Bristol and Exeter Railway - History

History

The Bristol & Exeter Railway was authorised by act of Parliament in 1836, following quickly on the 1835 act for construction of the Great Western Railway. Bristol merchants were anxious to secure a railway route to Exeter, which was an important commercial centre, and which had a harbour on the south coast, in the English Channel. Coastal shipping from the South coast and from continental Europe making for Bristol needed to navigate the hazardous north Cornwall coast after negotiating the waters round Land's End.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed engineer, and his assistant William Gravatt surveyed the route in 1835 and was resident engineer for the section between Bristol and White Ball with William Froude supervising the section from Whiteball to Exeter. He developed an empirical method of setting out track transition curves and introduced an alternative design to the helicoidal skew arch bridge at Rewe and Cowley Bridge Junction, near Exeter. The first 7 ft 0 1⁄₄ in (2,140 mm), broad gauge, section of the line was completed to Bridgwater on 14 June 1841, and the extension to Taunton in July 1842 - both using trains leased from the Great Western. The line was completed to Exeter and opened on 1 May 1844.

At first the railway was worked by the Great Western Railway, but the Bristol & Exeter took over its own working in 1849. It built a carriage works at Bridgwater, which already had a railway engineering industry. George Hennet obtained permission in the town to cast atmospheric pipes for the South Devon Railway, the Bristol and Exeter Railway simply extended his works. The Hennet name continued to be linked to Bridgwater for many years, and was responsible for producing many wagons for various companies.

The Bristol & Exeter Railway was a considerable financial success and between 1844 and 1874, paying an average annual dividend of 4.5 per cent. The city fathers of Exeter refused the railway access to the dock of the Exeter Canal until 35 years after it entered the city in 1844.

The railway was fully amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 January 1876.