Waterways of Stratford by Charles Hadfield & John Norris (1968, David & Charles)

This book tells the history of three early transport lines to Stratford. Each was primarily of local importance, but curiously each had also a wider significance. All three are linked together, not only geographically, but also by the still largely-unknown figure of William James, sometimes termed 'Father of Railways', who owned the Upper Avon Navigation, superintended the canal, and promoted the tramway.

The improvement of the Warwickshire Avon from Tewkesbury to Stratford was the biggest navigation work completed in southern England in the seventeenth century. Its later owners, including James, saw it as a link in a continuous east-west waterway across England.

The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, again, was not merely a local waterway from Birmingham, but a section of an important water route from Coalbrookdale, Stourbridge and Dudley to the Midlands and London.

Finally, James, the first man to think in terms of a national railway system, promoted the Stratford & Moreton Tramway as the first stage of a proposed line to London. Completed in 1826, four years before the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, it was operated by horse power.

Hardback, 176 pages. Spine has faded because of sunlight. 2nd edition.