Southend Corporation Trams 1901-1942

Presenter: Richard Delahoy

Meeting Held via Zoom

For a relatively small town Southend-on-Sea has an interesting transport history – two rival rail routes (LT&S and GE) and two tram systems, as well as trolleybuses, motor buses and pleasure steamers.  The population in 1901 was 47 000, but this almost trebled by 1921 and is now c.185 000.  A small town, originally a fishing hamlet at the south end of the parish of Prittlewell, became a popular and fashionable watering hole in Georgian and Victorian times.  It was accessed however by the denizens of London by steamers.  For this a pier was necessary.  It had to be a long one to reach navigable water at low tide and to get from shore to sea (1 ¼ mile) a tramway was built.  Originally horse-drawn and then electrified it became dieselised in recent years and now has brand-new battery trains just about to enter service.

The main tram network involved street running with some segregated tracks along boulevards.  The gauge was only 3’6” and the system spread to Leigh, at one time a separate local authority.  Rolling stock developed from the rather primitive “toast-rack” vehicles to closed and semi-closed trams.  The system had its heyday in the inter-war years, reaching its zenith on August Bank Holiday 1929 when 137 209 passengers were carried, but started to decline and was closed in 1942.

Richard is very knowledgeable about his subject, having many years of involvement and being amongst other things, a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.  He runs the Essex Bus Enthusiast Group and is and has been associated with many other transport organisations.  He gave an excellent presentation, finishing with a brief survey of the town’s trolleybuses and a Q & A session.  If this reporter may be allowed a recollection: I’m not old enough to remember the trams, but I did travel on the trolleybuses, which, as I recall, gave very smooth and rapid acceleration, and were of course neither smelly nor noisy.  I remember in particular that frequently when turning from Victoria Avenue into Fairfax Drive, at the bottom of Prittlewell Hill, one of the poles or arms would come off the wires; this required the conductor to extricate a long bamboo pole from under the vehicle in order to reposition the arm back onto the wire.  I seem to recall a lot of sparking and arcing – great spectator sport!