NORMANTON,
CASTLEFORD AND PONTEFRACT TRAMWAY
PETER COOKSON
Part Two
By April 1903 a new company named the Yorkshire Electric Tramways
Construction Syndicate was incorporated to take over these amalgamated
powers. The West Riding Tramway Act of 1904 authorised the Wakefield and
District Light Railway Company to construct the Wakefield lines together
with various extensions which would have connected the Five Towns area
with Wakefield and Leeds.
The company formed to operate all the lines envisaged for the Wakefield area
was the Yorkshire (West Riding) Electric Tramways Company and came into
being in April 1905. It was this company that eventually became the West
Riding Automobile Company Ltd whose buses served the local area for many
years.
Work began on the construction of the local line at Castleford in April 1904
when the work on the Wakefield lines had almost been completed, only to
come to a stop shortly after because of a dispute over payments for
earlier work. Work was resumed early in 1905.
Castleford was selected as the location of the tram depot and power station which
were situated in Wheldon Lane. Rather unusually for this period the
generators were powered by diesel engines instead of the more usual
steam engines.
After the construction of lines in Castleford town centre (much of which was
never used because of the rejection of the branch to Leeds via Methley),
work proceeded outwards from there to Normanton and Pontefract. Most of
the track was laid as single-line with passing loops, but there were
sections of double track in the towns with the longest section in
Pontefract, and this ran from near Victoria Street (adjacent to the
Alexandra Theatre) to the terminus outside the Market Hall.
The Board of Trade insisted on this length of double track because part of
Front Street had the steepest gradient on the whole line (1 in 16) and
was considered to be potentially dangerous. In fact, the narrowness of
Front Street was a bone of contention for about two years, as wrangling
took place over who should bear the cost of the work that had to be
done, to improve clearance at the top of the hill to satisfy the
requirements of the Board of Trade inspector. Briefly, the problem
concerned the fact that the original plans provided for the demolition
of a row of buildings at the south-west corner to widen the road to
accommodate the double track. When it came to construction, the Tramway
Company, in order to keep within budget, tried to avoid doing this and
wanted to move the tracks 1ft towards the opposite causeway. This
involved shaving 5 ½ ins off this causeway for safe clearance. The
causeway would then be too narrow for safety and the Town Council
refused to agree to it.
The Front Street problem had still not been solved by the time of the first
inspection run over the whole system on 12th October 1906. The official
Board of Trade inspection was made by Major J.W. Pringle RE on 20th
October and he indicated that permission to operate the system would be
granted. The usual celebratory official opening with invited guests and
decorated cars took place on the following Thursday (25th), with full
public service beginning on Monday 29th October. The running powers were
conditional upon the solving of the Front Street problem, but this
proved troublesome and even led to the suspension of service for several
months, from late 1907 until well into 1908 when cars were required to
terminate at Tanshelf.
The Pontefract and Castleford Advertiser contains many references to the
wrangling over Front Street and the matter was eventually debated in
Parliament in mid 1909.
The journey time from Normanton to Pontefract was approximately 50 minutes,
with trams running every 8 minutes, although timetables varied over the
years. The fare-stages were Market Place, Atkinson Street in Normanton;
Wood Lane in Whitwood; Aketon Road, Bank Street, Smawthorne Lane in
Castleford; Maltshovel Inn in Glasshoughton; Woodman Inn, Parkside Farm,
Park Gates and Market Place in Pontefract. The fare was 1d for the first
stage and ½ d for each additional stage, which equated to 6d for the
full 7-mile journey.
In order to run this level of service, sixteen cars were based at the
Castleford depot, which were supplied by Dick, Kerr and Co. Ltd. of
Preston. Eight open-top cars, no’s 23-30, together with eight of a
modified design incorporating upper balcony tops (no’s 31-38) made up
the complement. The earlier open-top cars received tops between 1911 and
1914. A serious fire at the Depot in 1917 destroyed a number of cars
which had to be replaced by others.
The original livery selected for the trams was crimson and cream, but the
First World War brought an end to this and a two-tone green replaced it,
although, as the war progressed, shortages of paint saw the use of drab
browns and greys used. From 1924 a new livery of green and cream was
devised and this continued into the ‘bus era and will be remembered by
many readers.
By the time of the opening of the line, the section from Market Place to
North Baileygate had not been built, nor had the extension to
Knottingley or the branch to Featherstone Station. It is interesting to
speculate what problems might have arisen in Ropergate had the
Featherstone branch been built, because double track was proposed for
this section and the road here is very narrow.
Although intentions to build these lines remained for a while, they were
eventually abandoned along with other proposed routes to the west so
that, as a result, the Normanton – Pontefract line remained an
isolated section of the Yorkshire (West Riding) tramway system.
Although the tramway was not conspicuously successful (it made a profit in only
two of its 19 years of existence), it played an important part in local
transport of the period. There were occasions when the tramway carried
very large numbers of passengers, especially at the times of Pontefract
Races and the Statutes Fair. In those days the Fair was very extensive
and occupied much space in the town centre, with the result that trams
could not penetrate Market Place, and had to turn round at a temporary
terminus near the Court House; even so, there were reports of occasional
over-running and damage caused to side-shows by an errant tram.
The period of the First World War witnessed a decline in standards on the
tramways; the ravages of subsidence, especially on the Glasshoughton –
Pontefract section, together with shortages of materials and labour led
to a marked reduction in the quality of the tracks and an increasingly
rough and bumpy ride. The attempt to get permission to move the track to
a roadside alignment on wooden sleepers (as for a conventional railway)
was not supported by the local authorities and attempts to get
compensation for subsidence damage were equally unsuccessful. In
general, the local authorities involved did not appear to be at all
supportive of the tramway company, even though it was a substantial
rate-payer.
By the early 1920’s, a further problem arose in the form of competition
from newly emerging bus operators. In the eyes of the general public,
the new buses were seen as faster and more comfortable than the trams,
and the situation arose in which the company itself had to institute its
own bus services to prevent a substantial loss of patronage to the other
bus operators. The West Riding buses, as a result, were competing
against their own trams.
The situation could not continue and the end was in sight for the Normanton
– Pontefract tramway. Last-ditch appeals to the various local
authorities to prevent unrestricted competition by the bus operators
were refused, and the end came on 1st November 1925. At 11pm on that
Sunday evening, tram number 13 with thirteen passengers on board, left
Pontefract market Place for Castleford and the trams in Pontefract
passed into history, probably unloved and unlamented by most. I wonder
if it was a gloomy, foggy or rainy night? Perhaps it should have been,
to mark appropriately a rather sad occasion.
In writing this short sketch of the Normanton – Pontefract tramway, I
have not aimed for balance or detail; for those who wish to read a
scholarly account, I would refer them to "The Tramways of Dewsbury
and Wakefield" by W. Pickles. My aim has been to give an outline
slanted towards those who are interested in the local history of
Pontefract. In addition to my indebtedness to this book, I record my
gratitude to H. Pickard who provided me with his index to articles in
the Pontefract and Castleford Advertiser on tramway subjects, thus
saving me a great deal of effort and time. Last, but not least, I record
my thanks to Richard Van Riel who helped me with the illustrations.
Peter Cookson
PART ONE | PART TWO
Also by Peter Cookson:
Pontefract King's School Song
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