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York by Ian Scott Massie
Not for sale
GEORGE HUDSON
For 30 years I taught for a school in North Yorkshire at Baldersby Park, a lovely Palladian house which had been the country home of George Hudson, “The Railway King”.
We’ve now got used to the idea that railways don’t often make a profit, that new developments are ruinously expensive and cutting routes, rather than extending them, is the norm. So it’s difficult for us to imagine the furious mania among the entrepreneurs of the 1830s and 40s to create railways and grow fat on the profits.
George Hudson had plenty of ambition. He started working at a drapers in York, married the boss’s daughter and eventually took over the company. Having understood the potential the railways offered, and how York was beautifully placed to benefit from them, he managed to become chairman of the York & North Midland Railway in 1836. His big idea was to build a line to Newcastle and he persuaded the famed railway engineer George Stephenson that a line to London should run through York, rather than Leeds. !n 1846 he was elected MP for Sunderland, giving him a voice in parliament (all railway development had to be approved by parliamentary bill) and bought a couple of fine estates, at one of which he built a private railway station.
His downfall came when one of his companies was found to be buying shares in another at inflated prices. The vendor was Hudson and so was the buyer. Soon further fraud came to light with regard to fictional revenues and expenditure. He sold his assets, including Baldersby Park, but it wasn’t enough. He was expelled from York and, a final indignity, his waxwork at Madame Tussauds was melted down. As a debtor he faced prison, but was exempt as a sitting MP. After each parliamentary term, therefore, he departed immediately for the Continent. Alas his luck ran out eventually and he lost his Sunderland seat. He was arrested and put into debtor’s prison in York Castle. His final journey was in a coffin via the North Eastern Railway, the successor to his companies, for burial near York.
We’ve now got used to the idea that railways don’t often make a profit, that new developments are ruinously expensive and cutting routes, rather than extending them, is the norm. So it’s difficult for us to imagine the furious mania among the entrepreneurs of the 1830s and 40s to create railways and grow fat on the profits.
George Hudson had plenty of ambition. He started working at a drapers in York, married the boss’s daughter and eventually took over the company. Having understood the potential the railways offered, and how York was beautifully placed to benefit from them, he managed to become chairman of the York & North Midland Railway in 1836. His big idea was to build a line to Newcastle and he persuaded the famed railway engineer George Stephenson that a line to London should run through York, rather than Leeds. !n 1846 he was elected MP for Sunderland, giving him a voice in parliament (all railway development had to be approved by parliamentary bill) and bought a couple of fine estates, at one of which he built a private railway station.
His downfall came when one of his companies was found to be buying shares in another at inflated prices. The vendor was Hudson and so was the buyer. Soon further fraud came to light with regard to fictional revenues and expenditure. He sold his assets, including Baldersby Park, but it wasn’t enough. He was expelled from York and, a final indignity, his waxwork at Madame Tussauds was melted down. As a debtor he faced prison, but was exempt as a sitting MP. After each parliamentary term, therefore, he departed immediately for the Continent. Alas his luck ran out eventually and he lost his Sunderland seat. He was arrested and put into debtor’s prison in York Castle. His final journey was in a coffin via the North Eastern Railway, the successor to his companies, for burial near York.
How it would look on your wall
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