Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company

RAIL 463

1840-1967

Minutes and reports of shareholders, directors and committees; deeds, agreements and plans; locomotive and rolling stock records; staff and accountant's records; correspondence and other records relating to lines to collieries.

Electronic images of selected pieces of these records can be searched online through our partner website. (Please Note: Pieces 210-249 and 305-315 only have been digitised).

In Former Reference order.

MSL

Public Record(s)

English

422 files, rolls and volumes

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Topics

Railways

Coal

Mining and quarrying

The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company (MSL) was formed by the amalgamation of the Sheffield, Ashton under Lyne and Manchester Railway Company, the Great Grimsby & Sheffield Junction Railway Company, the Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway Company Junction Railway Company, the Sheffield & Lincolnshire Extension Railway Company and the Great Grimsby Dock Company under the powers of an act of 1846 (9 & 10 Vic cap.cclxviii).

An Act of 1847 (10 & 11 Vic cap.cxc) amalgamated the MSL with the Manchester & Lincoln Union Railway Company. Other acts of parliament enabled further railway and canal companies to be vested into the MSL and more railways were authorised.

The most important of these was the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (Extension to London etc) Act 1893 which authorised the construction of a main line to London from the MSL's railway at Kirkby in Ashfield via Nottingham, Leicester and Rugby.

Under the powers of the Great Central Railway Act 1897 the MSL changed its name to the Great Central Railway Company to reflect its enlarged territory.

At the time of the name change, the MSL owned 353½ miles of railway (with another 207 miles in joint ownership with other railway companies) and 111½ miles of canal.