Liverpool and Manchester Railway Act

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 5th December 2011 by Liam Physick

Here we see the first page of An Act for making and maintaining a Railway or Tramroad from the Town of Liverpool to the Town of Manchester, with certain Branches therefrom, all in the County of Lancashire, which received the Royal Assent on 5th May 1826. The preamble notes how the building of the Railway “will be of a great Advantage to the Inhabitants of the said County [Lancashire], Towns [Liverpool and Manchester] and Places [i.e. “the several Parishes or Places herein-after mentioned” between Liverpool and Manchester], by opening a cheap and expeditious Communication between the Two large trading Towns of Liverpool and Manchester; and by affording an additional Mode of Transit for Merchandize and other Articles and Matters between these Places, and also to and from the neighbouring Country, will be of great public Utility”. Of course, the reason the Railway was set up in the first place was to establish a “cheap and expeditious Communication” between Liverpool and Manchester: it was a reaction to the fact that canal transport was not cheap