AF&JR History - Pt.2: 1848-52
The rather slow but nonetheless bucolic state of proceedings to which I last referred continued until 1848 - when a Committee was formed to lay a railway that connected the three townships together - public opinion was strongly divided between the local millwrights, colliers, and merchants, who understood the industrial value of a full-fledged railway for public use, and the gentry and residents of the area, who were frightened of the possible destruction a railway could cause, along with the disruption from noisy, smoke-billowing locomotives. The argument dragged on, through inquiries, bribes and general back-handedness from all sides, but the industrialists won and the newly formed Ashwell Public Railways Committee set about drafting up a plan, which they could submit to get Parliamentary approval for the scheme. By now it was 1851, and the colliery Company was getting a bit impatient. Itching, they upgraded the portion of the line that ran from their lofty crag-top mining site, to a point half a mile outside Foxhill, to 'mainline' standards, prophesising this was where the junction would be made, and regauged their entire trackage from 3'3" to 4'8.5" - Standard Gauge. Meanwhile the North Cornwall River & Canal Co. were too growing restless, fearing a loss of business, and immediately merged themselves with the local stagecoach proprieters for financial stability.
Meanwhile, progress on the new railway was already underway - the docks at Jocyspool had their quays and sidings expanded to accommodate the growth in traffic, and the first locomotive arrived in Jocyspool in August 1851. It was the 'Longridge', a Bury 'A Class' 2-2-0, converted to a saddle tank and currently owned by the Company contracted with building the line. In the course of construction problems were rife - sabotage by locals led to the pilfering of various materials, and most shockingly, in 1852, the lifting of a length of rail, landing the 'Longridge' upside-down in the river. Luckily it was fished out, and the month after, we find it assisting the reconstruction of the Foxhill river crossing. The structure had been built by the Colliery Company way back in 1810 when it extended down to Jocyspool, and the replacement consisted of much the same design - timber beams on masonry columns. We find it almost at the point of collapse when we pick up our stories in 1902. As they were putting the deck onto the 1852 bridge (which re-used the original stone piers), the 'Longridge', over-running its appointed stopping-place, moved onto the unfinished timbers and landed once more in the river. It lost its chimney in the process, which was later recovered, albeit somewhat dented.
