-
the Knights Templar,
the Holy Grail and
underground tunnels -
A hoax.
A look at the 'double' side of 1960 -
A 1980's news magazine
A photographic tour of the county town.
Greetings cards for the discerning drinker.
Clocks and fridge magnets
Personalised birthday badges for all ages.
Four walks through Camden, Hampstead, Highgate and two markets.
How to reduce the odds on winning the Lottery.
George Bradshaw
There are many famous people whose surnames have found their way into the English vocabulary as items of everyday use; Macintosh, Sandwich and Hoover are three that come immediately to mind. But in the nineteenth century few names would be in more commonplace use than that of Lancastrian George Bradshaw
The Victorians lived in an age of great industrial invention, in a world where there
were few places on the globe not coloured red. At home the coming of the railways
made communication easier and as the railway network grew so did the need for some
organisation to be imposed on the rapid increase of black lines that criss-
Seldom has the gigantic intellect of man been employed upon a work of greater utility.' said the magazine Punch in 1865. By the time of his death George Bradshaws Railway Guides had become a national institution, quoted in contemporary novels and on the music hall stage.
In 1844 Parliament passed legislation forcing railway companies to run at least one train every weekday at a fare that ordinary people could afford. It did not immediately trigger a nation of commuters but it opened up the possibility of cheap travel for the masses and day trips to the seaside. Very soon rail became the only way to travel.
As travel increased -
Jules Verne was one of many authors who found the attraction of Bradshaw irresistible. As Phileas Fogg sets out from Charing Cross on his epic eighty days around the world, what was he carrying:
'Under his arm might have been observed a red-
Like so many other things, production of the Continental Guide was suspended in 1914. Although publication resumed after the war and in a much slimmer format it finally disappeared in 1939 with the luxury world of Pullman coaches that it epitomised.
Although many other rail companies issued their own it was a Bradshaw to which the Victorians referred when they asked for a timetable.
Owing to its sheer size, Bradshaw gained a reputation for impenetrability, echoed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who has Sherlock Holmes commenting that 'the vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sending of a general message. (Valley of Fear).
Of course, the Victorians were not so much interested in literary quality of the prose as getting from A to B which was Bradshaws 'raison d'etre' and strength.
It could be inferred that Bradshaw's own strength was his religion. Although far from wealthy his parents at first sent him to study under a Mr Cowards who was a Swedenborgian minister.
The Swedenborgians were one of the many dissenting groups active in the industrial heartlands devoted to the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish philosopher and mystic who interpreted the scriptures as the immediate word of God.
After continuing his education at a school kept by a Mr Scott at Overton, George
Bradshaw joined the Quakers (Society of Friends) at an early age. In this group he
became an associate of other Manchester radicals, such as Richard Cobden who was
one of the most active supporters of the Anti-
The Quakers were a pacifist organisation, promoting peace conferences and whose greatest achievement was in the abolition of slavery.
George Bradshaw married in 1839 and joined the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1842. He visited Norway in August 1853 where he succumbed to Asiatic cholera. He was buried in the cemetery adjoining the cathedral of Christiana.
George Bradshaws legacy to the nation is a picture of travel at the height of Victorian eminence. The last Bradshaw, number 1521 was printed in June 1961. An almost complete collection of Bradshaws was handed to Manchester Public Library (housed in the Social Sciences section) when Blacklocks Printing Works closed in 1971, having succeeded Bradshaws and Blacklocks.
No more will Holmes cry 'the games afoot' and head for the South coast; or Archbishop William Temple, headmaster of Repton set the task of finding the best way from Great Yarmouth to Exeter without passing through London as an imposition for an erring schoolboy. They might, had they a Bradshaw to hand.
© John Barber -
George Bradshaw was born on 29th July 1801 in Pendleton, Salford and was apprenticed to Mr J Beale an engraver. In 1820 the family moved to Belfast where George began work as a printer and engraver but soon returned to Salford in 1821 in search of work.
By 1827 he had become devoted to maps and as a consequence his first projected, engraved and published work was a map of his native Lancashire. This was followed in 1830 by a work detailing the canals of Lancashire and Yorkshire, a set of three known as Bradshaws Maps of Inland Navigation.
1830 was the year that George Stephenson's Rocket won the railway trials between Manchester and Liverpool and by 1855 there were over 8000 miles of railway track between all the major cities. Railway mania overtook England as the number of rail companies outstripped the profitable routes.
This phenomenon had not gone unnoticed by Bradshaw who in 1838 produced Bradshaws Railway Map. Although there is evidence to support an earlier edition in 1838, the first surviving copy of Bradshaws Railway Timetable was published in 1839.
It appeared as a cloth bound book costing 6d. The following year Bradshaws Railway Companion was published, containing more details of railway operation, sectional maps and a rise in price to one shilling. Further guides appeared spasmodically until Bradshaws London agent William Jones Adams, suggested that the guides be published more frequently and at a more affordable price.
So it was that in December 1841 Bradshaws Monthly Rail Guide No 1 appeared. From then on the book, in the familiar yellow wrapper became synonymous with its publisher.
The eight page edition of 1841 had grown to 32 pages by 1845 and to 946 pages by 1898. By comparison the current Great Britain Passenger Timetable runs to 2150 pages. In 1918 a Bradshaw would still only cost two shillings and in 1937 half a crown.
Publisher of Bradshaw Railway Guides