PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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1900 - 1904 Wednesday April 3rd 1901 started as a normal day, with the horse trams running as usual. But at 11.30am the route was closed down. The route had been electrified from the junction with the Prince Rock route at Ebrington Street to Compton Lane End at a cost of about £18,000. At 12noon, the Mayor (Mr R Risdon) and about 250 guests assembled in the Guildhall Square and 'afterwards took their seats in eight new electric cars, which were waiting in Westwell-street'. The Mayor and the Tramways Committee travelled in the first car, which was driven by Mr J H Rider, the Borough Electrical Engineer. It ran 'smoothly and steadily' to Mannamead. After receiving greetings from the residents of Compton, the party returned to the centre of town for a luncheon. During the speeches many interesting statistics were made public. One indicated that the system of running the horse-cars had been for 5 cars to run from Theatre to Hyde Park Corner (known as ‘the Mutley cars’) and for the remaining 5 cars to run from the Market to Mannamead (‘the Mannamead cars’). In future the cars would run through from the Theatre to Compton Lane End 'with a slight modification of fares, which includes the introduction of a half-penny fare from the Theatre to Ebrington-street'. First class tram drivers now got paid £1 4s per week plus a bonus and boy conductors first class got 15s plus a bonus. The average working week would in future be 53 hours. The press reported that: 'On the opening of the cars to the public, there was some competition among those eager to get the first ticket. It was secured by Mr C H Sullivan, manager at the printing office of Messrs John Smith. The number was No. BL0000. Mr Sullivan also secured the first ticket on the Prince Rock section'. On Sunday April 7th 1901, a Sunday service of electric trams was started. On the Compton route, the first car left the Theatre at 2pm and Compton at 2.20pm and 10 trams were employed to provide a 5-minute service until 10pm. It rained heavily that day. At some time during 1901 a film was made of the tram journey from the Theatre Royal to Compton. It was shown at the St James's Hall during the week of Monday 18 November 1901, which just happened to be the day that the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Tramway started their service of electric tramcars along Union Street. On April 2nd 1902 a new service from the Theatre Royal to Beaumont Road was opened. This followed the Prince Rock route as far as St Jude's Church but then ran straight on along Beaumont Road as far as the corner with Jephson Road. However, for some reason it was decided that the central terminus should be at the Market instead of Derry's Clock/Theatre Royal. Services on all of Plymouth Corporation's routes except that to West Hoe were severely interrupted following a large fire on June 2nd 1902 at the premises of Messrs Spooner,on the corner of Old Town Street and Bedford Street, opposite St Andrew's Church. The heat was such that it bent the tram-poles and brought down the wires, stopping services for a few days. On Thursday June 12th 1902 Major Pringle, from the Board of Trade, inspected the short length of tramway linking the Plymouth Corporation system to the PS&D track at Derry's Clock and passed it for traffic. The following day, Friday 13th, the trams from Beaumont Road started to run through from their previous terminus at the Market to the Borough boundary at the Palace Theatre in Union Street, under the terms of an agreement by which the Corporation had running powers over the PS&D track within the Borough. The fares would be one penny from Beaumont Road to Derry's Clock and 1½d to the Palace Theatre. It was planned to construct a proper terminus at the Manor Street end and to extend the Compton and Prince Rock services to there as well. So as not to hamper the PS&D service, the Plymouth trams were not allowed any waiting time at the Palace Theatre. Plymouth Corporation Tramways’ next route left the Compton line at Hyde Park Corner and ran off along Peverell Park Road to Peverell Corner, by the Hope Baptist Chapel. Although the line was declared officially opened on Thursday January 1st 1903 it had not in fact been inspected by the Board of Trade at that time. That event took place on Monday January 12th and was evidently successful as permission was given to start the service on the following day, Tuesday January 13th 1903. This meant that the people of Peverell and Pennycross could get into Plymouth very easily. But Tavistock Road (now Outland Road) was actually in the Borough of Devonport so the shopkeepers of Fore Street felt a bit annoyed that their business was going to the neighbouring Town. As a result, Devonport Corporation were persuaded to construct an extension to the Devonport & District Tramway Company's system, from their line at Milehouse along the Tavistock Road to Tor Lane. This line was opened on Saturday October 31st 1903 and leased to the Company. The single fare from Tor Lane to Fore Street was 2d. New regulations brought into force on January 1st 1903 meant that all tramcars must display a red light at the rear. The Western Daily Mercury reported that this would cause confusion in Plymouth because on one particular tram route a red light was used to denote that route. Unfortunately it did not identify the route. It was decided by the Tramways Committee in April and agreed by the Council on May 9th 1904 that during the summer that year the cars from Peverell to the Theatre would be extended along the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Company's line to the Borough boundary at Manor Street. Although it has been claimed this was only short-lived, it is not clear as to whether this actually happened. RETURN TO PCTD
1894-99
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