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The Wollaton Wagonway (or Waggonway), built between October 1603 and 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont in partnership with Sir Percival Willoughby, is currently credited as the world's first wagonway and therefore extremely significant in the development of railways.

The wagonway was the earliest form of railway. Although modern historians are uncertain as to whether it evolved or was invented, it is known that, between the Autumn of 1603 and the 1st October 1604, a waggonway (wagonway) had been built near Nottingham in the English East Midlands. It ran for approximately two miles from Strelley to Wollaton to assist the haulage of coal. Earlier examples may have been built, but the Wollaton Wagonway is the earliest surface-level waggonway on record anywhere in the world, and is therefore believed to have been the first. It was built by Huntingdon Beaumont who was the partner of Sir Percival Willoughby, the local land-owner and owner of Wollaton Hall.

“alonge the passage now laide with railes, and with suche or the lyke Carriages as are now in use for the purpose”.

The above quote is from Sir Percival Willoughby’s lease to Huntingdon Beaumont dated 1 October 1604. Sir Percival was Lord of the Manor of Wollaton and Huntingdon Beaumont was his business partner and the lessee of the Strelley coal pits.

What is known with certainty about the Wollaton Wagonway is set out below.

1. The overland, railed, route was approximately two miles long.
2. The rails, made of wood, ran from Strelley to Wollaton.
3. The wagonway was built to carry coal from the Strelley Pits to a distribution point near Wollaton Lane (now Wollaton Road). A considerable % of the coal was also taken onwards from there by road to Trent Bridge and then on downstream on the River Trent by barge.
4. The vehicles used to carry the coal on the rails were referred to as wagons or carriages.
5. The wagons or carriages were drawn by horses.
6. The Wagonway was built between October 1603 and October 1604.
7. The Wagonway was built by Huntingdon Beaumont.
8. The Wagonway cost approximately £166* to build, however, it is not clear exactly what that included.
9. The cost of the Wagonway was shared 50:50 between Huntingdon Beaumont and Sir Percival Willoughby.
10. The Wagonway is understood to have been used successfully for a number of years, until at least 1615. However records of a specific closure date have not survived.

The success of the Wollaton Wagonway led to Huntingdon Beaumont building other wagonways for his other mining leases near Blyth in Northumberland. A continuous evolution of railways can be traced back to the Wollaton Wagonway.

[edit] References

• Smith, R S. (1957), "Huntingdon Beaumont Adventurer in Coal Mines", Renaissance and Modern Studies, p. 115 to 153.
• Smith, R S. (1960), "England's First Rails : A reconsideration", Renaissance and Modern Studies, p. 119 to 134.
• Lewis, M J T (1970), Early Wooden Railways, London, England: Routledge Keegan Paul (out of print).
• Smith, R S (1989), Early Coal Mining Around Nottingham 1500 - 1650, University of Nottingham (out of print).
• New, J R. (2004), "400 years of English railways - Huntingdon Beaumont and the early years", Backtrack, vol. 18, no. 11 (Nov), p. 660 to 665.
• M J T lewis (2004). "Reflections on 1604". Early Railways 3 (Subscription print run issued in 2006), 8–22.

The text of this article is based on material from the Waggonway Research Circle, which has been released under the terms of the GFDL by its creators. Further material on the WRC site remains copyright unless explicitly indicated otherwise.