The Social Life of Tramways

When thinking about the history of tramways in Britain and their impact, we might conjure images of people going about their daily lives, travelling to work, tram drivers and conductors in their smart uniforms, vintage liveries and advertising, even of the war effort. However, another side to the tramways is the social element: how would employees of the tram corporations have been supported – or supported each other – beyond their paid hours? How might working on tramways have brought people together and contributed towards their wellbeing? Below are a variety of  examples of organisations represented in the museum’s collection that show us some of the ways the tramways influenced people’s lives beyond providing their employment.

 

St Mark’s Tramway Brotherhood of the United Kingdom

“Then with one mighty united effort, which made the veins in their forehead swell almost to bursting point, the handkerchief, followed by the eight young elephants, were slowly but surely dragged along until the deciding point was reached and VICTORY WAS OURS.  (Motorman) MAYO, Clapham”

– Excerpt from Milestones, July 1912, the official quarterly magazine of St Mark’s Tramway Brotherhood of the United Kingdom (National Tramway Museum Collection)

On a sunny afternoon in Portsmouth in 1912, victory has just been secured in the tug-of-war by the team from Clapham to the cheers of the watching crowd. The London County Council Tramway band is playing, and tea is being drunk in abundance.

One particularly intriguing social endeavour to grow out of the tramways is St Mark’s Tramway Brotherhood of the United Kingdom. Established in Kennington in 1904 by vicar Dr Darlington, the Tramway Brotherhood quickly spread across the country and had multiple branches, such as in Northampton, Birmingham and London. Primarily a religious organisation but committed to campaigning for workers’ rights and providing social opportunities, the Brotherhood would organise social outings for its members – for example, their yearly outing to Portsmouth. The museum collection is home to two photographs of Brotherhood members: firstly, of the LCC branch on the steps of Portsmouth Town Hall with the Tramways Band, and secondly of Brotherhood members after a tug-of-war at the Portsmouth outing, posed with the rope itself! The exact date of the photographs is unclear, but they were likely taken pre-1907.

 

 

Goooaaaal!

Many tramway corporations also had their own sports teams. The best-represented team in the museum’s collection is Northampton Tramways Football Club. The book of season 1920-21 minutes gives us some sense of the club’s history. On 21st July 1920, 40 members of tramway staff called a meeting and decided to form a Football Club, and to enter the Thursday League Cup. From the minutes we can tell that the club ran for at least the next 10 years.

Below is a photograph of the Reading Corporation Tramways Football Club, taken around 1920. We can perhaps infer from their expressions that the match had not been a winning one!

Amongst the collection is also this interesting trophy:

This is the Wainwright Trophy, awarded for Leeds Wednesday Half Holiday Cricket League. In 1929 the cup was won by the team from Wood Lane Depot, a tram depot for the West Riding Tramways Company. Other winning teams included hairdressers, butchers, police and the fire brigade.

The ‘Half Holiday’ part refers to the practice of giving workers a half day during the week, allowing them to set aside time for leisure activities. The Victorian era popularised giving workers a half-day finish on Saturdays, leading to an uptake of Saturday afternoon sports matches, such as football and cricket. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, various iterations of the ‘Shops Act’ formally established half day closing once a week for retail workers, often on a Wednesday, which would have allowed for a greater proportion of the working population to have time for participating in leisure and sports activities during the week.

 

It’s behind you…

As you walk down Reading’s St Mary’s Butts one evening, the sound of riotous applause winds its way over to you – it seems to be coming from the Tramways Social Club…

Another way in which tramway workers came together to socialise was through the arts and entertainment. For example, Reading Corporation Tramways’ Minstrel Troupe ran right up until the late 1920s/early 30s, performing weekly shows at the old Tramways Social Club and annual pantomimes in the Town Hall.  The troupe can be seen below, complete with Father Christmas and tambourine.

There were also choirs such as Swansea Tramways Choir (though information on this is hard to come by) and bands such as the London County Council Tramways Band, thought to be the first branch of St Mark’s Brotherhood to have its own band. The LCC band could regularly be found playing at garden fêtes or putting on their own concerts. A newspaper advertisement in the collection promotes them as open for engagements for concerts, dances, garden parties, etc.

 

Societies, sports, and amateur dramatics: all of these give us a sense of people’s lives beyond the tramways, and how changing working conditions allowed workers to come together and engage in the growing leisure industry.

 

Article written by Hannah Laughton

Image references:

Images 1-3: National Tramway Museum Collection

Image 4: Edgar Jordan Collection. Jordan, E. (1996) Reading Tramways, Middleton Press, image 115.

Images 5-6: National Tramway Museum Collection

Image 7: Edgar Jordan Collection. Jordan, E. (1996) Reading Tramways, Middleton Press, image 116.