Shropshire Routes to Roots

Mr Charles Sherwood Denniss - Head of the Cambrian Railways Company in 1898

Here Mr Denniss begins to describe the development of The Cambrian Railways as reported in The railway Magazine dated October 1898

An illustrated interview [Shropshire Archives]

What follows is part of a long interview with Mr Denniss published in the Railway Magazine of 1989. Number 16 in their series of Illustrated Interviews.

"The Cambrian [Railways Company], I understand, came about in 1865 by the amalgamation of several different railways?"

"The amalgamation of the several railways which constitute the Cambrian system was brought about by Act of Parliament in 1864 and 1865; but in 1888 the Mid-Wales Railway was taken over under an agreement to be worked in perpetuity as an integral part of the Cambrian system. We have also taken over the Van Railway, a short mineral branch connecting the celebrated Van lead mines at the foot of Plynlimon with the Cambrian main line. In 1895 we opened a further extension from Ellesmere to Wrexham, called the Wrexham and Ellesmere Railway. This, although and independent corporation, is also worked by the Cambrian Comapany in perpetuity under and agreement with the propietors, and forms an important extension of the system, being a connecting link between Liverpool (via the Mersey Tunnel), Lancashire, and South Wales."

[Shropshire Archives - The railway Magazine, October 1898]

The full text of this article from The railway Magazine, October 1898, may be found in Shropshire Archives, Shrewsbury.