Britain Unlimited covers
250 Great British people and what made them famous
Who was George Stephenson?
Railway Engineer and Pioneer of Steam Traction.
Date and Place of Birth:
9th June 1781, at High Street House, Wylam-on-Tyne,
Northumberland, England.
Family Background:
Second of six children to Robert Stephenson,
a colliery fireman, and Mabel Carr. Four families would have lived
at High Street House.
Education:
Rudimentary learning at local night school.
Chronology/Biography of George Stephenson:
1789: Family leave
High street House and George works on a farm but is soon back again
working at the Wylam colliery with his father (aged eight) driving
gin horses and moving coal.
1802: Now married,
he moves to Willington Quay near Wallsend.
1803: Birth of his
son Robert.
1804: Promoted to
Brakesman and moved to Moor Cottage, Killingworth
1805: Death of his
wife. Accepts a post at a spinning works in Angus, Scotland.
1812: Becomes engine-wright
at Killingworth Colliery.
1814: Builds his
first Engine the eight-ton "Blucher" which was slow and
unreliable on the wooden colliery tramroads. Undaunted he set his
mind to not only improving the locomotives but also the trackways.
1815: He invented
a miner's safety lamp (contemporaneously with the more famous one
by Sir Humphrey Davy). This lamp preferred
by Tyneside miners was nicknamed the "Geordie Lamp", a
name which has passed into history for the fiercely proud local
people. He received a public testimonial of £1,000 pounds
for this invention, an immense sum for one from such a poor background.
1818: Joins with
his partner Edward Pease of Darlington and obtains an Act of Parliament
to allow the construction of a passenger railway from Witton Colliery
to Stockton on Tees.
1821: Surveys the
proposed railway from Stockton to Darlington.
1822: (23rd May)
Laying of the first rail.
1825: (27th September)
Railway complete and is opened. The "Locomotion" Engine,
built by Stephenson pulls the first train at speeds of up to fourteen
miles per hour, a then unheard of speed.
1826: Appointed
engineer for the proposed Liverpool and Manchester railway.
1830: At the Rainhill
Trials in Manchester his new Engine "Rocket" wins the
competition to pull several wagons. It achieved speeds of up to
30 miles per hour. The other competitors fail to complete the course.
(15th September) Opening of the Liverpool to Manchester railway.
1831: Begins offering
his services as an engineer to various railways in the north and
midlands of England and gave advice on the laying of the East and
West Coast Main Lines between London and Scotland.
1835: His fame had
now spread abroad and he began advising King Leopold of Belgium
and the Spanish government amongst others, on how to build railways
there.
1838: Moved to Tapton
House in Derbyshire as he had now become a wealthy man. Despite
being in semi-retirement his ideas flowed apace and he designed
model houses for miners and opened new coal mines.
1845: Death of his
wife.
NOTE: His Son Robert, born in 1803 at Willington
Quay, took over his father's locomotive works and made several engineering
projects in his own right such as the Conway Bridge in 1848, the
high level bridge at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1849 and the Britannia
Tubular Bridge in 1850. He was later to become an M.P. and was buried
in Westminster Abbey.
Marriage:
1802 to Frances Henderson. (died 1805). 1820
to Elizabeth Hindmarsh. (died 1845). 1848 to his housekeeper.
Places of Interest:
COUNTY DURHAM:
Darlington Railway Centre and Museum, North Road
Station Darlington. Home of Stephenson's "Locomotion"
built in 18255.
DERBYSHIRE:
Tapton House, Chesterfield.
GREATER MANCHESTER:
George Stephenson, Museum, Rochdale.
NORTHUMBERLAND:
George Stephenson's Birthplace, Wylam. (National
Trust - One room where the entire family lived for several years
is on view).
Dial Cottage, Great Lime Road, Killingworth.
YORKSHIRE:
National Railway Museum, York.
