OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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TRAMWAYS IN OLD PLYMOUTH  |  PLYMOUTH, DEVONPORT AND DISTRICT TRAMWAYS COMPANY LIMITED

LETTERS OF CONDEMNATION

When the end of the Plymouth, Devonport and District Tramways Company Limited came on Friday November 14th 1884, it was not the Company which came in for criticism but the members of Devonport Corporation and the people of that Town.  Letters of condemnation abounded. 

"A Neighbourly Man" pointed out 'that Devonport had not paid a shilling towards the construction of these tramways' and asked 'Do the inhabitants of Devonport desire to see their neighbours treated in this manner?'  He also hoped that the townspeople 'may yet show that the action of the Corporation is not in accordance with their wishes'.

Another correspondent, "One of the Public", wondered whether Devonport people were mad and strongly blamed the 'essentially Liberal' Town Council: 'They must know that the Tram Company are prevented from extending their system by the lack of funds'.  The point was echoed by Samuel Roach, a monumental mason living in Union Street, who sensibly suggested that 'would it not be much better to allow the company to earn what money they could to recoup some portion of the outlay and perhaps enable them to place the rest of their shares'.

Even the editorials were drawn into the discussion with the Western Daily Mercury suggesting that 'The Devonport authorities are evidently quite convinced of their security of their status, they have apparently made up their minds that the Company must go into liquidation ....'.

Perhaps the most poignant letter came on December 20th 1884, a few days before Christmas, which revealed that the engine drivers had been recruited from experienced men in Lancashire and Yorkshire.  These men had been encouraged to leave their homes and families to come to Plymouth in the expectation of a permanent job.  One man from Yorkshire had told the correspondent that he had not earned enough money to cover the costs of leaving Huddersfield and he had not even earned five pounds before he was dismissed as a result of the injunction.  He could not afford the fare back to home.  Once again the letter writer, who signed himself as "Justice", strongly criticised Devonport Corporation, who were 'severely punishing each of the staff, their wives and children, withholding the convenience of the trams from the inhabitants of Plymouth, and to what commensurate benefit........to the town and Corporation of Devonport?'