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Abstract
A new law, enacted in 1861, regulated traction engine use on British roads: setting speed limits and introducing a mechanism for imposing ‘Banning Orders’. People opposed to engine danger or nuisance could apply to government for a daytime ban covering roads in their area. From 1862, Banning Orders increasingly handicapped work with ‘agricultural locomotives’. A ‘self-propelling engine’ used for ploughing could not even travel in daytime by road from one field to another where a ban was operative. Campaigning and lobbying brought about legislative change. A new, 1865, law cut speed limits further and combatted engine ‘nuisance’ by requiring a person to walk sixty yards in advance, carrying a red flag to warn of the engine’s approach. The advance lookout was also to signal the engine to stop whenever alarm to horses on the road looked likely. In its time a sensible precautionary measure or an obstacle to technological progress?
Acknowledgments
My grateful thanks to the Museum of English Rural Life for illustrations and use of the Archive there, to Parliamentary Archives for valuable assistance with advice and document supply, to the British Library and to Senate House Library in London – also to the British Newspaper Archive online resource for wide-ranging insights into 1860s ‘cut-and-thrust’ arguments over locomotives on the road.
Notes on contributor
John Agnew worked in the NHS as a medical physicist. He has an MA in Victorian Studies (from Birkbeck) and has previously written about the 1862 London International Exhibition and about early trials (1856–1861) of heavy haulage traction engines. He has also published a paper on the development (1836–1850) of new schools for children working in the factories of a northern industrial town.
Correspondence to: John Agnew. Email: [email protected]
Notes
1 Standard, 2 May 1865, p. 5. The quotation comes from the paper’s morning edition - alongside its ‘own correspondent’ report on Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
2 Standard, 13 August 1829, p. 3. Hounslow, now a London suburb, is roughly 12 miles from central London; Goldsworthy Gurney was probably one of the most publicity conscious of steam-vehicle developers - by 1829 the Duke of Wellington was in his second year as UK Prime Minister.
3 W. Fletcher, History and Development of Steam Locomotion on Common Roads (London: Spon, 1891), p. 49; pp. 56–57: One early morning trial run (on Tottenham Court Road and City Roads was carried out at 8–10 miles an hour; another journey - greeted with 'cheering' - was through Oxford Street (temporarily cleared of horses and other vehicles).
4 W. Hancock, Narrative of Twelve Years' Experiments .. on the Practicability and Advantage of Steam-Carriages on Common Roads (London: John Weale,1838), p. 9.
5 J. F. Bayes and J. Roberts, 'Turnpike Roads from Gloucester to Cheltenham and Tewkesbury', Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology Journal (1971), 74–84. The Turnpike Trust may have been motivated by fear of road damage or of losing the horse-drawn traffic toll payments it needed to pay for its statutory duty of road maintenance.
6 Hancock, pp. 45–46; Morning Advertiser, 4 May 1833, p.3; the driver of 'Paddington omnibus, No. 3,296' was found guilty of 'driving against, and wantonly damaging' the steam-carriage.
7 Morning Advertiser, 22 June 1836, p. 4: from mid-May to mid-June, Hancock's carriage made 42 City-Paddington trips and 116 City-Islington trips - with a total of 2980 passengers.
8 Mechanics' Magazine, 23 (1835), 381–2.
9 Mechanics' Magazine, 23 (1835), 382–3; the Maudsley and Field vehicle was built in collaboration with Charles Dance; both London-Marlborough accounts underlined the need for frequent water replenishment - preferably with clean water!
10 Examples of news reports on accidents (some serious, some not) can be found in issues of the Morning Post: 10 September 1827 (p. 3), 13 August 1830 (p. 3), 21 June 1831 (p. 3), 19 July 1832 (p. 4), 26 August 1833 (p. 33), 4 August 1834 (p. 6), 8 September 1834 (p. 4), 5 July 1836 (p. 7), 25 November 1840 (p. 4); accounts of a boiler failure causing no harm and of an explosion due to a workman - against orders - wiring down a relief valve can be found in Hancock, pp. 28–29, 30–34.
11 F. T. Evans, ‘Steam Road Carriages of the 1830s: Why did They Fail?’ Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 70 (1998), 1–25.
12 B. R. Mitchell, 'The Coming of the Railway and United Kingdom Economic Growth,' Journal of Economic History, 24 (1964), 315–336 (p. 332).
13 J. Agnew, ‘Steam Engines for Heavy Haulage on Common Roads - Early Trials and Early Apprehensions: 1856–1861,’ International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, 87 (2017), 64–80.
14 W. McAdam, 'Boydell's Traction Engine,' Engineer, 3 (1857), 442–3; the journey took about 3 days.
15 Kentish Gazette, 16 February 1858, p. 6; parts of the hill ascended had a gradient of 1 in 7.
16 24 & 25 Vict., c.70. An Act for regulating the Use of Locomotives on Turnpike and other Roads, and the Tolls to be levied on such Locomotives and on the Waggons and Carriages drawn or propelled by the same. [August 1861] - official abbreviated title: The Locomotive Act 1861.
17 No Orders were imposed in Scotland; the Act did not apply to Ireland.
18 Standard, 2 May 1865, p. 5.
19 Table 1 reproduces, verbatim, Clause 5 of the Locomotive Act 1861.
20 Home Secretary Sir George Gray, later addressing a delegation hostile to Banning Orders declared he had no alternative to imposing an Order if he received confirmatory evidence: ‘When any application was made to him from persons competent to express an opinion, and that application was supported by a statement of facts, his practice was to refer the matter to the chief constable of the district, and if his reports should confirm the statement, he felt bound to act in the manner prescribed by the Act.’ (Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 13 February 1865, p. 5).
21 The Orders in the figure come from London Gazette issues 22616 (11 April 1862) and 22779 (13 October 1863).
22 Morning Post, 2 April 1862, p. 6.
23 Leeds Mercury, 3 April 1862, p. 3.
24 Hansard, 11 April 1862, 166, cc856-7.
25 Daily News, 12 April 1862, p. 2.
26 Glasgow Herald, 28 April 1862, p. 4.
27 The Times, 25 August 1862, p. 7.
28 Ibid.
29 J. Wilson, Agricultural Implements, Record of the International Exhibition, 1862, ed. by R. Mallet (Glasgow: William Mackenzie, 1862), pp. 121–149.
30 International Exhibition of 1862, Illustrated Catalogue of the Industrial Department, British Division - Vol. 1 (London, 1862), Class IX, pp. 1–113.
31 W. J. Hughes, A Century of Traction Engines (London: Percival Marshall, 1959), pp. 76–89.
32 Illustrated Catalogue, p. 3.
33 Ibid, p. 92.
34 Ibid, pp. 14, 30; Burrell’s were licensed under Fowler’s patent.
35 Farmer’s Magazine, 18, 1860, p. 346. The initials “R.S.B.” at the foot of the article identify its author as Robert Scott Burn, editor of a Year-book of Agricultural Facts and author of works on farming, engineering and technical drawing.
36 Wilson, pp. 123, 125.
37 Ibid, pp. 123–124.
38 Dundee Advertiser, 26 November 1862, p. 2. The account of steam ploughing at work (using a Fowler traction engine) forms part of a detailed report of a visit to Lord Kinnaird’s Kingston farm (between Dundee and Perth); this also talks glowingly of the ‘truly wonderful’ progress of Scottish agriculture over the preceding ‘sixty or eighty years’.
39 Ibid.
40 Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 12 September 1864, p. 8 (reporting the judges’ report from the Bengal Agricultural Exhibition); Gardeners’ Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 4 March 1865, p. 204 (an article on ‘pulverising and deep stirring the soil in Egypt’).
41 C. Miller, ‘The Gloucestershire Steam Plough Company, 1860-2’, Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Transactions, 99, 1981, pp. 141–156.
42 Ibid.
43 Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 4 June 1862, p. 3.
44 Glasgow Daily Herald, 2 September 1863, p. 5.
45 The Scotsman, 17 September 1864, p. 2.
46 Morning Journal (Glasgow), 14 August 1862, p. 2.
47 Brighton Guardian, 17 May 1865, p. 5.
48 Norfolk Chronicle, 10 October 1863, p. 6.
49 Bury and Norwich Post, 13 October 1863, p. 7.
50 The material used in constructing Figure 4 was obtained by a search (1862 to 1865) through the London Gazette website; county outlines in the map are from the helpful and informative County-Wise (free to use) website.
51 Globe, 29 December 1863, p. 2; Sun, 29 December 1863, p. 2.
52 Kentish Gazette, 5 January 1864, p. 70. Aveling and other engine owners (there by invitation - perhaps indicating the Board’s concern over the issue) withdrew before the vote on the motion.
53 Published in the London Gazette, 8 January 1864.
54 Kentish Gazette, 19 January 1864, p. 6.
55 Kentish Gazette, 26 January 1864, p. 4.
56 Kentish Gazette, 13 December 1864, p. 4.
57 Kentish Gazette, 14 February 1865, p. 3.
58 Dover Telegraph, 23 July 1864, p. 5.
59 Preston Chronicle, 3 October 1863, p. 6.
60 Leeds Mercury, 3 January 1865, p. 3; as with Eastry, again, an Order obtained by a minority, reportedly with Chief Constable support despite later doubt (Leeds Mercury, 13 February, 1865, p. 3) whether this ‘gallant Chief Constable who has so great an objection to the use of these steam engines, has ever seen one’ - again a situation analogous to that in Kent.
61 Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 6 March 1865, p. 5.
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid.
64 Leeds Times, 18 February 1871, p. 5.
65 Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 6 March 1865, p. 5.
66 Bedfordshire Mercury, 31 December 1864, p. 4.
67 Ibid.
68 Leeds Mercury, 4 February 1865, p. 5.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 South Eastern Gazette, 14 February 1865, p. 2; Thomas Aveling is listed among those present.
72 The Times, 11 February 1865, p. 5.
73 Globe, 11 February 1865, p. 4; Standard, 13 February, 1865, p. 3; Dover Express, 18 February 1865, p. 4.
74 The Bill (Ordered to be printed, 10 March 1865) was ‘brought in’ by three MPs - one took the lead steering it through the Commons.
75 The rules applied to every ‘Locomotive propelled by Steam or any other than Animal Power’ to be used on any ‘Turnpike Road or public Highway’.
76 Part of Rule 3 (keeping to the right-hand side of the road) was deleted before the first amended version of the Bill, 26 April 1865).
77 To traction engine enthusiasts ‘public safety’ probably meant over-exaggerated fears of meeting engines by day on the public highway.
78 Hansard, 26 April 1865, cc1060-71.
79 The Locomotives Act, 1865, (28 & 29 Vict. c. 83, An Act for further regulating the Use of Locomotives on Turnpike and other Roads for agricultural and other Purposes, 5th July 1865).
80 Ibid, Section 12 covered the right to recover damages.
81 T. Aveling, Road Locomotives. An Epitome of the New Road Locomotive Acts, for the Use of Owners and Drivers (London, 1865) - a small (32 page) booklet.
82 Farmer’s Magazine, 28, 1865, p. 268; the Epitome material appeared just below an important and timely contribution on ‘Cattle Plague’ - and omitted Rule 1 (three attendants, one more if hauling waggons), possibly from page space shortage.
83 New local Orders were soon imposed in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk - (Bury Free Press, 11 November 1865, p. 4), Cambridge (Cambridge Independent Press, 14 October 1865, p. 1), Dover (Dover Telegraph, 18 November 1865, p. 4), London (Morning Advertiser, 11 November 1865, p. 1) and Stoke-upon-Trent (Staffordshire Advertiser, 9 September 1865, p. 1). Four of these reiterated the 2 mph speed limit; one allowed engine movement only between 3 and 8 a.m., the others night-time movement until 6, 7 or 9 a.m.
84 Select Committee on Locomotives on Roads, Report Ordered to be Printed, 18 July 1873.
85 Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878; Locomotives Amendment (Scotland) Act, 1878.
86 Western Gazette, 7 November 1879, p. 4.
87 Daily News, 16 November 1896, p. 6.
88 The Graphic, 21 November 1896, p. 638.
89 D. Grace, ‘The Agricultural Engineering Industry’, in The Agrarian History of England and Wales 7, ed. by E. J. T. Collins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 1000–1018, p. 1004.
90 See, for instance, J. J. Mechi, How to Farm Profitably, 4th edn (London: Routledge, Warne & Routledge, 1864).
91 Grace, p. 1001.
92 C. W. Johnson, The Farmer’s Encyclopaedia (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1842), p. 1159: With traditional flail-work, health damage would be caused by ‘the dust, &c., which arises’ and ‘the extreme laboriousness of the work’. Moreover, for ‘the farmer on an extensive scale the thrashing-machine is an absolute necessary (sic). He cannot wait for the tedious operation of the flail to prepare a delivery of corn for a given day’ even if on small farms the flail would give ‘employment to the labourers in the barn during wet days, and the convenience of having fresh straw for fodder every day.’ (‘Thrashing’, rather than ‘threshing’ was common usage.)
93 D. Brown, Steam on the Farm (Marlborough: Crowood Press, 2008), p. 169.
94 How to Farm Profitably, p. 113.
95 Ibid., pp. 113, 502.
96 Ibid., p. 503.
97 Steam on the Farm, p. 169.
98 Morning Post, 16 April, 1864, p. 3; Morning Advertiser, 16 April 1864, p. 6. These quotations came amidst extensive details of a visit by General Garibaldi, who also witnessed steam ploughing in operation at the Howards’ nearby farm.
99 Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 29 May 1865, p. 5.
100 P. Dewey, Iron Harvests of the Field (Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 2008), pp. 79–80.
101 ‘Steam Engines for Heavy Haulage’, pp. 74–77.
102 L. T. C. Rolt, Waterloo Ironworks: A History of Taskers of Andover, 1809–1968 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1969), pp. 85–90.
103 Hampshire Telegraph, 5 June 1869, p. 7.
104 Hampshire Advertiser, 26 June 1869, p. 6.
105 Hampshire Chronicle, 6 June 1868, p. 8. For summer months, the ban operated from seven in the morning to eight in the evening; in winter months from eight in the morning to seven in the evening.
106 Hampshire Chronicle, 26 June 1869, p. 5.