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A History of the World in a Dozen Objects: Number 4 - Railway Deeds
2011.05.20
1. In the pre-computer age all documents had to be manually filed. All were carefully numbered. The back side of the paper is used as a heading sheet when everything is folded up.
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2. To authenticate a document wax seals were added. The Great Northern Railway had obviously gone to great expense to produce a large and elaborate seal.
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3. The ordinary people signing the document had much smaller simpler and seemingly identical seals. My guess is that these would have belonged to their solicitors.
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4. All maps had to be drawn by hand.
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5. The measurements are somewhat archaic. A chain is 20.1 metres (66 feet).
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6. Documents would have been prepared in advance with the salient details written in on the day. Here the exact date has been added in slightly different ink.
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7. The blue stamp acts as proof that tax has been paid.
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8. Any amendments had to be made by hand.
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9. Even as late as this, some people could not sign their own name and used a cross instead.
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The images posted here are all parts of the same legal document; an indenture for the procurement of lands by the Great Northern Railway in 1871 for the building of the Barnet Extension Line. The vendor a widow named Mrs Sarah Parsons was apparently trying to make some money so that she could live from the gains on her husband's estate.
Historically it is interesting because of the rapid development of the railways between 1830 and 1900, not just here in the UK but across the globe. The railways brought with them population grown, economic wealth (for some at least), lots of hard toil for others, and unprecedented freedom of travel for most.
Some countries, notably India and Argentina were kept poor for decades as they had to pay European companies exorbitant interest on loans for building railways which were never the economic miracle that had been claimed. Other countries, notably the USA, may have looked very different as without the railways. This is because certain large populous areas would have never been possible in the days when the chief transport alternative was a horse on an unmade track.
As well as these things railways brought in standardisation. Although it is still possible in some parts of the word to take a train journey where your carriage will be lifted by crane from one set of boggies (wheel arrangements) to another to carry on riding on a different sized track, in most places such difficulties have been overcome. 60% of countries now have a standard railway gauge.
Perhaps a more interesting and important standardisation though was of time itself. Before the railways each town would keep its own time. This was fine when travelling between places was at little more than walking pace , but totally impractical for writing a railway timetable. From this point on the standard times that people used would all depend on which zone they were in.
As well as the big railway stories though, I think there's lots we can learn just by looking at some of the details of the document. I've therefore put some captions under each picture to highlight certain things I've noticed.
An aside:
As well as the historical information in this document there are certain things that I really like about it on a personal level.
My great grandmother's name was also Parsons. Sarah Parsons lived in St Albans about 10 miles up the mainline; my parents used to run a pub in St Albans called The Great Northern, after the railway. My wife was born in Barnet. All of these facts are co-incidental though. No-one in my family is linked in any way to this document.
The images posted here are all parts of the same legal document; an indenture for the procurement of lands by the Great Northern Railway in 1871 for the building of the Barnet Extension Line. The vendor a widow named Mrs Sarah Parsons was apparently trying to make some money so that she could live from the gains on her husband's estate.
Historically it is interesting because of the rapid development of the railways between 1830 and 1900, not just here in the UK but across the globe. The railways brought with them population grown, economic wealth (for some at least), lots of hard toil for others, and unprecedented freedom of travel for most.
Some countries, notably India and Argentina were kept poor for decades as they had to pay European companies exorbitant interest on loans for building railways which were never the economic miracle that had been claimed. Other countries, notably the USA, may have looked very different as without the railways. This is because certain large populous areas would have never been possible in the days when the chief transport alternative was a horse on an unmade track.
As well as these things railways brought in standardisation. Although it is still possible in some parts of the word to take a train journey where your carriage will be lifted by crane from one set of boggies (wheel arrangements) to another to carry on riding on a different sized track, in most places such difficulties have been overcome. 60% of countries now have a standard railway gauge.
Perhaps a more interesting and important standardisation though was of time itself. Before the railways each town would keep its own time. This was fine when travelling between places was at little more than walking pace , but totally impractical for writing a railway timetable. From this point on the standard times that people used would all depend on which zone they were in.
As well as the big railway stories though, I think there's lots we can learn just by looking at some of the details of the document. I've therefore put some captions under each picture to highlight certain things I've noticed.
An aside:
As well as the historical information in this document there are certain things that I really like about it on a personal level.
My great grandmother's name was also Parsons. Sarah Parsons lived in St Albans about 10 miles up the mainline; my parents used to run a pub in St Albans called The Great Northern, after the railway. My wife was born in Barnet. All of these facts are co-incidental though. No-one in my family is linked in any way to this document.
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Great story Jon and some new learned.
GKorts · 2011-05-21: 01:50
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Makes really fascinating reading. A great post Jon.
SADHYA · 2011-05-21: 04:33
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Fascinating story - I love old documents. Are you sure they're not connected - it's such a coincidence :-)
jet28 · 2011-05-21: 06:54
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Such nice penmanship though... I couldn't write like that if my life depended on it... ;) Great piece, Jon.
smbunation · 2011-05-21: 09:46
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wonderful series and pen work :)
mountainflower · 2011-05-21: 14:22
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they say that Canada became a country when the last spike was driven in the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1885... and Standardized time was developed by Sir Sanford Fleming, a Scottish born Canadian engineer..
McMommy · 2011-05-21: 22:49
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Very interesting!
wildduck · 2011-05-22: 04:48
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Fascinating post.
girafferacing · 2011-05-23: 18:04
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The handwriting is fascinating...I wonder if the next generation will not forget how to write by hand:)
Eiram · 2011-05-24: 16:23
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Very interesting and amazing there is no connection....really cool hand writing and the seals i always thought were cool,,,exceelant shots in all this posts !
MARETKA88 · 2011-05-28: 12:16
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Views: 337
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