The Railway Comes To Cleethorpes 1863 Part Two

Post date: Feb 08, 2013 9:26:53 PM

We have seen how the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (the MSL) began to change the social character of the resort.  We will see now the role played in the physical development of Cleethorpes by the MSL and its Chairman, Sir Edward Watkin.

The railway company’s first involvement was in the promenade pier.  Contrary to popular belief, the MSL did not build the pier.  It was initiated and built by the independent  Cleethorpes Pier Company which had no obvious connection with the MSL.  The pier company floated a share capital of 1,000 £10 shares.  About half of these were taken up by local residents but the MSL appeared to purchase 200 of the shares – thereby making it by far the largest shareholder.  The MSL then provided two of the eight directors on the company’s board.  So from the beginning it could exercise influence on the running of the pier.  The pier opened on Bank Holiday Monday, 4th August 1873 – to great public acclaim. 

The railway company’s next move was in connection with the Cleethorpes central cliff which was being rapidly eroded by waves, wind, rain and frost.  During the 1860s and 1870s this was causing great concern to local residents.  In addition, the state of the cliff top was being heavily criticised by both visitors and residents.  Two acres running along the sea front of the cliff top were owned by the parish for public use.  But the remaining five and a quarter acres were divided between several owners.  Their land was used for various purposes such as stalls, public auctions and the growing of vegetable produce.

The fledgling and poorly-financed local authority, the Cleethorpes Local Board of Health, could not afford to construct a sea wall or improve the cliff top.  It approached local major landowners for help, but with no success. So in January 1880 it asked the MSL to take steps to prevent further erosion and turn the cliff top into a pleasant area of recreation. 

Coincidentally, the MSL was already planning improvements in local railway provision.  Because of increased excursion traffic, extra lines and platforms were needed at the Cleethorpes station.  In June 1880, Watkin ordered that work to be carried out.   

Then Watkin and his head engineer came to Cleethorpes to meet a deputation from the Local Board.  After discussion, the meeting ended with Watkin giving an assurance that the railway company would carry out improvements if there was no local opposition.

The MSL then applied to Parliament:

For powers to construct such works of protection as may preserve the Cliff at Cleethorpes and may enable the land saved to be converted into a place of Recreation with Baths and Waiting Rooms.

The necessary Act of Parliament was passed in 1881 and the land on the cliff top was purchased for £1,250 in 1882.  Planning and construction was placed in the hands of civil engineers H.B. and A.F. James.  They quoted a price of £21,862 (over £2 million today) and the contract was signed in April 1883.

As construction progressed, additional expenditure was called on for extra work.  But at a shareholders’ meeting in January 1884, complaints were raised about this increased spending on Cleethorpes.  Watkin rebutted the complaints, saying that between 1861 and 1881, the number of passengers carried to Cleethorpes had increased fourfold, from 70,000 to 283,000 – saying that: ‘traffic of that kind is really worth a little outlay in order to sustain it’.

He also made other forceful arguments and finished off with this significant remark:

We want outlets for our traffic; we want watering places [seaside resorts] of our own for the populations on our railway.  Therefore, I think that if anybody will seriously consider these arguments they will come to the conclusion that the proposed outlay at Cleethorpes is a wise one.           

What he was saying was that the MSL should spend the money in order to create its own ‘railway resort’ to cater for, and profit from, the potential rail passengers living in its vast hinterland.  Watkin won the day and even more expenditure was called for.

The extra expenditure was on such items as smoothing and turfing the cliff face, laying out the cliff-top gardens, building an imposing Sea Road access to the promenade and pier, raising the pier to give headroom over the promenade, gas lighting on the promenade, colonnades of shops and cafes, a refreshment pavilion, an aquarium, a swimming bath, a Camera Obscura, building Ross Castle, etc.   

The location of the railway station was also moved to its present site.  And the railway company leased the pier from the pier company in 1883 (and purchased it outright in 1903). 

Eventually, the North and Central Promenades, the Pier Gardens and other improvements were completed.  And Watkin used his influence to get Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, to perform the grand opening on 2nd July 1885.

A printed description of the improvements paid tribute to Watkin:

Sir Edward Watkin, the astute and far seeing Chairman of the Company had to encounter considerable opposition from shareholders before the heavy expenditure which the enterprise involved was sanctioned.  But there is little fear that the diffident shareholders will have any cause to regret the outlay, as the general effect produced has so immeasurably enhanced the natural attractiveness of the place that Cleethorpes must now rank as one of the prettiest and most seductive watering places on the east coast, and the number of visitors is sure to be greatly increased.

In its efforts to attract more rail passengers to the resort, the MSL provided an increasing number of attractions on the promenades, on the beach, in the Pier Gardens and on the pier itself.  It also built a pavilion at the end of the pier in 1887 for concerts, dances, etc. (which it replaced with the present Pier Pavilion in 1905). 

So let’s see a comment on Cleethorpes from a Lincolnshire handbook of 1890 which emphasised the success of the MSL’s investment in the resort:

This is rapidly becoming the most crowded watering-place in Lincolnshire.  This little town is quite a unique development of railway enterprise, belonging as it does, almost entirely to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.  Cleethorpes, owing to its easy railway access, is invaded daily in summer by enormous crowds of excursionists from Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Midland counties.

By the end of the century the railway company had spent an estimated £100,000 on Cleethorpes (about £10 million today).

The new century saw the death of Watkin in 1901, aged 81.  By then the MSL had changed its name to the Great Central Railway and its local influence and control declined as it pursued other interests.

Even so, it left a notable physical heritage in the resort.  This helps to give Cleethorpes its own individual character.  It includes the North Promenade (with its convenient railway station), the Central Promenade (with Ross Castle), the Pier Gardens, the Pier Pavilion and the impressive Sea Road approach to the seafront. 

Not a bad legacy, which I do not think would have been anticipated when that first train steamed into Cleethorpes on Easter Monday 1863.

END

(Please note: © Alan Dowling 2012.  Not to be reproduced in any format without permission of the copyright holder, Alan Dowling, who may be contacted on 01472 690655.  Previously published in the Cleethorpes Chronicle.)