News

HS2 in 1862

17 January 2012

HS2 in 1862: Victorian railway building and the battlefield of St Albans

 

By Dr Peter Burley, National Co-ordinator Battlefields Trust

 

While we grapple with the complexities of major infrastructure development plans for the High Speed rail link 2 (HS2) threatening to run across the battlefield at Edgcote (1469), it may be instructive to look at how the railways (and government) dealt with these same issues in the golden age of steam. 

 

A careful look at a map will show any number of battlefields – core areas and purlieus – with Victorian railways running through or alongside them. This is a case study of what happened in the 1860s when one such proposal was advanced, and it shows what happened to heritage assets then...

 

 

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