History on your doorstep: The Day the Railway Came
On 21st August 1863 Falmouth lost its collective mind in a day of anticipatory glee. Finally, after decades of waiting, the railway had arrived in town. Steam! Modernity! Possibility! It was all so very exciting and thus deserved a massive celebration. Long before the Shanty Festival, Falmouth was planning on letting its hair down.
By Will Hazell, Falmouth Uncovered
The arrival of the railway was a big deal for any community, but in Falmouth the anticipation had been particularly strong. Why? Well, since 1689 Falmouth had been the primary station for the Post Office Packet Service, a fleet of ships that carried Britain’s most important communications around the world. But, in 1850, the service was moved to Southampton, which had a direct rail link with London and was thus more appealing than distant Falmouth. The loss of the packets had been a grievous blow for the town, but there were hopes that the new docks and this railway link would herald an even greater future. The West Briton wrote that ‘Never has Falmouth been in such a state of excited enthusiasm.’
Dozens of ‘triumphal arches’ were erected all the way through town (eight along High Street alone), covered in vast quantities of flowers and lit up with gas-powered illuminations, whilst almost every business garlanded their properties with all sorts of decorations. A great procession, a mile in length, paraded through it all in a spirit of great joyousness, from Greenbank all the way to the Falmouth Docks station. Awaiting them was the first train to arrive in Falmouth ‘garlanded and adored, like a sacred cow from far-off Hindustan’, and a banquet for five hundred lucky attendees.
The railway didn’t transform Falmouth in the manner so hoped for, but it did enable tourists to make their way down. A new chapter for Falmouth had indeed begun.
More information in: Illustrated London News - 05/09/1863; The Levelling Sea (2012) by Philip Marsden; West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser - 22/08/1863.
