(A short History)
The South Staffordshire Railway like many Mid-Victorian railways had a short life. It came into being at a time of “Railway Mania” in the 1840’s/50’s many small railways sprang up, in fact over 200 of them in this period of history. Many were quickly absorbed into larger groups. In 1844 the Midland Railway was formed from the North Midland, Midland Counties and the Birmingham & Derby Junction railways. The London & North Western Railway was formed in 1846 from the Manchester/Birmingham, London/Birmingham and the Grand Junction railways. The Grand Junction railway itself was only opened in1837. However all these railways ran on the same standard gauge track (4 feet & 8½ inch). The Great Western Railway at this time ran on 7 feet & ¼ inch tracks, there was extreme completion for which gauge would survive. The GWR had reached Wolverhampton with their 7ft+ track. The two newly formed railways (MR and L&NWR) got together with local industrialist and investors to raise capital for a standard gauge railway to run north eastwards joining both MR & L&NWR lines between Lichfield and Walsall. The South Staffordshire Railway ran from Wychnor to Dudley Port via Lichfield, Hammerwich, Brownhills and Walsall. This would deter the GWR from ranging further north with their 7ft+ track and provide transport for the rapidly growing industrial region whilst filling in the gaps between systems. The GWR eventually had to concede to a government act not to build any additional track of 7ft+ and in 1868 started re-gauging to what is now standard gauge. This took 23 years to reluctantly complete. The South Staffordshire railway was completed as far as Walsall in 1846. It had to go to Dudley by 1849, otherwise a time default clause would allow rival 7ft+ gauge companies to build a line to Birmingham in completion. The SSR was leased to John Robinson McClean the engineer for the railway. This was a tactical arrangement as the main investors were reluctant partners (MR and L&NWR). It ran, not without incident, for some time and Mr McClean had a 25 year lease until 1871, but in 1861 the L&NWR purchased the lease prematurely and paid out J. R. McClean £110,000. The MR and the L&NWR were now very unhappy partners, and trackside riots erupted at Wychnor the actual junction of the SSR & MR where the line joined the Midland line to Derby (the old Birmingham & Derby Junctions Railway).
July 1867 saw the final end of the South Staffordshire Railway. The L&NWR bought out the shareholders, land and stock to be incorporated into their system, so the SSR became part of the London & North Western Railway.
Despite all this the original Directors of SSR included Mr R Chawner, secretary and a director of the South Staffordshire Water Works Company they invested in the railway, due to their involvement in a clean water pipeline which was installed alongside the track bringing much needed safe drinking water their Lichfield Pumping Station to Walsall & Sedgeley. Fevers, typhoid and cholera were under control bringing long term prosperity to Walsall one of the fastest growing industrial towns in Staffordshire.

During the lease period of J.R. McClean the SSR extended to Cannock via Bloxwich Cheslyn Hay & Great Wyrley. The branch terminated at Cannock and may have included connection to mineral tramways from East Cannock collieries’. The “Pool Pits” at Hednesford offered lucrative coal traffic and the link to Rugeley was fulfilled by this line. By 1858 the L&NWR had gained running rights over the line and now had coal traffic established from all local Cannock pits. The Norton extension saw coal from Norton Canes and eventually Coppice Colliery at Heath Hayes, all linked with the old SSR track bed now all part of the L&NWR Empire.
The L&NWR railway was huge company, being in the top five companies quoted on the stock exchange in Edwardian times. The MR and L&NWR were amalgamated in the Railway Bill of 1923 and became the LMS. The old SSR track bed survived in part, passenger services to Dudley from Lichfield survived until the 1960’s. Oil trains continued to Charrington’s Oil depot at Brownhills until the 1970’s. The track is in place today, a new bridge was built over the M6 Toll near Hammerwich to maintain the route. One day trains could run to Walsall again. The Cannock extension was re-opened to passenger traffic in 2001 giving a popular link to Walsall from Rugeley, via Cheslyn hay & Great Wyrley.

My thanks to Ray Hallworth for allowing us to use extracts from his original material. If you would like to know more about the “local railway” you can contact Ray on skennama@clara.co.uk

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