The Brontës, BY RAIL
ON August 24, 1847 a package was dispatched from Keighley station, which had opened in March of that year, to a publisher in London. Handwritten and running to around 400 pages the resultant book, ‘Jane Eyre’ (first published in October 1847) was an instant bestseller. The book brought the writings of a singular family living on the edge of the Pennine moors to the attention of literary Britain. We are, of course, talking about the Brontës – a family of literary sisters and poet brother, who have been of interest to many ever since that precious parcel made it into print.
Charlotte Brontë had first travelled by train as early as 1837 with her friend Ellen Nussey on a trip to Bridlington. The journey was on the Leeds and Selby, one of the first lines in Yorkshire and the first line in the world where the trains were hauled through a tunnel by a steam locomotive.
The Leeds station was at Marsh Lane and travellers would have entered Richmond Hill tunnel almost as soon as the train was underway. The tunnel had whitewashed walls with copper sheets at the entrances and ventilation shafts to reflect light into it – presumably to reassure passengers in what was then a unique experience. Those in Third Class carriages travelled in vehicles with no roof, and First Class was like a road coach with luggage going on the roof. Richmond Hill tunnel is no longer there, having been opened out in the widening of the approaches to Leeds when the direct line to the ‘new station’ was built in 1893, but the site of Marsh Lane station remains as a siding on the north side of the mainline when approaching Leeds from the east.
The Leeds and Selby carried 261,639 passengers the year after Charlotte travelled, its marketing as route to Hull clearly being a success. The
