The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-21 00:00:00

The Committee then adjourned till to-morrow at twelve o'clock.

GROUP XX.
LONDON, HOUNSLOW, AND WESTERN.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition of yesterday.)
Mr. Chapman, market-gardener of Isleworth, gave evidence to
the large traffic in vegetables between that locality and the London
markets.
Mr. Hammond, also of Isleworth, deposed as to the large amount
Of traffic.
The other witnesses examined were larainear. of lasentrord,
and mr. H. Stanbnry, whose evidence w generally ss toths largo
traffic in goods and passengers, andthe necessity there, extsta4 for lb.
present line of railway.
The Committee adjourned at four o'clock till to-morrow at twelve.

GROUP XXII.
vravENET VALLEY.

The Committee met this morning. Sir G. Grey, chairman.
Mr. Sergeant "Icarus' opened the case for the promoters of this
railway.
The Committee intimated their opinion, that they' would hear the
evidence of this line previous tb- giving their decisioriin the case of
Ipswich, Norwich, and Yarmouth Railway. The present line pro-
posed to commence at Yarmouth, and proceed unto DL+s.
Mr. Rambold, M.P.P. forYarmouth,
Yarmouth, was the first witness called,
who stated that there was a general feeling in Yarmouth in favour of
the line.
Mr. Blenherrish, chairman of the Beccles Sessions, also gave shni-
law evidence. •
Mr. Dare and Licit:Colonel Smith also gave evidence favourable
to the Waveney Valley Railway.
Mr. 3. Davy, accountant, Yarmouth, gave evidence of the large
amount of goods landed at Yarmouth. A greater proportion of
passengers now went to London by sea. He believed that this cir-
cumstance was owing to the great number of accidents which had
become so peculiarly the property of the existing Eastern Counties
line between Norwich and London.

Mr. Lincoln, a fish merchaut of Yarmouth, stated that by the pre-
senrinode of conveyance on the Norwich and Eastern Counties Rail-
way, it took longer to get his fish up to London than it formerly did
by his own vans. It took very nearly the whole of the day to get
his fish delivered by the railway.
The Committee then adjourned till twelve to-morrow.

GROE P XXVI.
SOUTH ESSEX.

This Committee resumed this morning; Mr. O'Connell in the chair.
They were occupied during the 'whole of the early part of the day in
hearing evidence given by residents between the Eastern Counties
line and the river Thames, who testified to the number of cattle sent
to London from that quarter, as also to the quantity of chalk con-
veyed by water to Battersea. The farmers complained chiefly of
the want of accommodation at the Shoretlitch station, and the pro-
prietors of the chalk showed that their article is sent from the pits to
Battersea for Is. 9d. a ton, while by the railway it cost 55., exclain
of cartage to the line.
Mr. Locke, the engineer, was then called by Mr. CocKarraN, Q.C.,
to show the course and qualities of the line. According to his evi-
dence, the line is to run a distance of 43 miles, from its
junction with the Blackwell extension line, to Wallasey
Island, and to he connected with a pier and harbour on the
coast, where it wends from the mouth of the Thames,
to the north, having branches tp Tilbury, opposite Gravesend and
to Southend. The country is a rich agricultural district, and offers
not the sligb test engineering difficulty. me proposed line would bring
Tilbury a mile and a half nearer to Fenehurch-street than the North
Gravesend line. The proposition of the company for the latter line
for a junction with the Blackwell terminus was impracticable, as it
Could only be carried out through the West India Docks, which of
course was absurd. The distance to Southend by the South Essex
line would be 381 A miles. In his opinion the North Gravesend Rail-
way was an unwise proposition, as the line would have to contend with
the cheap passenger traffic on the river, and with the North Kent
line, which had :M been sanctioned by Parliament, and was to run
Prom Greenwich to Gravesend. Part of the line to Wallasey Island
would be under high water mark ; but that was no objection, for such
Was the case with the whole of Holland, and there are already good
sea embankments.
After the conclusion of Mr. Locke's evidence, the Committee ad-
learned till to-morrvyr.

GROUP XXXII.
The Committee met this morning at 12 o'clock ; Mr. J. E. De.
nison in the chair.

CHELTENHAM AND OXFORD RAILWAY.
Mr. Thomas Sheldon gave evidence of the advantage which would
accrue to Cheltenham by the projected line, and went at length into
details of some opposition meetings held by a party of the townspeople
of Chelteham, and read some proposals tendered by the company
to secure the people against any inj ary;which property or wells might
sustain. He stated that the most of the property passed through by
the line in the town of Cheltenham was very inferior.
He was confirmed by Messrs. Enbb and Peckwood,
Dr. Gibney, a physician in Cheltenham, who had been connected
with the town hospital for twenty years, said he himself had
proposed by letter in the newspapers, in 1837, a line
to London very similar to that now before the Committee.
The proposed line passed the hospital, but at the very end of the
garden, so that it would be about forty yards further from it than
was the high street.
Col. Watson, who has property in ornamental parts of the town,
thought that these
as it passes by a deep cutting
parts would sustain no injury from the railway,
covered over. He had been among
the first to suggest the objection to the line from the damage it was
like to cause by the drainage of the wells, but he was now satisfied,
after much inquiry, that the objection was unfounded.
Mr. Gardiner, lord of the manor of Cheltenham, and possessed of
very much valuable property in High-street and Pittville, a com-
missioner also on the various public works of Cheltenham, gave
evidence in favour of the line.
Mr. Thomas Wright, one of the surgeons of the town hospital,
and who had given much attention to the geology of Chel-
tenham, said the town was supplied with water which
flews from the Cobeswood hills on the north side of the
town down into the sand on which the town is built, and that the
sand, reposing in a basin of lias, acts as a sponge, and retains
the water. Me did not believe that the cutting of the line would
affect this water, since, if the sides of the cuttings were built up, the
water retarded thereby would rise to an adequate level to supply the
town.

The Committee adjourned till twelve o'clock to-nierrow.

GROUP LIV.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition of yesterday.)

MUDZIAND (317211T0N-ON-TRENT TO NUN.

EATON AND BRANCHES).

Mr. Hildyard appeared in support of the Bill, and Mr. Sergeant
Allen ea the part of the Coventry Canal Company, petitioners against
the Bill.
Mr. HILDTAILD said that he would endeavour to be as brief
as possible. The present railway might be considered as a
line to be constructed from the Moira Collieries to Nun-
eaton. They proposed by this railway to afford the same
communication to the south that had already been afforded
to the east and west in the locale of the line by the preceding Bill.
It would join the London and Birmingham Railway, and open a
communication thence to the mineral wealth of the district
through which they would pass. The present mode of
transit by canal was thirty-nine miles, but by their railway
it would be only 28 miles. The distance in this case was not cer-
tainly diminished to the extent that it was in other instances ; but a
saving of 11 miles in the communication with a mineral district
was still a matter of no insignificant character. By the present mode
of communication by canal, Leamington was SO miles from the
Moira Collieries ; but the proposed railway would diminish the
distance to 32 miles, thereby effecting a saving of no less than 48
miles. He would take another town, namely, Banbury, which was
the centre of a most important rural district, and required a much
more bountiful supply of coals, and at a cheaper rate than it at present
possessed. A saving of 55 miles from the Moira Collieries to this
town would he effected by the imyeeepa tine. The distance to
Aylesbury from the same point would be reduced to 45 Miles. A .
Leighton Buzzard there would be a saving from these collieries of
40 miles, the distance by canal being 113 miles, while by railway it
would be only 73 miles. There were a great many other
places which would receive similar advantages from this
railway, but he would not occupy the time of the Com-
mittee by even enumerating them—such being the benefits
that would result from the construction of this railway and the pro-
posed amalgamation with the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal, as far as the
mineral wealth contained in that district was concerned. There
were certainly objections offered to this scheme. In the first place,
it was alleged that the proposed amalgamation of the Ashby-dc-la-
Zouch canal would operate injuriously on certain interests.
But as he had already shown that the direction of that
canal was through a highly important district, he trusted that the
principle laid down as related to those amalgamations would in-
fluence the Committee, and that they would consider the objections
urged upon this ground valueless. There were also objections on
the part of the landowners, said certainly Lord Hewe had a perfect
right to petition against this line, but the Committee would
perceive that the advantages which this line held forth were such as
to overpower objections purely private. In conclusion, he had to state
that he would not trouble the Committee with any detailed evidence
as to the mineral traffic on this line.
Mr. J. Manors, agent to the Marquis of Hastings, was examined by
Mr. MacArLEY, to show that the distance at present from several
places on the line, owing to the mode of transit by canal from the
Moria Collieries, diminished the demand for coals from that district.
The Committee adjourned at four o'clock till to-morrow, when the
hearing of the evidence on the part of the Bill will be resumed.

GROUP I.V.

MANCHESTER, suErrxELD, AND MXII

LAND TUNCTION.

The Committee (Mr. Shaw in the chair) resumed this morning at
twelve o'clock, when
Mr. Fowler, engineer of the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction
line, was called by Mr. WILATELEY, Q.C.—He stated that, according
to his estimate, the line proposed by Mr. Vignoles was exceedingly
bad, the gradients severe, and the cost of it would be 113,0001., and a
great difficulty would be experienced in the accumulation of water at
Dronfield during wet weather. This difficulty could only be obviated
by a sort of zigzag line over the brook there.s
To the cross-examination of Mr. ADAMS, the witness stated that
lie had been in practice eight years, and had constructed the Stockton
and Darlington Railway and the Clarence Railway. His opinion was
that the earthworks on the line of the present promoters would be
immense, and the gradients worse than on any other line with which
he was acquainted. He had taken the average of eight of the prin-
cipal lines in the kingdom, and found that the average of their returns
gave 621. per mile per week. The Great Western, which showed the
highest rate, returned 81/. per mile; and the Newcastle and Shields
line, which showed the lowest, made 281. per mile; the Midland
Counties line returned 62/. per mile—just the average—while it
would require 1251. per mile on the proposed Sheffield and Chester-
field line to obtain the seven per cent. dividend which the promoters
anticipated. The line would peas through or over no less than 39
streets in the town of Sheffield, and the station in the town itself
would be 18 feet above the level of the street. The ground to be oc-
cupied is all building ground. The Sheffield and Bakeweil line had
also bad tunnels and very severe gradients, gradients much more se-
vere than these of the East Lincolnshire line.
Mr. Locke, the engneer, was called to show that the means of
communication between the Sheffield and Manchester line and this
line would be highly inconvenient.
Mr. Harrison, tor thirty years a valuer at Sheffield, stated that he
had valued the property in the town of Sheffield, and estimated it at
more than 850,9001. He further said that it would destroy more
than 470 housse, including public-houses and taverns, 77 workshops,
and 27 manufactories. The line, however, passed through the worst
part of the town.:
Mr. Fowler, sen., had valued all the rest of the line, and estimated
to the junction beyond Chesterfield at something more than 59,0001.,
and on to Bakewell at a total of 85,0001.
Mr. WDATELET then addressed the Committee on the general
merits of the case referring to the defeat of the Bill last year, and
deprecating the supposition that the Duke of Norfolk's opposition was
induced by any merely personal motives.
On the conclusion of Mr. WHATELET'S address, the Committee
took the next opposing line.
The CHAIRMAN explained that the statements had not been given
In, as they ought to have been, two days before the Committee sat.
MANCHESTER AND HYDE.

Mr. WORDSWORT H opened the else of the promoters by stating that
this was a line between the two places of six miles in length: In
1821 the population through which the line passed was 13,000, m
1841 it was over 27,000, comprising large manufacturers of cotton
and hats. The contemplated expense was 150,0001. one half of which
was provided by the residents locally interested in the line, and the
other half by the Manchester and Birmingham Company, confessedly
the persons who were the best judges of the necessities for the line.
The opposition offered this line was but small, and chiefly offered
by the proprietor of Bellevue Gardens, a place of resort for pleasure
by the inhabitants of Manchester. Some, however, of the residents
in that neighbourhood were anxious for the destruction of these
gardens, though that was not Use 'picot of the promoters, who were
quite desirous of giving every recompense to the present holder.
The whole of this district was occupied by extensive manufacturers of
cotton and hats. There is still further a large coal field at Denton,
the proprietor of which, the Earl of Wilton, was a petitioner is
favour of the Bill. This coal would be exceedingly useful, and was
indeed now much used in the factories in Manchester. The
Learned Cotmsel then stated the opposition of the several newly pro-
posed lines.
Mr. Hempson, land-steward to the Earl of Wilton, was called to
show the existence of coal, and the inclination which his Lordship
felt for this line. The manufacture of hats at Denton had much
declined of late, from the great substitution of silk hats, but the
people are anxious to enter upon the manufacture of cotton, for
which the place was well adapted, and which was likely to succeed
if the facilities of railway communication were obtained.
The Comlnittee then adjourned till to-morrow.