'George Stephenson was the most important reason for the building of The Manchester to Liverpool Railway'. Do you agree?

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‘George Stephenson was the most important reason for the building of The Manchester to Liverpool Railway’. Do you agree?

        

Transport around the 1750s to the 1800s was slow and was not in favour of the fast growing English business. Especially in the 1750s where you only had the option of transporting your product and goods by the slow roads. This meant it was impossible for any up and rising businesses to become successful nationwide. This was because there were many risks transporting products on the roads as there was a high chance of crossing the path of a murderous and brutal highwayman and the roads themselves were made dangerous by overgrowth and deep ruts. All of this added to the fact that a normal coach carrying goods could only travel at 2 to 3 miles per hour. It was incredibly important that the up and coming businesses found a new way to transport their products so they could become successful all over the nation.

Eventually businesses joined together to form useful groups called Turnpike Trusts. Parliament gave these groups control over a certain section of road. Then the Turnpike Trusts would set up tollhouses along the section of road and charge the people who used it. The money the Trusts raised was used to either build new roads or improve the current ones. By 1830 there were over 1000 Turnpike Trusts controlling 22,000 miles of important roads over the nation. However, the Turnpike Trusts only controlled 22,000 miles of road out of 105,000 miles of road over England. John McAdam was one of the many road workers employed by the Turnpike Trusts to develop the roads. Even though the roads were being improved sufficiently and effectively the businesses still needed a quicker and more capable form of transport.

What the manufacturers really wanted was a method of transport that would open up the country to sell products like raw materials that up to now could only be sold reasonably locally. It was therefore very important that in 1765 and 1766, The Duke of Bridgewater built a canal from Manchester to Liverpool. Although this was only a slightly quicker form of transport it was a great indication of how British manufacturing had improved since 1750. However, the 46 mile canal had some problems; boats using the canal could be delayed by tides and storms in the Mersey. Also in winter the canal could be blocked by ice. Now two following canals were built for manufacturers in Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool to do major transporting of their products between each other. The two canals were called the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Mersey and Irwell Canal. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was 58 miles long (the longest of the three) and was mainly used to transport bulky goods such as coal, brick, lime and timber. The Mersey and Irwell Canal was 43 miles long and carried imported goods such as grain, stone, timber and coal. However the canal journey could take up to36 hours depending on the tide, wind and storms and nearer Manchester, the canal sometimes suffered from lack of water in the river.

However, by 1820 all kinds of raw materials which were due to be sent to towns like Manchester were piling up in the Liverpool docks, where they might be left for weeks. The traders complained that there were not enough barges, there were hold-ups at every lock, and the canal companies were charging very high rates. It was therefore desperately important that a vastly quicker and less congested form of transport was brought up for use in Northern England for the struggling businesses in and around Liverpool and Manchester. The businesses in Northern England were being barred from dealing nationwide and even over Western Europe because of the government’s blind eye towards manufacturing. The parliament did not wish to put forward any money or commitments for the British manufacturers to help develop the country’s international exports. There was at that time a lot of pressure from the factory owners and merchants for a new faultless method of transport.

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In 1822 a Provisional Committee of Liverpool and Manchester industrialists was set up to plan the building of a railway. They had heard that the first passenger railway in Britain built in 1807 was proving a big success in Oystermouth in South Wales. Also an engineer called George Stephenson was in the middle of opening the first passenger steam railway, between Stockton and Darlington which he eventually did in 1825. The committee investigated George Stephenson’s skills and work rate at Stockton and invited him to be the lead engineer for the Liverpool to Manchester Railway.

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