Preparation
The route was surveyed in 1844, and plans lodged with the various county offices in 30 November. The engineers for the line were George Stephenson and Charles Liddell. The surveyor was J.G. Binns. The cost estimate was £7000,000, or £15,000 a mile.
Even before the Act was passed there were problems where the line approached the estate of the Earl of Harborough. The original plan was to follow the course of the Wreake through Stapleford Park. Not only did the Earl refuse to sell the land, he put up notices forbidding the surveyors entry to the Park. A group of surveyors, walking along the towpath of the Oakham Canal, were confronted by Lord Harborough's men and ordered to return to where they had come from. Since it was a public right of way, the surveyors refused, whereupon they were arrested and put in a cart, presumably to be taken before a magistrate. They were stopped by a policeman who pointed out that the surveyors were in the right, so they were simply tipped out into the road.
In what became known as the "Battle of Saxby", the Midland Railway men returned with reinforcements, to meet a similarly enlarged force of estate workers. The railwaymen were chased away but returned two days later, early in the morning, to find Harborough's men waiting for them once more. The mayhem came to the attention of the authorities, who imprisoned some of the Midland men and fined some estate workers for damage to surveying equipment.
In spite of his Lordship's opposition, however, the Syston and Peterborough Railway Act was passed on 30 June 1845.
Read more about this topic: Syston And Peterborough Railway
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