The Hull and Selby Railway is a railway line between Kingston upon Hull and Selby in the United Kingdom which was authorised by an act of Parliament in 1836 and opened in 1840. As built the line connected with the Leeds and Selby Railway (opened 1834) at Selby, with a Hull terminus adjacent to the Humber Dock.
A connection to Cottingham, Beverley, Driffield and Bridlington was made in 1846 with the opening of the Hull and Selby Railway (Bridlington Branch), now part of the Yorkshire Coast Line; a new route into Hull was opened in 1848, along with a new main station, Hull Paragon; a connection to Market Weighton from Barlby near Selby was made in 1848 (closed 1954, see Selby to Driffield Line); an urban branch line terminating in east Hull, the Victoria Dock Branch Line was opened in 1853 (closed 1968); a connection at Gilberdyke onto the Hull and Doncaster Railway passing via Goole was made in 1863; and in 1871 North Eastern Railway's York and Doncaster branch opened in 1871, with its northern half branching from the line towards York just east of Selby.
From 1845 the Hull and Selby Railway Company was jointly leased by the York and North Midland Railway, and Manchester and Leeds Railway; the lease passed to the North Eastern Railway in 1854 who then acquired the company in 1872. Ownership then passed to the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, and to British Railways in 1948.
As of 2015 the line is in use, and is owned and maintained by Network Rail. It is an important mainline on the UK rail network, and used on rail services out of Hull by Northern, TransPennine Express, London North Eastern Railway, and Hull Trains with destinations including Leeds, Doncaster, Sheffield, Goole and London, as well as freight traffic from the Port of Hull.
History
Background
The Leeds and Hull Railroad Company was formed in 1824 in Leeds, one of a number of railway schemes that would form a set of railways from the Irish Sea (Liverpool) to the North Sea (Hull). The line was surveyed by Joseph Locke and assistant under the direction of George Stephenson; Stephenson's plan for the line was for a double track railway, worked by locomotives, with stationary engines working inclined planes on the rising ground east of Leeds.
The Leeds and Hull scheme was not adequately subscribed by shareholders, and made no significant progress until 1828, by which time the Knottingley to Goole section of the Aire and Calder Navigation canal has opened (1826). The rise of Goole as a north sea port and a rival to Hull was one factor into prompting the Hull-based shareholders of the scheme to resolve to bring forward half of the scheme – a railway line from Leeds to Selby, with the intention of taking traffic from Selby to Hull by Steam Packets. A general meeting of the Leeds and Hull shareholders formed the Leeds and Selby Railway Company in 1829. The line between Leeds and Selby was resurveyed by James Walker – in addition to minor changes to the route the stationary engines and inclined planes were replaced with a tunnel. Walker's plan was adopted in 1829, and the Leeds and Selby act was passed in 1830, and the line opened in 1834.
The Hull and Selby Railway (1834–45)
In the early 1830s the rise of Goole as a port, as well as plans for railways to Bridlington and Scarborough which posed a potential threat to Hull's port economy gave impetus to the need for a rail link westwards from Hull. John Exley, a Hull customs officer was prominent in promoting a line, after and the campaign was taken up by the local press and trade organisations; two local bankers raised the £20,000 required to sponsor a bill through Parliament.
The original plan for a line from Leeds to Hull was continued with a new survey by Walker and Burgess in 1834. The engineers noted that the path from Selby to Hull was practically flat, and constructed a plan for a double track line from Selby to Hull, with minimal conflicts with existing structures outside the two towns. The estimated cost, including rolling stock was £340,000.
On 11 August 1834 the Hull and Selby Railway Company was formed, and the process of obtaining an act of Parliament authorising its construction was begun in late 1834.
The proposed line passed through the land of Robert Raikes (of Welton) who opposed the plan in both the House of Commons, and the House of Lords; the Hull Corporation also raised objections, claiming the right to all development land along the Humber foreshore at Hull. Accommodation was made with both and the bill received royal assent on 21 June 1836 as the (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. lxxx).
A petition to prevent the line operating on Sundays was rejected by the House of Commons. The act authorised the line and allowed £400,000 to be raised from share issues and £133,333 from loans.
Description of the line
From Selby, the line connected from the Leeds and Selby Railway, and ran NNE crossing Ousegate, and the River Ouse by a bascule bridge, before turning right on a curve approximately radius to head roughly eastwards in a gradually southward course. The line then ran roughly straight for passing the villages of Cliffe to the north, the crossing the River Derwent, and passing Wressle just north of St John's Church. Eastrington and Gilberdyke were then passed to the south, and crossed the Market Weighton Canal. After passing through Brough the line then curved slightly left at skirting North Ferriby's southern edge. It then passed through Hessle Cliffe, across Hessle Haven, then passed south of Hessle, it then ran towards Kingston upon Hull on a route alongside the bank of the Humber Estuary. The line terminated at a station near Manor House street in central Hull, directly west of and adjacent to the Humber Dock, and south of Kingston Street. The total length was around .Ordnance Survey. 1855–6, 1:10560; Hull, Selby: Town plans, 1:1056, 1849–56 There were intermediate stations at , , , , , , and . Wressle railway station came into use during the 1840s and 50s.
The terrain to be covered was sufficiently level and open for the line to be built with gentle curves and few embankments, the steepest gradient being 1 in 240, and was completely level. The need for the crossings of the Ouse and Derwent to be made at a sufficient height necessitated the introduction of the steeper gradients on the line. The main civil engineering works for the line were cuttings at North Ferriby and Hessle, and the Humber side embankment on the route into Hull. Three bridges were of note: a bascule bridge over the Ouse at Selby, and cast iron bridges over the Derwent, and Market Weighton Canal.
There were water stations at Hull, Selby and Staddlethorpe. In addition to the goods and passenger facilities at the Hull terminus the company had a wharf nearby at Limekiln Creek. Hull and Selby Railway, Limekiln Creek warehouse
Construction
The company's shares were fully taken up by November 1836, allowing the directors began to make contracts for the work; Walker was directed to stake out the line, which was completed before the end of the year.
Contracts for the bascule bridge over the Ouse (Mr. Briggs, foundations; Butterley Iron works, ironwork), and for the Market Weighton bridge and embankments (Mr. Pratt, civils; Marshall and Co. of Derby, ironwork) were let by September 1837; orders for iron rails were also made. The contracts for the 7 miles of line between Dairycoates and Melton (Townsend and Hacker) and 9 miles from the bridge on the Market Weighton Canal and the River Derwent (Mr. Charles Faviell) were made at the end of 1837. Work had begun on the foundations the bridges on the Market Weighton Canal and Ouse by the beginning of 1838. By March 1838 the foundations and associated embankments were partially completed.
The company held its second general meeting on 24 February 1838 by which time most of the cases of land compensation had been settled, and John Timperley was appointed resident engineer, under the principal engineers Walker and Burgess. In May contracts for the line and embankments on the route out of Hull to Dairycoates along the Humber foreshore were given to Mr. Charles Faviell. The remaining contracts for the 6 mile section from Melton via Brough to the Market Weighton Canal bridge (Pratt and Fenton), and the 6 mile section from the River Derwent to the junction with the Leeds and Selby Line (Mr. Briggs, civils, bridge foundations; Pim and Co., of Hull, Derwent bridge ironwork) were let in mid 1838. In July the original contract for the Hull Humber embankment was cancelled due to unsatisfactory progress and relet to Townsend and Harker.
By end of 1838 work was underway or nearing completion along the entire line; with the Market Weighton Canal and Selby bridge foundations complete and under preparation for the installation of the ironwork; the Derwent bridge foundations were underway; the cuttings at Hessle and Ferriby were also under progress. Further orders for iron rails were made bringing the amount ordered up to 5,000 tons, a contract with the Leeds and Selby for the supply of stone ballast was also made. Spoil from the cutting at Hessle, up to was used both on the Humber embankment and to ballast the line, ballast was also found on the land of Captain Shaw near Brough. At Brough removal of a mound revealed Roman remains including coins, pottery and a large amount of bones of cattle, as well as seven human skeletons.
By early 1839 plans for the railway depot, workshops and related equipment were being drawn up; the company acquired tanks for kyanising sleepers were acquired, and an order placed with Bereton and Vernon of Hull for a steam engine to power machinery at the Hull workshop, including that for sawing the wood for sleepers. By July the Humber embankment near Hull was complete, and the Hull depot, station and offices were under construction; much of the civil work of the rest of the line was complete, including the Market Weighton Canal bridge, with the superstructures of the Derwent and Ouse bridges in preparation for installation. Much of the line was in the process of being ballasted, and the kyanising of sleepers for the track had begun. Of the main building works only the contracts for station houses remained to be awarded.
The Ouse bridge was required by the Hull and Selby Railway Act 1836 to have an opening arch of , whilst the Ouse at Selby was nearly 200 ft in width, with an underlying geology consisting of silt, quicksand and then hard clay. The bridge consisted of two main spans, one opening; plus sections on either side from land to the first pier and to the second pier, and a section across the central piers. Each span consisted of six cast iron longitudinal ribs, with one rib under the line of each rail and two outer ribs on either side under a handrail. cast iron plates covered the ribs; the track ran on timber bearers wide by deep. The opening mechanism was operated by man power using a geared drive with a hand wheel of giving a mechanical advantage of 285.
The contractor Mr. Briggs installed the river bank, sided and central pier piled foundations between autumn 1837 and June 1839. Stone piers were constructed on solid ground inland of the abutment piers, and the abutment piers connected by tie rods to them to prevent them moving with any slippage of the river banks. Castings from the Butterley works arrived in September 1838 and the opening span was closed and the lifting spans installed between 11 October 1839 and 13 February 1840. The closed span was installed and the bridge completed by the end of March 1840.
On the west bank of the Ouse at Selby the new connection with the Leeds and Selby Railway required the construction of a new railway station (see Selby railway station), the old station was retained for goods use.For the history of the stations at Selby see Selby railway station.