Bristol and Exeter Railway
The Bristol & Exeter Railway was railway company formed to extend the
Great Western Railway from
Bristol to
Exeter.
The 1835 Act of Parliament which gave permission to build the GWR, 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/greed for trade, and partly to have access to a second port and avoid 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.
Encyclopedia
The Bristol & Exeter Railway was railway company formed to extend the
Great Western Railway from
Bristol to
Exeter.
The 1835 Act of Parliament which gave permission to build the GWR, 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/greed for trade, and partly to have access to a second port and avoid 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.
Branches were then opened to:
- Cheddar - 3 August 1869
- Clevedon
- Weston-super-Mare - 14 June 1841
- Tiverton
- Yeovil
- Chard
- Portishead
- Wells - 5 April 1870
- Barnstaple
- Minehead
In 1847 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 Mr George Hennet obtaining permission in the town to cast atmospheric pipes for the South Devon Railway, the B&ER 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 B&ER laid a mixed gauge along the line from Highbridge, Somerset to Bridgwater in a fruitless attempt to keep the Somerset & Dorset Railway out of Bridgwater. The line continued to Durston and along the Yeovil branch to the L&SWR.
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 absorbed by the Great Western Railway in 1874.
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