What is the first railway town?

[DarloRich]

What is the first railway town? I have seen Shildon AND Wolverton so described.

 

[norbitonflyer]

What is the first railway town? I have seen Shildon AND Wolverton so described.

Also Swindon and, in particular, Crewe. The original hamlet of Crewe, now known as Crewe Green, is over a mile from the station and lies outside the boundary of the town of Crewe.

 

[Gloster]

What is the first railway town? I have seen Shildon AND Wolverton so described.

It depends on what you mean by ‘railway town’. MY definition would be one where the railway or associated business employ a substantial proportion of the resident workforce, but I am not going to define ‘substantial’. I reckon that Shildon probably just pips Wolverton to the title as it had a works from circa 1832, but it does depend on what proportion of the increased population was involved with the railway, rather than other industries that had been stimulated by it, such as mining.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Oct 2025 ==

Also Swindon and, in particular, Crewe. The original hamlet of Crewe, now known as Crewe Green, is over a mile from the station and lies outside the boundary of the town of Crewe.

Crewe Works was not established until 1839 and Swindon in 1842. In both cases there was a small town there, so it would have taken a while before the railway dominated the local economy.

 

[Rescars]

It depends on what you mean by ‘railway town’. MY definition would be one where the railway or associated business employ a substantial proportion of the resident workforce, but I am not going to define ‘substantial’. I reckon that Shildon probably just pips Wolverton to the title as it had a works from circa 1832, but it does depend on what proportion of the increased population was involved with the railway, rather than other industries that had been stimulated by it, such as mining.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Oct 2025 ==



Crewe Works was not established until 1839 and Swindon in 1842. In both cases there was a small town there, so it would have taken a while before the railway dominated the local economy.

Probably not what DarloRich has in mind and not quite a town, but the township of Riccarton (adjacent to Riccarton Junction) was unique in being entirely the creation of the railways with no other connection to the outside world. At least one person in every household worked for the railway. And when the railway closed the township evaporated too!

 

[Western Gaffer]

Probably not what DarloRich has in mind and not quite a town, but the township of Riccarton (adjacent to Riccarton Junction) was unique in being entirely the creation of the railways with no other connection to the outside world. At least one person in every household worked for the railway. And when the railway closed the township evaporated too!

This is covered in a recent Rediscovering Lost Railways video about the history of the Waverley route, including some still photos illustrating how remote the place was - about 16 minutes into this:

 

[matchmaker]

It depends on what you mean by ‘railway town’. MY definition would be one where the railway or associated business employ a substantial proportion of the resident workforce, but I am not going to define ‘substantial’. I reckon that Shildon probably just pips Wolverton to the title as it had a works from circa 1832, but it does depend on what proportion of the increased population was involved with the railway, rather than other industries that had been stimulated by it, such as mining.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Oct 2025 ==



Crewe Works was not established until 1839 and Swindon in 1842. In both cases there was a small town there, so it would have taken a while before the railway dominated the local economy.

Springburn, Cowlairs works opened in 1841? It wasn't absorbed into Glasgow until 1872.

 

[WolvertonWorks]

It depends on what you mean by ‘railway town’. MY definition would be one where the railway or associated business employ a substantial proportion of the resident workforce, but I am not going to define ‘substantial’. I reckon that Shildon probably just pips Wolverton to the title as it had a works from circa 1832, but it does depend on what proportion of the increased population was involved with the railway, rather than other industries that had been stimulated by it, such as mining.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Oct 2025 ==



Crewe Works was not established until 1839 and Swindon in 1842. In both cases there was a small town there, so it would have taken a while before the railway dominated the local economy.

I understood that Shildon had the first railway works and that Wolverton had the second. But the town that is nowadays Wolverton was built on a greenfield site and known initially as Wolverton Station and was purpose built to provide housing for those arriving from all over the country to work at the railway works. So the first purpose built railway town is Wolverton.

The existing small village of Wolverton was about a mile away from the location of Wolverton Station and is nowadays known as Old Wolverton. Holy Trinity church in Old Wolverton village provided too small and inconvenient for the growing population of Wolverton, the town, so the railway company built a new church St George's in the early 1840s plus other facilities such as the Science and Arts Institute and the Bathhouse (the building still used today for community events).

Men arrived from all over with their families and then as the younger men married and had their own families the railway company realised by the 1870s that they had a problem as Wolverton was very much a railway town and had few other employment opportunities (the sons would go into the Works as apprentices) and there were now a growing number of daughters of the workmen with no employment prospects other than if they could find a job in domestic service. So Sir Richard Moon, Chairman of the London & North Western Railway, had an idea for solving the problem and contacted his friend George McCorquodale and persuaded him to build a printing business in Wolverton which could employ the majority of the unmarried female population.

 

[NER1621]

Just a point of information: the railway settlement at Shildon around the new works was a new settlement called (amazingly) New Shildon: Shildon is further away. The two settlements have now merged, but I would suggest that on that basis New Shildon does still have a claim as the first railway town. Yes, compared to Wolverton and Crewe it was tiny, but that’s what happens when you are first and no-one really knows where the technology is going to lead…

 

[Dr Hoo]

‘Town’ might be stretching it a bit but the tiny hamlet of Bugsworth (near Chapel-en-le-Frith and Chinley) suddenly boomed to greatness in 1796 when the pioneering Peak Forest Tramway met the Macclesfield Canal. Large amounts of limestone were transshipped from rail to canal, needing a lot of workers.

I think that the OP is restricting themselves to the first railway MANUFACTURING WORKS town with Shildon and so on.

 

[D1511]

I understood that Shildon had the first railway works and that Wolverton had the second. But the town that is nowadays Wolverton was built on a greenfield site and known initially as Wolverton Station and was purpose built to provide housing for those arriving from all over the country to work at the railway works. So the first purpose built railway town is Wolverton.

The existing small village of Wolverton was about a mile away from the location of Wolverton Station and is nowadays known as Old Wolverton. Holy Trinity church in Old Wolverton village provided too small and inconvenient for the growing population of Wolverton, the town, so the railway company built a new church St George's in the early 1840s plus other facilities such as the Science and Arts Institute and the Bathhouse (the building still used today for community events).

Men arrived from all over with their families and then as the younger men married and had their own families the railway company realised by the 1870s that they had a problem as Wolverton was very much a railway town and had few other employment opportunities (the sons would go into the Works as apprentices) and there were now a growing number of daughters of the workmen with no employment prospects other than if they could find a job in domestic service. So Sir Richard Moon, Chairman of the London & North Western Railway, had an idea for solving the problem and contacted his friend George McCorquodale and persuaded him to build a printing business in Wolverton which could employ the majority of the unmarried female population.

This is the definitive answer. It is most certainly Wolverton, and as a result of a question to Milton Keynes City Council, a certain person has been tasked to have a plaque made to celebrate this fact, in this, the 200th year, of railways
Not sure where it's going to go.....Bathhouse looks like a contender