Background for teachers

• Introduction
• Railways
• Rivers and canals
• Road transport

Introduction

Early period

When Victoria became Queen in 1837, most people travelled by road, either on horseback, in horse-drawn vehicles or on foot. Major roads were maintained by Turnpike Trusts or Parish Councils. In 1839, Sussex had 3,046 miles (4,902 kms) of maintained roads, and an extensive network of horse-drawn coach services, with more than 20 coaches a day departing from Brighton, 10 coaches daily from Worthing (around 15 in the summer season), and 9 or 10 a day from Chichester and Horsham.

Most heavy-goods traffic was carried by the canal system which had developed rapidly from the 1770s, expanding to nearly 4,000 miles (6,437 kms) throughout the country by the 1830s. In West Sussex, the first commercial waterway - the Arun Navigation from Littlehampton to near Billingshurst - was opened in 1787. By 1825, when canal building in West Sussex was over, there were 9 canals and navigations. The first steam passenger train service in the country had been introduced in 1830, and the railway network was beginning to grow, with 1,400 miles (2,253 kms) of track in Britain in 1837.

Later period

By the end of Victoria's reign, the railway network in Britain had expanded to 20,000 miles (32,186 kms) of track. The first railway line in West Sussex opened in 1840 and by 1897 another 24 lines had been added.
Although transporting goods by barge was cheaper, canals could not compete with the railway for speed and convenience. In 1871, the Wey and Arun canal - the most important waterway in West Sussex - closed to commercial traffic, and by 1901 commercial traffic had ceased on all but the rivers Adur and Arun, and the Chichester and Southwick waterways.

For passenger traffic, horse-drawn coaches were also unable to compete with the trains, which were quicker, cheaper, and more frequent, and most coach services in Sussex had stopped running by the late 1840s. However, by 1901 another dramatic change was brewing with the appearance in the late 1890s of a new form of transport – the motor car.

For sources for further research try the following publications:

• Local History Mini-Guide to Sources no. 4: Railways in West Sussex (WSCC 2002)
• Local History Mini-Guide to Sources no. 14: Victorian West Sussex (WSCC, 2002) have extensive booklists, plus lists of archival sources and museum collections.
• River, coastal and sea  transport are covered in Local History Mini-Guides to Sources for Bognor (no. 5), Shoreham (no. 7), Worthing (no. 11) and Littlehampton (no. 13).

These booklets are available from from your local library.

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Railways

The arrival of the railways in Sussex, mainly 1839 to 1863, was dramatic and pervasive. The first railway line in West Sussex was the Brighton to Shoreham section which opened in 1840; by 1867 another 17 lines had been opened, and by 1897 the total had reached 25. They provided employment and stimulated the growth of market towns such as Horsham and East Grinstead. The London Brighton and South Coast Railway in particular was to be responsible for a new-found prosperity. On the coast it encouraged the popularity of the seaside resort, resulting in the rapid growth of towns such as Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Worthing.

p = part of line closed
* = re-opened in part by Bluebell Railway

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Rivers and canals

In the early 19th century, most heavy goods traffic was carried by the canal system which had developed rapidly from the 1770s, expanding to nearly 4,000 miles (6,437 kms) throughout the country by the 1830s. In West Sussex, the Arun Navigation from Littlehampton to near Billingshurst was opened in 1787, and the Wey and Arun junction Canal, which extended the navigation up to the River Wey south of Guildford, opened in 1816. It was then possible to transport goods or passengers by boat from the South Coast to London.

Canal building in West Sussex was over by 1825, but canals were used for commercial activity until the 1870s. The waterways offering commercial navigation then were the rivers Adur, Arun and Rother and the following canals: Baybridge, Chichester Ship, Petworth, Portsmouth and Arundel, Southwick Ship and the Wey and Arun Junction. The Wey-Arun canal was the only canal linking the South Coast with the Thames, and thus to the national network of canals. Products such as corn, timber and charcoal, chalk, lime and limestone, marl, iron and marble were easily transported from the landed estates, and livestock was also moved in large numbers.

Most commercial traffic was gradually killed off by competition from the new railways. Although transporting goods by barge was cheaper, canals could not compete with the railway for speed and convenience. In 1865 the railway line between Guildford and Horsham opened in direct competition with the Wey and Arun canal. By 1868 traffic on the canal had virtually ceased, and in 1871 it was officially closed to commercial traffic. By 1901 commercial traffic had ceased on all but the Adur, Arun, Chichester and Southwick waterways.

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Road transport

When Victoria became Queen in 1837, most people travelled by road, either on horseback, in horse-drawn vehicles or on foot. Wealthier people travelled in coaches and carriages, others by gig, cart or wagon. Throughout the 19th century, new forms of horse-drawn carriage such as the barouche, landau, brougham and hansom cab were developed and widely used by the better-off.

There was an extensive network of scheduled stagecoaches for long-distance travel between major towns, with more than 20 departures a day from Brighton, 10 coaches daily from Worthing (around 15 in the summer season), and 9 or 10 a day from Chichester and Horsham.

By 1839, Sussex had 678 miles (1,091 kms) of turnpiked roads, in addition to 2,368 (3,811 kms) repaired by parish surveyors. Parishes were responsible for maintenance of the highways, but were able to hand control over to Turnpike Trusts. The last such scheme was set up in 1841, the year in which the London-Brighton railway opened. By the later 1840s most coach services in Sussex had stopped running. The turnpiking movement was in decline by the 1850s, burdened by financial debt. However, although the arrival of the railway effectively killed off coaching, the new roads had done much to improve communications for the Victorian period.

From the late 1830s there were some local services of horse-drawn omnibuses, most offering one return trip per day, for example from Shoreham to Brighton, or Bognor to Chichester. Such bus services continued to run throughout Victoria's reign between towns and villages that were not linked by the railway. The need for urban transport grew as towns developed, and by 1901 most towns had a network of horse-drawn bus services running throughout the day to a regular timetable, covering routes within the towns themselves and also providing services to and from the railway stations.

In the 1830s there were some experimental steam-driven coaches and omnibuses but by the mid-19th Century the steam-powered vehicles on the roads were mostly used for agriculture. They were heavy and difficult to control; their speed was also limited by the Locomotive Act 1865 to 4mph (6.44kph) in the country and 2mph (3.22kph) in towns, and they had to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag walking 60 yards (55m) in front, to warn horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles. Petrol-driven cars, developed in the 1880s, were lighter and faster. The Locomotive and Highways Act 1896 raised the speed limit to 14 mph (22.5kph) and abolished the need for light vehicles to be preceded by a person on foot. Although in 1901 the motor car was still a novelty form of transport for the rich, by 1903 when car registration and driver's licences were introduced there were more than 5,000 cars on the road.

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