Waggonway Research Circle

Waggonway / wagonway - brief outline and resources list

The waggonway (or wagonway depending which part of the UK you come from) was the earliest form of railway. No one is yet sure whether it evolved or was invented but what we do know is that between the Autumn of 1603 and the 1st October 1604 one had been built near Nottingham in the English East Midlands. It ran for approximately two miles from Strelley to Wollaton to assist the haulage of coal. Earlier examples may have been built but the Wollaton Waggonway is currently the earliest recorded surface level waggonway anywhere in the world and is therefore believed, currently, to have been the first. It was built by Huntingdon Beaumont who was the partner of the local land-owner Sir Percival Willoughby.

A waggonway / wagonway used wooden bodied vehicles, hauled by horses. It had flanged wheels running on an edge rail. These wheels and rails were also made from wood until much later in the development of the systems when iron began to be introduced. In a period in the late 1700s and early 1800s some were also built using an L shaped iron rail system and plain flanged, normal, cart wheels. However despite some merits to the system when routes were operating on small scale with horse haulage as the railway era with steam locomotives expanded the L rail system was seen as a "blind alley" and it faded from the scene.