The trams
in Southampton were at first horse drawn and then in 1878 a company was formed
introducing the electric tram to the town. The service began in 1879, and soon
there was a public petition of 3,500 signatories was raised opposing a Sunday
service on grounds of religion. Nowadays
we complain about lack of transport on Sundays.
Weaknesses in the accounting system resulted
in a manager absconding to America in 1881 with a load of cash and another was
dismissed the following year for accounting irregularities. After that the
company showed a steady profit each year and in 1898, Southampton Council took
over and bought out the undertaking running the 13 miles of track until 1949.
Because trams had to run through the Bargate arch [passengers were instructed
to remain seated on the top deck] they were lower in design than trams in other
municipals.
In WWII
trams were damaged by enemy action and the council faced heavy expenditure
replacing track where streets had been bombed. A decision was made to replace
the trams by buses and a large batch was sent to a scrap yard in Bevois Valley.
The council however managed to negotiate a deal [much to its delight] with
Leeds Council and several dome topped trams were transported up to Yorkshire.
After six years of war the fleet was in quite a state and well past its sale
date.
The
transport department at Leeds soon suspected a pig in a poke and several of
their recently acquired trams had to be rebuilt. Leeds realised their
misfortune and sent the ex-Southampton trams to be scrapped.
Here are a couple incidents in the story of out trams:
19th July 1937 Violent Scenes at Southampton. Angry crowds
stormed a tramcar at Southampton today,
smashing the windows with stones, when police commandeered it to rescue Sir
Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Fascists.
As
Sir Oswald tried to address a crowd of 20,000 from the top of a loud-speaker
van the crowd catcalled, missiles were thrown and a man mounted a ladder and
attempted to reach the speaker, until he was seized from behind and his
trousers were torn off. When Sir Oswald Mosley stepped down the crowd surged
forward, shouting and striking. Police surrounded him, but once he was struck
and forced to the ground before officers got him to a tramcar.
Policemen
then filled the platforms of the tram to prevent
others boarding it, wrenched upholstery from the seats and barricaded the
windows to protect women passengers. The tram ultimately
forced its way through the crowds and was diverted from its usual destination
In order to take Sir Oswald Mosley to the sanctuary of his hotel.
2nd
March 1946 Malcolm
Willmott was a 21 -year-old Southampton tram driver, whose
16 year-old fiancée used to travel every evening on his tram for three and
a half hours (fare 3/6). Now her parents have forbidden them lo meet, so they
keep the tryst in secret and daily renew their vow to wait — if necessary for
the full five years until she is of age. Said Malcolm ‘We met in 1943, but
because it seemed madness to be so serious when she was so young, we parted for
a year. Then we knew we were meant for each other.'
4th January 1950 All
but one of Southampton's population of 140,000 rejoiced at the passing of the
city's ramshackle trams when buses took over in the New Year. The only
complaint came from 44-year-old Clement Roy Robinson, who drove the trams for
21 years— and that included the blitzes. Mr Robinson started a petition for the
retention of the trams, but he found little support and got only a few
signatures most of them out of sympathy. Today he was found gassed in his
bathroom at his home in Swaythling. His
wife, Rose, who helped him to organise the petition told a friend “He loved the
trams. He was very depressed and kept saying it was a mistake to get rid of
them. He took the day off on Saturday and I think he went out to see the last
tram return to the depot.”
