Bristol and Exeter Railway Company: Records

This series documents the establishment and administration of the Bristol & Exeter Railway, the purchase of relevant land and other rail and canal companies, and the construction of railway track and associated structures.

Records include minutes and reports of general and board meetings, (with indexes), and minutes and reports of the company's finance, traffic, lands and works committees; accounts; land purchases; contracts, plans for construction of the line, solicitor's reports, stock and share registers and agreements with other companies; and legal papers.

This series contains minutes, reports and documentation in two parts: pieces 1-130, the first part, are those which were held by the British Transport Historical Record Office (BTHR) and the second part, pieces 131-360 have been transferred more recently from the British Railways Board Record Centre.

Pieces 1-130 are arranged in the former reference order that they were given by BTHR and not by the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company (B&ER) or successor companies. Pieces 131-360 begin with reports to the board of directors on land purchase grouped together by the surveyors making the reports. After 1844, the reports were of a more general nature and these are not kept by author but by year. Contracts are listed in former reference order according to the Great Western Railway (GWR) miscellaneous records series followed by agreements and other such documents in the same number series. Conveyances were kept in a separate main number series by the Great Western and are listed in that order. Other items were not numbered and further information on their arrangement can be found in the contents page.

Some of the indexes are known to give incomplete coverage.

BRB (Residuary) Ltd , from 1988, in 2002

Topics

Railways

The Bristol and Exeter Railway Company was incorporated by the powers of the Bristol and Exeter Railway Act 1836. This act also authorised the construction of a railway between a junction with the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Temple Meads and the "new basin and wharfs" at Exeter.

By an agreement dated 14th August 1840, the railway was leased to the GWR for five years. In 1846, the Bristol & Exeter Railway rejected a new lease and ran its own railway with its own rolling stock up until 1875. By an agreement dated 17 December 1875, the GWR again leased the company from 1st January 1876 for fourteen years. The GWR took full control on 1st August 1876 by the powers of the Great Western and Bristol and Exeter Railways Amalgamation Act 1876.

The first section of the railway from Bristol to Taunton was opened (along with a short branch to Weston Super Mare) on 14th June 1841. The second part to Beambridge opened on 1st May 1844 and the main line was completed on 1st May 1847. During its existence, the Bristol & Exeter Railway obtained other acts which authorised various extensions and branches and also absorbed other railway companies so that its total milage, when taken over by the Great Western was, 213 miles 44 chains.