1869 AD - Lord Calthorpe & Thomas Ayre Foakes

When I pressed the button to take myself back to 1869, the Harborne Railway cutting under Woodbourne Road disappeared along with the houses and gardens. A smart carriage came along the hedged lane from Edgbaston, and a man stepped forward to meet it. He had a roll of plans under one arm. The carriage stopped beside him, and I saw the Calthorpe arms on the door as he opened it for the middle-aged occupant to alight.

Foakes: Good morning, my lord. It is very good of you to give up your time for this matter.

Calthorpe: Good morning, Mr. Foakes. You know that there has long been a determination in my family that the Calthorpe Estate shall be preserved as a gracious place for living. I intend to maintain that tradition, and before I agree to sell land for your railway you will have to convince me that it will not damage the character of the Estate. In particular, I will not agree to the spoiling of the view by a great embankment!

Hearing the name used by Lord Calthorpe I guessed that he was talking to Thomas Ayre Foakes, Chairman of the Harborne Railway Company. The Act permitting the building of the line had been passed four years earlier, but there had been difficulty in obtaining the land required : a second Act had been necessary, giving extra time for completion of the purchase, and this meeting had been arranged by Foakes in an attempt to persuade Lord Calthorpe that his Estate would not suffer if the railway were built.

Foakes: I can promise that, my lord. All of the line across Rotton Park and your Estate will be in a cutting, so that it will not be seen above ground - except to the south there, almost at the edge of your property, where an embankment will be needed to take the line over the Chad valley.

Calthorpe: But why is this railway necessary at all ? My objection has been and is that I see no need for it. Most of the Calthorpe tenants in this district have their own traps and carriages to take them to Birmingham, if they must go there. Can't think why they should want to - a dirty, smelly place it is !

Foakes: Quite, my lord, but many of the people who live in Harborne and Rotton Park do not have carriages, and the horse-buses are too few and far between to help them much.

Calthorpe: Why can't they walk? The exercise would be good for them, especially those who work in foul factories and workshops. My family has not been unconcerned with the welfare of the working classes, you know! Seventeen years ago my father leased some land between the Pershore Turnpike and the River Rea as a public park now called Calthorpe Park, to provide healthful recreation for them. Of course we allow no tobacco or strong drink to be sold there - they are the curse of the lower orders!

Foakes: I fear, my lord, that the choice will not be either a railway or nothing, but either a railway or a tramway.

Calthorpe: Eh, what's that? A tramway?

Foakes: Yes, my lord, the Borough Corporation is already laying tramlines from Colmore Row to Hockley, and there's bound to be a demand soon for lines along Broad Street and Harborne Road. That would mean horse-drawn trams at first, perhaps, but steam-trams before long, and you know what that will mean.

Calthorpe: H'm; I certainly don't want steamers belching black smoke and rattling along the quiet lanes of Edgbaston. At least your railway will be well away from most of the Estate, and hidden - so tell me more about it, Mr. Foakes.

Foakes: With pleasure, my lord. It will be a single-track line only, two miles long, which will leave the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton line near Dudley Road, and cross over the Telford Cut. There will be three stations in the cutting across Rotton Park; at Icknield Port Road, Rotton Park Road, and Hagley Road. No stations are planned for the Calthorpe Estate, although of course one could be built if there is a need later on. The terminus at Harborne, just this side of the High Street, will be just a mile from Hagley Road.

Calthorpe: H'm, h'm. I suppose I must agree. You'll have to present plans and so on to my agents, of course, and there'll have to be agreement on a price. You'll be responsible for a bridge for this lane, of course.

Foakes: Of course, my lord. When the line is completed, in two or three years' time, perhaps we can persuade your lordship to open it?

Calthorpe: H'm perhaps, if I'm here. I don't come often nowadays. There's so much noise and bustle, and so many changes wherever you look. Joseph Gillott's estate is being laid out in streets and building plots, and there's all this talk about sewers and water-pipes. There's to be a reservoir not a hundred yards from here, so supply this high part of the Estate. In the old days, wells and cess-pits were good enough, but now there's all this talk of pure water and pollution. I suppose it's progress, but I'm glad it hasn't reached us yet in Norfolk !

Foakes: Your family has not lived in Edgbaston Hall for some years I believe, my lord?

Calthorpe: No, but that doesn't mean we don't care what happens here ! Sir Henry Gough - he was the first Lord Calthorpe, of course - left the hall in 1783, but when the Worcester Canal Company wanted to take their cut across the Estate eight years later he permitted it only on condition that no access roads be made to it, and no wharves ! He was determined to have no commerce or industry in Edgbaston ! Since 1810, when Calthorpe Road was made - making Five Ways into six, though the name has never been changed - we have allowed houses to be built, country mansions in all but position, and have helped in the development of the Estate's amenities. My grandfather built St. George's Church, and helped to start the Botanical Gardens nearly forty years ago, and we employ foresters to plant trees and tends them. I'm told that there are more trees in Edgbaston than there are people in Birmingham! Well now, Mr. Foakes, if you will show me the exact line of your embankment to the south here we can complete our business elsewhere.

	Glossary
	Questions
	Toys