The Midland Railway Society are delighted to make our collection of Midland Railway two-chains-to-the-inch land plans downloadable directly from the Midland Railway Study Centre’s web site. This treasure-trove of information is made available free-of-charge, subject only to a non-commercial usage Creative Commons Licence as detailed on the linked-page.
In 1908 the Company appointed a new Estate Agent (also known as the Land Agent). Peter Service brought in a number of changes which proved hugely important to the Company, and more importantly, to us in the present day. The decision from which the rest really stemmed, was to “remile” the network. Thus a fragmented system based on a given line’s original construction coalesced into Zero Miles at the buffer stops of St. Pancras and a logical system working out therefrom. Of course, the Mile Posts that came with the new system were uniquely Midland and continue to form the basis of route measurement this day. Integral with the mileage of the line are the Distance Diagrams that will be so very familiar to anyone who has even briefly studied Midland Railway geography. Arguably the jewel-in-the-crown of all this, however, was the introduction of the Two Chains to the Inch Land Plans.
Taking most of the first decade of the 20th century to complete, a legion of surveyors, draughtsmen and tracers* created these stunningly detailed records of every square inch of land the Company owned or accessed, to include every single rail that the Company had thus far laid-down. Buildings, infrastructure, signals and the surrounding topography is intricately captured by these plans, each one covering a uniform distance of 60 Chains (equal to three-quarters of a mile). In addition to the physical detail, the plans record the land ownership at the time of parliamentary powers were obtained, along with the appropriate entry number in the associated book of reference. This information is completed by the relevant Deed Number, for ease of reference by the Land Agent.
The Midland Railway Study Centre’s collection — gained both through the Roy F. Burrows Collection as well as Derby Museums — provides good coverage of the Midland Railway’s network, but inevitably falls short in many areas. As a rule of thumb, the more important a line was (or indeed remains today), the more likely a gap will be found in our coverage, or the substitution of photocopies — though these tend to be more-than-adequate substitutes.
We hope these wonderful plans prove useful to a wide range of people.
