Welcome to the Waggonway* Research Circle Website
(Site content last updated 22 May 2011)
This web site has been created to cover the Industrial Archaeology surrounding the development of the early British waggonway (or wagonway)*. These wagonways, or wagonways, were originally made of wood, later evolving into iron L plate tramways or what we today regard as a railway with iron rails.
Some additional material relating to early railways in general is also included including a page relating to the Early Railways Conferences
Due to the interests of the circle members the site has a particular bias at present to the history of the World's first recorded cross-country overland waggonway, (the Wollaton waggonway of 1604) and Huntingdon Beaumont the man who built it. Additional material relating to other waggonway (wagonway) and plateway (plate way) history will be added over time.
Notes
*We decided to spell waggonway with the double g as used the North East of England but it can also be spelt with the single g as wagonway if you prefer.
We apologise for the static nature of the site over the last few months. Our interest in waggonways has not waned, it is just other workload continues to take precedence over website updates. However the major change for the WRC has now been completed with the change in URL. We realised some time ago that the the old fsnet website was no longer sustainable for live updating as due to the constraints imposed by the ISP (Orange) it could only be updated using a slow 56K modem connection, That site has therefore been abandoned as far as active updates are concerned. Although it has not been closed all pages on it now point to this new URL within the web-masters own webspace.
Sponsorship
This website is currently fully sponsored by Island-Publishing
The WRC also thank Strelley Systems Business Centres for their previous sponsorship of WRC activities.