Railway Sleepers Truro Cornwall

Approximate Population: 20,920

During the Civil War in the 17th century, Truro raised a sizable force to fight for the King and a royalist mint was set up in the town.   However, defeat to the Parliamentary troops came in 1646 and the mint was moved to Exeter. Further disheartenment came later in the century when Falmouth was awarded its own charter giving it rights to its harbour, starting a long rivalry between the two towns.   The dispute was eventually settled in 1709 with control of the River Fal being divided between Truro and Falmouth.

Truro prospered greatly during the 18th and 19th centuries.   Industry flourished thanks to improved mining methods and higher prices for tin, and the town soon became the place to be for wealthy mine owners.   Elegant Georgian and Victorian townhouses were built—such as those seen today on Lemon Street, named after the mining magnate and local MP Sir William Lemon—and Truro became the centre for high society in the county, being mentioned as “the London of Cornwall”.

Throughout these prosperous times Truro remained a social centre and many notable people hailed from it.   One of the most noteworthy residents was Richard Lander, an explorer who discovered the source of the River Niger in Africa and was awarded the first gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society.   Others include Humphry Davy, educated in Truro and inventor of the miner’s safety lamp, and Samuel Foote, an actor and playwright from Boscawen Street.

Railway Sleepers Truro Cornwall

Railway Sleepers

Carlisle Cumbria

Approximate Population: 71,773

The Romans called their settlement on the site of today’s city Luguvalium, as evidenced by Roman writing tablets recently excavated in the city and displayed at Tullie House Museum, bearing this name as the address. Luguvalium can be interpreted from Latin as “the place, or wall of Lugus” (a local deity).

Around the 11th and 12th centuries, however, surviving documents show the place name spelt Caer (castle) Luel or Llewelyn.   Luel, and its variants are Cumbric personal names, and it has been proposed that this was always the basis of the local name, which had been preserved by the continuity of Cumbric-speaking peoples in the area, from before the Roman imposition of a Latinised version.   The fact that Cumbria (from Cymru or similar roots) was held by the Celtic kings of Rheged in the 9th century may have stimulated a revival of the Cumbric language and reinstatement of earlier Celtic place-names.   Cumbric is no longer spoken, but the surviving Welsh language has “Caerliwelydd” as the modern name for Carlisle.

Carlisle has a compact historic centre, including a castle, museum, cathedral, and semi-intact city walls.   The former law courts or citadel towers which now serve as offices for Cumbria County Council are also of architectural interest.

Railway Sleepers Carlisle Cumbria

Railway Sleepers

Liverpool Merseyside

Approximate Population: 816,900

Liverpool has more galleries and national museums than any other city in the United Kingdom apart from London.   The Tate Liverpool gallery houses the modern art collection of the Tate in the North of England and was, until the opening of Tate Modern, the largest exhibition space dedicated to modern art in the United Kingdom.   The FACT centre hosts touring multimedia exhibitions, whilst the Walker Art Gallery houses an extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelites.

Sudley House contains another major collection of pre 20th century art and the number of galleries continues to expand:   Ceri Hand Gallery opened in 2008, exhibiting primarily contemporary art, and Liverpool University’s Victoria Building was re-opened as a public art gallery and museum to display the University’s artwork and historical collections which include the second-largest display of art by Audubon outside the US.

Artists have also come from the city, including painter George Stubbs who was born in Liverpool in 1724.

The Liverpool Biennial festival of arts runs from mid-September to late November and comprises three main sections; the International, The Independents and New Contemporaries although fringe events are timed to coincide.   It was during the 2004 festival that Yoko Ono’s work “My mother is beautiful” caused widespread public protest when photographs of a naked woman’s pubic area were exhibited on the main shopping street.   Despite protests the work remained in place.

Railway Sleepers Liverpool Merseyside

Railway Sleepers Basildon Essex

Approximate Population: 99,876

The first historical reference to Basildon is in records from 1086.   It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Belesduna’.  The name ‘Basildon’ means ‘Beorhtel’s hill’ and is derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name ‘Beorhtel’ and the Anglo-Saxon word ‘dun’, meaning hill.   In historical documents, this name had various forms over the centuries, including Berdlesdon, Batlesdon and Belesduna.

By the beginning of the 1900s, Basildon had evolved with much of the land having been sold in small plots during a period of land speculation and development taking placed haphazardly with building by plotowners ranging from shelters created from recycled materials to brick-built homes and with amenities such as water, gas, electricity and hard-surfaced roads lacking.

In the 1940s, Billericay and Essex County Councils, who were concerned about the lack of amenities on the area and how it had evolved, petitioned the Government to create a New Town, and on January 4 1949, Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town and Country Planning, officially designated Basildon as a ‘New Town’.   Basildon Development Corporation was formed in February 1949 to transform the designated area into a modern new town.   The New Town incorporated Laindon and Pitsea and was laid out around small neighbourhoods with the first house being completed in June 1951.  The first tenants moved into homes on 18 June 1951, in numbers 59, 61, and 63 Redgrave Road in Vange.

Railway Sleepers Basildon Essex

Railway Sleepers

West Bromwich West Midlands

Approximate Population: 136,940

West Bromwich is famous for its football club, West Bromwich Albion.   The club was founded in 1878 and in 1888 it became one of the twelve founder members of the Football League.   It won the league championship in 1920 and has won the FA Cup five times, most recently in 1968.   The club recently won the Coca Cola Championship in 2008.   Albion were based in and around the centre of West Bromwich during their formative years, but moved further out of the town in 1900 when they switched to their current ground, The Hawthorns.

Engineering and chemicals are important to the town’s economy, as it played a crucial part in the Industrial Revolution during the 19th century and still retains many manufacturing jobs to this day, despite a steady nationwide decline in this sector since the 1970s.

Sandwell General Hospital is located near the town centre.   It is part of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the United Kingdom.  William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth had his seat at Sandwell Hall.   Legge was unusual as an aristocrat of this period by being a Methodist and attending the Wednesbury Methodist meetings, where fellow Methodists - many of them colliers and drovers - knew him as “Brother Earl”.

Railway Sleepers

West Bromwich West Midlands

Railway Sleepers Rotherham South Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 117,262

From 2007 the town centre underwent an extensive urban regeneration project known as the “Rotherham Renaissance”: the buildings include apartments, retail units, outdoor cafés, and a new theatre.  The Guest and Chrimes factory site forms a significant part of the project, incorporating residential space, commercial space and council offices.   Forge Island (current Tesco site) is planned to form an anchor project containing a new Cultural Centre, retail & apartments.   In June 2007 construction began on the new St. Anne’s Leisure Complex and is currently well into construction with all the frame work up.   In October 2007 plans were announced for a new railway station which is planned to open in 2010.    The Renaissance will take up to 25 years to complete.

The project is well into work and is starting to show.   As of July 2008 one of the main apartment shopping buildings on Domine Lane is nearly completed and will be opening in October.   It is dominating the skyline of the town centre.   Next to this is Keppel Wharf which is similar hight to the Domine Lane complex.   This has started recently but is already as high as Dinine Lane and will take a year to complete.   The Imperial Buildings are well into its renovation.   The Guest and Chrimes site is almost cleared, and the All Saints Building has been prepared for demolition.

Railway Sleepers Rotherham South Yorkshire

Railway Sleepers

Northampton Northamptonshire

Approximate Population: 202,800

Northampton became significant in the 11th century, when the Normans built town walls and a large castle under the stewardship of the Norman earl, Simon de Senlis.  The original defence line of the walls is preserved in today’s street pattern (Bridge St, The Drapery, Bearward St and Scarletwell Street). The town grew rapidly after the Normans arrived, and beyond the early defences.   By the time of the Domesday Book, the town had a population of about 1500 residents, living in 300 houses.

The town and its castle were important in the early 12th century and the King often held Court in the town. During his famous fall out with Henry II, Thomas Becket at one time escaped from Northampton Castle through the unguarded Northern gate to flee the country.

Northampton had a large Jewish population in the 13th century, centred around Gold Street.   In 1277 300 Jews were executed, allegedly for clipping the King’s coin, and the Jews of Northampton were driven out of the town.

The town was originally controlled by officials acting for the King who collected taxes and upheld the law.   In 1189 King Richard I gave the town its first charter.   In 1215 King John authorised the appointment of William Tilly as the town’s first Mayor and ordered that: ‘twelve of the better and more discreet residents of the town join him as a council to assist him’.   In 1176 the Assize of Northampton laid down new powers for dealing with law breakers.

Railway Sleepers

Northampton Northamptonshire

Railway Sleepers Bromley London

Approximate Population: 280,305

Bromley is an urban centre in the London Borough of Bromley and is listed as a metropolitan centre in the London Plan. It is situated 9.3 miles (15.0 km) south east of Charing Cross. The origin of the town’s name is from Old English brōme-hlǣwe, or “broom hill”, as supported by records of the name as Bramelewe in 1272. Other places with this name are from Old English brōme-leah meaning ‘broom clearing’ or wood clearing. Bromley was historically in the county of Kent before the creation of Greater London in 1965.

The town has a large shopping and retail area including a pedestrianised High Street and The Glades shopping centre. Bromley is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. The London Borough of Bromley Civic Centre is located in the town. The historic Wickham Court with its crow-stepped gable construction is located in Bromley. Bromley’s main retail rival is Croydon, to the west. Bromley is represented by Conservative MP Bob Neill.

There are two railway stations providing connections to the Central London. Bromley South is located on the Chatham main line and is served by fast and local services to Victoria and Blackfriars. Bromley North is located at the southern end of a short branch line from Grove Park from where connections can be made for London Bridge, Cannon Street and London Charing Cross.

Railway Sleepers Bromley London

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Stoke Staffordshire

Approximate Population: 457,165

An early proposal for a federation took place in 1888, when an amendment was raised to the Local Government Bill which would have made the six towns districts within a county of ‘Staffordshire Potteries’.   It was not until 1 April 1910 that the Six Towns were brought together.   The county borough of Hanley, the municipal boroughs of Burslem, Longton, and Stoke, together with the urban districts of Tunstall and Fenton now formed a single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent.  The combined borough took the name of town of Stoke.

The borough proposed in 1919 to expand further and annex the neighbouring borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Wolstanton United Urban District, both to the west of Stoke: this met strong objections from Newcastle Corporation and never took place.   A further attempt was made in 1930, with the promotion of the Stoke-on-Trent Extension Bill.   Ultimately, Wolstanton was added to Newcastle-under-Lyme instead in 1932. Although attempts to take Newcastle, Wolstanton and Kidsgrove (north of Tunstall) were never successful, the borough did however expand in 1922, taking in Smallthorne Urban District, and parts of other parishes from Stoke upon Trent Rural District.   The borough was officially granted city status in 1925 with a Lord Mayor from 1928.

The city’s county borough status was abolished in 1974, and it became a non-metropolitan district of Staffordshire.   Its status was restored as a unitary authority with the local authority as Stoke-on-Trent City Council whilst remaining part of the ceremonial county of Staffordshire on 1 April 1997.

Railway Sleepers Stoke Staffordshire

Railway Sleepers

Warrington Cheshire

Approximate Population: 195,200

Warrington is a large town, borough and unitary authority area in Cheshire, England.   It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley.   The population of the borough of Warrington, including its 18 civil parishes, is around 194,000.   Its population has more than doubled since its designation as a New Town in 1968.

Historically a part of Lancashire, Warrington was founded by the Romans at an important crossing place on the River Mersey.   A new settlement was established by the Saxons and by the Middle Ages, Warrington had emerged as a market town at an important bridging point.   A local tradition of textile and tool production dates from this time.

The expansion and urbanisation of Warrington largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution, particularly after the Mersey was made navigable in the 18th century.   The West Coast Mainline runs north to south through the town, and the Liverpool to Manchester railway (the Cheshire Lines route) west to east.   The Manchester Ship Canal cuts through the south of the borough (west to east).   The M6, M56 and M62 motorways form a partial box around the town.

Railway Sleepers Warrington Cheshire