Hoole and the Railways: Difference between revisions
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=== The impact of the railways on the small settlement of Hoole ===
[[File:Bradshaw's Guide.jpg|thumb|''Illustration from 'Bradshaw's Guide''']]
In 1841, the small village of Hoole was part of a world where the parish boundary of St. Peter's Church, Plemstall (or ''Plemondstall'' as it was called in the tithe records) and the city parishes of St. Oswald's and St. John's still shaped the identity of the community and an appreciation of what was lawful. The rigid social hierarchy was based on aristocratic landowners with shared certainties in their religious and political principles and matters of taste. Major landowners included the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Hamilton and Brittain families.
Bagshaw’s 1850 Directory described Hoole township in 1841, with its
However, between 1841 and 1861, on the same acreage, the population rose from 294 to 1,596. By 1881 just under 3000 people were living in Hoole - an increase of 900%!
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Although Chester never became a true Railway Town (like Crewe), the railways had a direct and major impact in changing permanently the social structure of the city and the employment of its citizens. The history and development of the suburb of Hoole directly flows from the railways.
=== Housing ===
All of the new arrivals needed accommodation and, although some railway employees were able to find cheaper accommodation in New Town and the area around the canal side, the growing workforce needed to be within walking distance of the station. There was a great local demand amongst the many employees of the railways and its associated workshops for appropriate places to live. Land sold to the railway company may have had restrictive covenants preventing industrial development, but these would not have covered residential development.
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Development spread from a nucleus around Faulkner Street. Streets of modest terraced housing spread towards the London and North Western Railway Goods yard and across Hoole Road towards the Great Western Railway goods and engine shed. The map below clearly shows the position of the competing railway lines and the proposed site of what became the present Chester station.
Hoole Bridge curves instead of going in a straight line on from Hoole Way because as the 1846 map shows, the railway was built directly across the historic straight route from Brook Street onto the turnpike of Hoole Road (a toll road which began at Flookersbrook, run by a Turnpike Trust).
=== Jobs ===
The 1851 to 1881 census returns for Hoole show the arrival of railway workers from far away, including a railway inspector from Scotland living in Hoole Villas, locomotive firemen in Peploe Street (now Westminster Road), who had arrived from Penzance, and the Railway Manager, William Peabody from Northamptonshire who lived in Lightfoot Street.
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