Grand Junction Railway

It's always been known as the jewel in the crown of Crewe.

Initially, it was called New Park, and it was, as I said earlier, dedicated in 1887 for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and the 50th anniversary of the Grand Junction Railway, which then became London and Northwestern.

The site formerly belonged to Coppenhall Hayes Farm, and it was donated by the owner, John Hill, in 1863.

The farm house was approximately on the avenue where Station House now stands.

Yes.

I think it's true to say that the opening of the railway changed the area forever.

The Grand Junction Railway Company had a line that ran through Crewe, and they decided that it was eminently suitable for a station.

In 1840, Joseph Locke, who was the chief engineer of the Grand Junction Railway, suggested that they move the railway works to Crewe because there was available land to build the workshops on.

You've been involved in doing a little bit of research in another part of my ancestry, family tree, part of the family that used to live and work around Birmingham.

And I have a copy of a very old book, well, a facsimile, a reproduction copy of Drake's Road Book of the Grand Junction Railway, 1838.

And in the back, there's a little advertisement for the Temperance Arms Hotel at 54 Dale End in Birmingham.

And, yeah, one of my antecedents, Job Wilkins, placed an advertisement in the back of this book.

In any of those kind of travel guides and...

Yes.

I mean, that particular example, the hotel was just around the corner from Curzon Street, where the Grand Junction Railway had come down from Liverpool and Manchester.

And, of course, not very far from the London and Birmingham railway station.