Here is a guide to how I research railway and other deposited plans. It is by no means the only way of working, but may be a helpful guide if you are starting out.
Deposited plans are really important if you are researching footpaths and bridleways, since they are one of the few documents where they are shown and described as such.
It is worth saying that, particularly if you are a railway enthusiast, this research can be great fun. I greatly enjoyed finding out about the unbuilt Cuckmere Valley Light Railway, which would have run down to the famous Cuckmere Valley meanders and then steeply up over the hills behind the Seven Sisters to Birling Gap. Who knows what combination of powerful and light locomotives would have been needed for it and what traffic it would have generated. And I can still imagine the unbuilt Brighton to Lewes canal, which would have gone almost right past our house. I was fascinated by the battles between local railway companies evidenced by their plans to invade each other’s territory.
- Read the section in “ Restoring the Record” on railway and other deposited plans to get an idea of why they are important and how they are set out.
- If you are working as part of a team then discuss with other members how you will let them know what you find. This will depend on how your team records information.
- See if you can find an index to railway deposited plans in your area of interest anywhere. Railway historians are numerous and you may find that someone has compiled a list together with where the records can be found. Email your county archive to ask if they know about such a list. There will probably be a county history society. Locate them and ask if they have created a list or know someone who has. This way you may be able to skip stage 4 so it is well worth trying to find this.
- The next stop is your county record office. This can be an easier way to search, if only because the records will be limited to your county! Ask the office how to search for railway deposited plans. In East Sussex they are all filed under the prefix QDP and it is possible to bring up a list of all the deposited plans for built and unbuilt railways. Ask the archive staff how comprehensive their collection is and how much is missing. Compare the list with your own knowledge of railways that were built in your area. Are there any missing?
- If there are lines missing then you will have to go to the National or Parliamentary archives. Since East Sussex seems to have everything I have not had to do this so I can’t give you practical advice. But even if the list at your local records office is not complete I would start there. It is local, and you will be able to get your eye in before making a possibly long journey to London.
- Your list of deposited plans in the archive catalogue will show built and unbuilt railways. The records of built railways are given more weight but all are worth researching. You will also see deposited plans for turnpikes, canals and even sewers. All these are useful if they go through the area you are interested in. They are in the same form. Records before about 1820 tend to have less detail and so are not as useful.
- Wherever you finally track down your plans they will consist of two records- a book of reference and the actual plans. (unless you are unlucky and one of these has got lost)
- You now have a choice. Either (a) you can photograph everything in the plans and the book of reference (or at least so far as they cover the area you are interested in) and study them at home or (b) you can examine the records in the archive, photographing only what is useful to you. In the advice below I’m going to assume that you go for (b), but the advice can be adapted if you decide to do (a). You will just do more of the work at home and you may pay out more in photo permits.
- Take some a camera (or smartphone) paper, a pencil and an ordnance survey map or maps showing current rights of way and covering the area you are interested in. I find the 1-50,000 maps better as they cover a bigger area but others prefer the 1-25,000 as offering more detail.
- Most archives will only let you use one record at a time so start with the book of reference for the first route you have chosen. This will contain the numbers of the plots through which the line would pass, ordered by parish. Look at the parishes you are interested in. For example, the line might enter your county in Withyham parish. The Withyham entries would go 1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6 etc. Then the route might pass into Hartfield parish, where the numbering would start 1,2,3, 4, 5 again and so on. The book will list who owns each plot. (The parish boundaries may not be the same as they are now)
- Write your own “book of reference” on the paper, listing only the entries that you find that say “road” “bridleway” or “footpath”. Ignore any entries that are prefixed by the word “private”. Note whether or not the owner is listed as “surveyor of highways” or similar(SOH) So you might end up with a list like this for Withyham: 3 footpath (SOH), 16 road (SOH) 23 footpath. Make sure you record which parish you are in. You now have a list of the highways that the proposers of the line thought were in existence at the time of the making of the plans.
- Now get out the actual plan. Unless there is a bit missing, one of the first pages is usually an overall plan showing the route, often based on the first edition of the one inch ordnance survey map. If the route was never built use your pencil to transcribe the route on to the ordnance survey map that you brought with you. You may need a rubber to correct mistakes, but be aware that some archives will not allow rubbers. If it was built much of it may still be on the map, but you may need to add bits in by transcribing them. Occasionally a line was not built wholly on the route of the original plans. In this case there will be separate deviation plan records.
- Have a look at the larger scale plans which will make up the bulk of the plan. These can be difficult to follow because they take the form or a linear map where the position of north constantly changes, but they do have the numbers of the plots clearly set out, as well as the parish names.
- Now go back to your list that you made from the book of reference. See if you can follow the route on your marked ordnance survey map to identify the roads, bridleways and paths that you recorded on your piece of paper. You will probably have to shuffle between your ordnance survey map and the detailed plans, sometimes using the small scale map in the plans to orient yourself. Mark on your piece of paper those roads, bridleways and footpath which are in the book of reference but not shown on your OS map. This can be tricky and you will get lost.
- It may be useful to orientate yourself using the roads, since they will often (but not always) be present in the same position on the overall plan, the detailed plan and your OS map.
- Note any roads that are shown on the plans but which are no longer on your OS map as public roads.
- Use the roads as checkpoints. If between road A and road B the plan shows 3 footpaths, are they still there on your ordnance survey map? Are they in the same place? Be aware that proposers of railways did miss some rights of way. You don’t need to worry about this since you are looking for routes that are in the railway plans but not on your OS map. But do not assume that just because there are three paths between road A and road B on your OS map and on the plan that they are the same paths, until you have checked that they are in the same position.
- Most books of reference will describe footpaths and bridleways as such. You might find and entry in the description which says something like “field and footpath”. Under ownership you might find the owners listed as “Lord Snooty and the Surveyor of Highways”. This is very clear evidence that your footpath was a right of way, because otherwise the surveyor of highways would have no responsibility for it. (Lord Snooty presumably owns the field. If the book says “field and footpath” but only names Lord Snooty as the owner do not despair. Look at how other footpaths are described, especially ones that are on the definitive map today. If they are only described by way of the owner, then this is evidence at least that a footpath existed, and you may be able to say that all the other footpaths crossing the railway in the parish are rights of way today if that is the case. On the other hand if other footpaths are the responsibility of the surveyor of highways then this is evidence against your route being a right of way (although not conclusive)
- If a route is not shown it does not mean that it did not exist. The Railway Surveyor may have overlooked it.
- After this difficult exercise you will have arrived at a list of roads, bridleways and paths, which are shown on the plans, but not on your current OS map as public roads or rights of way. This does not necessarily mean that they are lost rights of way. There may have been a diversion or something similar afterwards, but you do have something worth investigating.
- Do not be discouraged if you find nothing. This will be quite common. A lot of the research we do does not turn anything up, but when you do turn something up it may be the clinching piece of evidence
- The first time you try this exercise it will be difficult. Don’t worry about this. By the third line or so it will have become easier.
- You need to let people know what you have found. If you have not already done so take a photo of the bit on the detailed plan which shows the “missing” road, way or path, trying to get the parish name in the picture. Perhaps note the grid reference and other information which will help identify the place. Remember that you do not have a complete lost way, only a snapshot of part of it. You may want to go on to consult old maps or other sources to find out more, or you may want to leave this to other people. Don’t forget to make notes about which lines you have checked so that no one else has to repeat your work.
Chris Smith 17/3/21