Railways

First Things First

In order to make your search easier, consult all possible printed sources before looking at original records. The following are held in the Berkshire Record Office library.

General works
        * Brooke, D, The 'Lawless' Navvy: a study of crime associated with railway building (Journal of Transport History, 3rd series, vol 10 no 2, 1989)
        * MacDermot,E T (revised by C R Clinker), History of the Great Western Railway, vol 1 1833-1863; vol 2 1863-1921 (1964)
        * Simmons, J, Railway History in English Local Records (Journal of Transport History, vol 1, no 3, 1954)
        * Simmons, J, The Birth of the Great Western Railway (1971)
        * Stephens, W B, Sources for English Local History (1994)
        * Thompson, K M (ed), Short Guides to Records, 2nd series, no 42: Canal and railway plans (1997)
        * The Times/ GWR, Great Western Progress 1835-1935 (David and Charles reprints, 1972)

Works relating to Berkshire
        * Hutson, M, The Basingstoke and Wokingham Railway (1993); The Staines, Wokingham and Woking Railway (1994)
        * Lingham, B, The Railway Comes to Didcot: a history of the town, 1839-1918 (1992)
        * Pearse, M & J, The Broad-gauge Railway at Twyford (1980); Twyford's Railway Heritage: 150 Years of the GWR (1985)
        * Phillips, D, How the Great Western Came to Berkshire: a Railway History, 1833-1882 (1975)
        * Price, M R C, The Lambourn Valley Railway (1964)
        * Sands, T B, The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (1971)
        * South, R, Crown, College and Railways: How the Railways Came to Windsor (1978)
        * Vaughan, A, A History of the Faringdon Branch and Uffington Station (GWR) (1977)

Genealogical works
        * Hawkings, D T, Railway Ancestors: a guide to staff records 1822-1947 (1995)
        * Richards, T, Was your Grandfather a Railwayman? A directory of railway archive sources for family historians (1995)

Original Records

The Record Office holds comparatively little original material on railways. However, the following may be of use:

Parliamentary deposited plans, 1833-1936, show the proposed railway, with books of reference giving details of owners and occupiers of the land involved (among Quarter Sessions records).

Local Acts of Parliament for making railways.

Wantage Tramway records, including corporate, financial and property records 1873-1947.

Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway records shareholder records only 1881-1923.

Borough collections contain miscellaneous references to railways, especially the minutes of Abingdon, Maidenhead and Wokingham boroughs.

Estate and family papers provide useful details, especially in correspondence and reports, written prior to the building of the railway.

Ordnance Survey maps, 6" and 25", 1870s-1930s.

Tithe maps (large-scale parish maps drawn up in the 1830s and 1840s). These were made for the majority of Berkshire parishes.

We also have various small collections of records which relate to railways. These can be found through the subject index available in the searchroom. Please contact us for details.

Useful Addresses
Sources for railway information