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Those readers old enough will remember, perhaps with nostalgia, the tramcar. There was one tramway system in Warwickshire which our older readers may have seen and, perhaps, used: the nearest to us, in fact, in the county. It was the Warwick and Leamington tramway system. It was among the smallest in the county, running only for 3 miles and a few yards. It provided a service for 49 years, from 1881 to 1930. For the first 24 years the motive power was the horse, for the remaining 25 years electricity.
The original intention was a terminus in Warwick Market Square but, in fact, the line started from the High Street, near the Lord Leicester Hospital. Running along Jury Street, the single-track line looped round the Eastgate archway, down Smith Street and along Coten End and Emscote Road, running under the railway line and over the canal and river. The line entered Leamington by Warwick New Road and Warwick Street, turning sharply south down the Parade, across the river and finally turning east to finish near the railway station.
The horse-drawn cars were double-deckers, open at the top and photographs of the time show them pulled by two horses. The service opened with only two trams but eventually there were six operating on the line. The journey time from Warwick to Leamington was 34 minutes, at a cost of 3d. The two horses were insufficient to pull fully-laden cars up such inclines as the Parade and Emscote canal bridge so extra ‘puller’ horses were used at these points.
In common with most horse-tramways at the end of the 19th century, the Warwick to Leamington concern turned to electricity. It used overhead wires and the trams themselves continued to be open topped. This time, however, most of the line consisted of double track. A specially constructed power station was erected near the canal and river, a useful combination, for the canal was used for importing fuel and the river for cooling the generators.
After the introduction of electric power in 1905 a local motor omnibus company competed for the passenger traffic but failed to dent the tramway’s popularity. The First War did the service no harm, for many motor ‘buses were commandeered for war service. The greatest number of passengers carried was in 1919 but after that the numbers declined (as did dividends) and it was inevitable that the bus trade would eventually win the battle. This it did and the last passenger tram ran on 16 August 1930. The tracks were lifted or tarred over.
© Alcester & District Local History Society