Timeline 1830 - 1870
Rosa Matheson and Patty Baldwin
October 2016

The early years of Queen Victoria's reign witnessed some of the most significant changes in the development of world technology. It was also the period when Box saw some of the changes that turned the village from a local, rural society into a national and international centre of manufacturing.

Box became a wealthy village based on railways and the quarry industry.

Left: Box Tunnel (courtesy Carol Payne)
Box Tunnel Timeline by Rosa Matheson
1835 Great Western Railway Act proposed Box Hill Tunnel
1836 Sinking of trial shaft started under Glennie
1836 September Contract to Paxton & Orton for 6 permanent and 2 temporary shafts
1836 November work started. Steam pumps brought in
1837 February shafts have been sunk
1837 GWR refused finance for pumps, shafts fill with water
1837 Lewis & Brewer take over shafts contract
1837 Tender to complete tunnel by August 1840
1837 Difficulty letting these, Brewer & Lewis take eastern end
1837 November shaft floods no work until July 1838
1838 February contract to George Burge on western end
1838 Brewer & Lewis began construction began in December, dividing work into six sections out from the six main shafts
1839 August 1,350 yards of the tunnel excavated, 1,200 yards entirely finished
1840 Three additional shafts to expedite the work
1841 January Brunel agreed with Burge and Yockney to increase workforce from 1,200 to 4,000
1841 April work mostly completed
1841 June 30th Official opening 30 June
1842 Work still ongoing but trains running
Other Box Dates
1826 Edward Richard Northey inherited Northey Estate
1834 Methodist Church built replacing Ebenezer Chapel
1835 Box Lock-up re-built
1838-1841 Box Church enlarged for Tunnel workers
1840 Hatt Farmhouse built after 1840
1851 Henley Cottage donated to build a girls' schoolhouse
1852 Down-platform at Box Station built
1855 New up-platform built at Box Station
1857 Box Cemetery built on London Road by Poulton & Woodman
1859 Quarry roadway emerged at The Clift
1864 Box Brewery built in Market Place
​1864 John Hanning Speke died
1865 Quarryman's Arms rebuilt as beer-house
1866 Tramway opened at The Clift
1867 Free Methodist Chapel built on Box Hill
1869 Kingsdown Methodist Chapel built
1870 Box Cricket Club founded at The Chequers Inn
National Timeline
1824 Portland cement patented
1825 First horse-drawn London buses
1825 Stockton-Darlington line opened
1825 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
1827 First friction safety matches
1829 First Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race
1829 First Catholic MP in Parliament
1830 George IV died; William IV succeded
1830 Opening of Liverpool and Manchester Railway
1830 William Huskisson killed by The Rocket locomotive
1831 Swing Riots against rural mechanisation
1832 Great Reform Act
1833 First Factory Act
1834 Poor Law Amendment Act created Unions
1834 House of Parliament burnt down
1835 Abolition of slavery in colonies
1836 Tithe Commutation Act
1836 Chartist movement started
1836 Clifton Suspension Bridge started
1837 William IV died; Queen Victoria
1837 Registration of births, deaths, marriages
1838 SS Great Western sailed to New York
1838 Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist
1839 Fox Talbot invented photography
1840 Penny Black stamp introduced
1842 Peacetime Income Tax introduced
1845 SS Great Britain sailed to USA
1845 Irish Potato Famine
1846 Repeal of Corn Laws
1851 Great Exhibition opened
1854 Crimean War
1859 Darwin's Origin of Species published
1861 Prince Albert died
1863 London Underground started
1865 Lister developed antiseptics
1866 Barnardos Homes started
1867 Second Electoral Reform Act
1867 Nelson's Column built
1868 Disraeli then Gladstone became Prime Minister
1869 Suez Canal opened
1870 Charles Dickens died
1870 Compulsory primary schools
You can find out more about the work of famous railway historian, Rosa Matheson, from the website: https://www.waterstones.com/author/rosa-matheson/1464460
Or write to the author directly at: [email protected]