states that plans of the railway line had been deposited with the Clerks of the Peace in the County of Stafford for the Duke’s perusal and would be deposited with the Clerk of the parish of Wolverhampton for public inspection by the end of the month. The document asked the Duke to respond to the proposal as the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway Company were ‘required to report’ the results of the consultation to Parliament.
Click on the images on the left to learn more about the history of the railway in Wolverhampton.