Bath Tramways
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Bath Tramways Company and its successors operated a horse-drawn tramway service in
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
between 1880 and 1902. From 1903 until its closure in 1939 an expanded route carried electric trams operated by Bath Electric Tramways Company.


History

The first service ran on 24 December 1880. The initial line was from the
Bath Spa railway station Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath, Somerset, Bath in Somerset, England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, down the line from the zero point at between to the east and to the west. It is the busies ...
via Southgate Street, High Street and Walcot to Grosvenor College. It used six horse drawn cars built by George Starbuck of
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, with a stable and depot in Kensington. The service was not profitable and on 26 May 1884 the company was taken over by the Patent Cable Tramways Corporation. Seven further 12-seater cars were purchased. It entered liquidation and was taken over by Dick, Kerr & Co. on 11 August 1888. This was taken over by the Bath Road Car and Tramways Company, who already ran the buses in the area, on 1 April 1889. The horse drawn service continued until 1902 when the company was taken over by Bath Corporation and modernised and electrified by the Bath Electric Tramways Company, a subsidiary of
British Electric Traction British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Ren ...
. The tracks were taken up and replaced by a track. Six electric cars were brought in December 1903 and on 2 January 1904 the new service opened. Additional lines to
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,
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,
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and Oldfield Park were constructed. The company fleet was blue and yellow. There were 18 55-seat tramcars all purchased in 1903 and 1904 from G. F. Milnes & Co. which operated from a new depot in Beehive Yard off Walcot Street. In 1905 an additional line to
Newton St Loe Newton St Loe is a small Somerset village and civil parish located close to the villages of Corston and Stanton Prior, between Bath and Bristol in England. The majority of the village is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The parish has a popula ...
opened and proposals were drawn up to connect this with
Bristol Tramways Bristol Tramways operated in the city of Bristol, England from 1875, when the Bristol Tramways Company was formed by Sir George White, 1st Baronet, Sir George White, until 1941 when a Luftwaffe bomb destroyed the main power supply cables. His ...
although this was never built. To operate this line the fleet was joined by four single-decked 30-seat cars known as 'whippets'. On 3 July 1933, a tram ran away backwards on Wells Road and crashed into another tram. A passenger was killed and fifteen were injured. In 1936 the company was taken over by the
Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company The Bristol Omnibus Company was a dominant bus operator in Bristol, and was one of the oldest bus companies in the United Kingdom. It ran buses over a wide area of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and neighbouring counties. History Early ...
who began to replace the trams with their buses. The Newton St Loe line closed in 1938 with the rest closing in May the following year. One of the original horse-drawn tramcars has been preserved, and is now at the
Ipswich Transport Museum The Ipswich Transport Museum is a museum in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, devoted principally to the history of transport and engineering objects made or used in its local area. The museum collection was started by the Ipswich Transport Preservat ...
. It was built by Starbuck Car and Wagon Company of Birkenhead as a single deck vehicle around 1880, and operated in Bath until around 1884. It was then purchased by the Bradford and Shelf Tramway Company, where it was probably used as a trailer to a steam tram, although details are sketchy. By 1894 an upper deck had been added, and the tram was sold again to Cambridge Street Tramways, becoming their number 7. The Cambridge system closed in 1914, and the vehicles were sold at auction. Tram number 7 became a workshop extension to a bungalow in Ely, where it remained until it was rescued in 2003 by the museum. The vehicle was renovated between 2012 and 2019, assisted by a grant from the
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, and its previous history became apparent as the layers of paint were stripped away.


Proposal to re-introduce

In 2006 a private group Trams for Bath proposed their re-introduction. In 2015 a further initiative was under discussion by a new grou
Bath Trams
In 2017
Bath and North East Somerset Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority district in Somerset, South West England. Bath and North East Somerset Council was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the county of Avon. ...
council announced it was to carry out a feasibility study of a light rail system. The study was produced by
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, and in January 2018, Bath Council identified four routes which could have tram routes and identified that the proposals would need further consideration.


References


Bibliography

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External links


Tramway Badges and Buttons: Bath Electric Tramways
{{Historic UK Trams Tram transport in England 4 ft gauge railways in England Transport in Bath, Somerset