Bristol and Exeter Railway

Exeter in 1844. William Spreat's print shows the original Exeter station before the South Devon Railway was opened.

The Bristol & Exeter Railway was a railway company formed to extend the Great Western Railway from Bristol to Exeter. The company's head office was situated outside their Bristol station. Designed by Samuel Fripp, it was opened in 1854.

In addition to the mainline from Bristol to Exeter (Devon), branches were opened to Clevedon, Cheddar and Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Chard, and Yeovil in Somerset, and to Tiverton, Devon. Trains were also provided for a number of independent railways: the Bristol and Portishead Port and Pier Railway, the Somerset Central Railway, the West Somerset Railway and Minehead Railway, the Devon and Somerset Railway, and the Exeter and Crediton Railway.

Chronology

• 1836 Bristol and Exeter Railway authorised by Act of Parliament
• 1841 Opened from Bristol to Bridgwater, also Weston branch
• 1842 Extended from Bridgwater to Taunton
• 1843 Extended to temporary terminus at Beam Bridge
• 1844 Main line completed to Exeter
• 1845 Independent Exeter station opened at Bristol
• 1847 Clevedon branch opened
• 1848 Tiverton branch opened
• 1849 Lease to Great Western Railway expires
• 1853 Yeovil branch opened
• 1854 Operation of Somerset Central Railway
• 1857 Yeovil branch extended to junction with Great Western Railway Weymouth line
• 1862 Exeter and Crediton Railway opened, operated by Bristol and Exeter Railway
• 1862 West Somerset Railway opened and leased to Bristol and Exeter Railway
• 1864 Exeter sttaion rebuilt
• 1865 Grand Western Canal purchased
• 1866 Chard branch opened; Weston station rebuilt
• 1867 Bridgwater and Taunton Canal purchased
• 1868 Taunton station rebuilt
• 1869 Branch opened from Yatton to Cheddar
• 1870 Branch extended from Cheddar to Wells
• 1871 Devon and Somerset Railway opened to Wiveliscombe, worked by Bristol and Exeter Railway
• 1872 Bristol Harbour Railway opened, jointly owned with the Great Western Railway
• 1873 Devon and Somerset Railway completed to Barnstable
• 1874 Minehead Railway opened, operated by Bristol and Exeter Railway
• 1875 Bristol to Taunton, Weston and Yeovil branches converted to mixed gauge; Wells branch converted to standard gauge
• 1876 Amalgamated with Great Western Railway

History

The 1835 Act of Parliament which gave permission to build the Great Western Railway, was quickly followed by another Act in 1836 for a separate railway company, when Bristol merchants pressed for a trade route with Exeter and the West. This was partly driven by the need and greed for trade, and partly to have access to a second port thus avoiding the North Cornish Coastline.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed engineer, and the first broad gauge section of the line was completed to Bridgwater on 14 June, 1841, and the extension to Taunton in July 1842 - both using trains leased from the Great Western. The line was completed to Exeter in 1844.

In 1849 the railway took over its workings from the Great Western and built carriage works at Bridgwater. Already established as a centre for railway engineering, by George Hennet obtaining permission in the town to cast atmospheric pipes for the South Devon Railway, the Bristol and Exeter Railway simply extended his works. The Hennet name continued to be linked to Bridgwater for many years, and was responsible for producing many waggons for various companies.

In 1867 the Bristol and Exeter Railway laid a mixed gauge along the line from Highbridge, Somerset to Bridgwater in a fruitless attempt to keep the Somerset and Dorset Railway out of Bridgwater. The line continued to Durston and along the Yeovil branch to the London and South Western Railway.

The Bristol & Exeter Railway was a reasonable financial success and between 1844 and 1874, paying an average annual dividend of 4.5 per cent. This was partly thanks to the merchants of Exeter, who refused the railway access to the dock of the Exeter Canal until 35 years after the railway entered the city in 1844. The railway built its own new dock, which could accommodate the new larger steam ships, and bankrupted the canal in 1867.

The railway was fully amalgamated with the Great Western Railway 0n 1 January 1876.

Stations

Locomotives

Main article Bristol and Exeter Railway locomotives.

Locomotives for the railway were provided by the Great Western Railway until its lease finished on 1 May 1849, after which the railway provided its own locomotives. Engine sheds were provided at major stations and on some branches, and workshops were established at Bristol in September 1854.

Charles Hutton Gregory was responsible for the locomotives until May 1850, when James Pearson was appointed as Locomotive Engineer. He designed several classes of tank engines, including his distinctive large 4-2-4T locomotives, the first of which were introduced in 1854.

External links

• About the Bristol & Exeter
• Summary of papers re the Bristol & Exter railway at the Library of the London School of Economics

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