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The first Alcester is in Warwickshire, of which we know a great deal. Alcester 2 is in South Dakota. Both continue to flourish. Alcester 3, recently brought to our attention, was in Manitoba, Canada but has ceased to exist. Originally it was a scattered community of homesteads, dotted about the prairie land of south west Manitoba. In 1906, however, it was given a nucleus in the form of a railway station and grain-collecting centre, for a new railroad from North Dakota crossed the Canadian border and proceeded northwards to the long established town of Brandon.
The ambitious name of the line was The BRANDON, SASKATCHEWAN AND HUDSON'S BAY RAILWAY: ambitious, for it never reached Hudson's Bay. What it did do, however, was to bring to birth a number of small towns along its track between the border and Brandon. The economy of them all was sustained by the grain trade.
This railroad had a short history: by the late 1920s freight and passenger income declined, there was drought on the prairies and in 1929 the collapse of the Stock Market.
The succeeding Depression meant that the railway lost money and in 1936 the company closed the line and dismantled the stations. This proved Ithe end of several of the new towns, including Alcester: open fields now mark the sites.
When we learn more about Alcester 3, we will probably know why it received its name and whether any families from the first Alcester settled there.
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