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CREWE

Specialty Definition: Crewe

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

This article is about Crewe in England. There is also Crewe, Virginia.

Crewe is a large town in south Cheshire, in the north west of England. It is the major town in the Borough and Parliamentary Constituency of Crewe and Nantwich. In 1991 its population was 63,400.

Crewe is perhaps best known for its association with the railway industry, being a major junction and once home to a bustling railway works, and from 1946 to 2002 it was the home of Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor car production - from the end of 2002 Rolls-Royce production ceased at Crewe while the Pyms' Lane factory now exclusively produces Bentley motor cars.

Crewe only came to prominence in the 1830s, when the Grand Junction Railway company built its maintenance works there, having been thwarted by local landowners from its original plan to locate four miles away in Nantwich. From a population of 70 in 1831, the town exploded to 40,000 in 1871. The town has a large park, Jubilee Park, which is a product of 1880s railway politics - the London and North Western Railway bought the land and donated it to the town as a park in order to prevent the Great Western Railway from building a railway line through it.

Crewe Railway station is about a mile from the town centre. It has 12 platforms in use and enjoys a direct service to London (2/hour, about 2 hours), Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Cardiff and many other cities. It has a buffet and newsagent.

Its sporting claim to fame is that it is home to Crewe Alexandra F.C, for a long time one of English football's perpetual under-achievers, though during the late 20th century the club enjoyed something of a renaissance under the management of Dario Gradi, reaching the First Division for five seasons from 1997-2002, being relegated to the Second Division in the 2002-03 season but being promoted back to the First Division after only one season.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Crewe."

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Crewe station

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Crewe station is one of the most historic railway stations in the world. It was the first to be built independently of the need to serve a town. It was he first to be completely rebuilt owing to the need for expansion. It was the first to form a junction between more than two companies. It was the first to have a completely independent railway system built around it, to ease traffic congestion.

The story begins on 4 July 1837, with the opening of the Grand Junction Railway. The purpose of this railway was to link the four largest cities of England by joining the existing Liverpool and Manchester Railway with the projected London and Birmingham railway. The line, which was the first long-distance railway in the world, ran from Curzon Street Station in Birmingham to Dallam in Warrington, Cheshire, where it made an end-on junction with the Warrington and Newton Railway, a branch of the L& M.

Conceived as a through route, the GJR was not interested in serving towns en-route. Wolverhampton, for instance, was by-passed by half a mile because it did not lie on the intended route, and no station was built for several years. But a station was built in the parish of Monks Coppenhall in Cheshire, at the point where the line crossed the turnpike road linking the Trent and Mersey and the Shropshire Union Canals. Since the land was bought from the Earl of Crewe, whose mansion stood nearby, the station was called Crewe. At this time there was no town at this point, only a few scattered dairy farms.

As soon as the station opened it was seen to be at a useful point to begin a branch line to the county town of Chester. A locomotive depot was built at the station, to serve the Chester line, and to provide banking engines to assist trains southwards from Crewe up the Madeley Incline, a modest gradient which was a challenge to the small engines of the day.

By 1841 the Chester line was seen as a starting point for a new trunk line to Holyhead, to provide the fastest route to Ireland, and the importance of Crewe as a junction station began to be established. This was given further endorsement when the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, a separate undertaking which had hoped to build a wholly independent line linking the two cities, shorter than the GJR, decided that it would be uneconomical to compete with that line over the greater part of its length, and decided to divert its own line to meet the GJR at Crewe. Teething squabbles between the companies delayed the running of through services for a while, and the M&B had to build a temporary station of their own, part of which survives today as an isolated platform next to the North Junction, at the start of the line to Manchester.

In 1842 the GJR decided to move its locomotive works from Edge Hill in Liverpool to Crewe, siting the works to the north of the junction between the Warrington and Chester lines. To house the workforce and company management the town of Crewe was built by the company to the north of the works.

In 1845 the GJR merged with the London and Birmingham and the Liverpool and Manchester railways to form the London and North Western Railway Company, which until its demise in 1923 was the largest company in the world. The new company extended the existing lines to Holyhead, the Warrington line to Lancaster and Carlisle, the Manchester line to Leeds, and built a new line to Shrewsbury to join the Shrewsbury and Hereford lines which provided connections to South Wales. The North Staffordshire railway built a line from Stoke, joining the LNWR from the South East. Crewe was therefore the centre of a wide-ranging railway network, and freight-handling facilities grew up to the south of the station.

To cope with the increase of traffic , the station was rebuilt in 1861, the buildings facing each other on the present platforms 5 and 6 dating from this time. At the same time the works was extensively redeveloped and enlarged, and the town also considerably enlarged, under the leadership of John Ramsbottom, a Stockport man who had become Locomotive Superintendent for the whole company. Locomotive construction, hitherto divided with Wolverton (on the L&B) was concentrated at Crewe. Ramsbottom also built a steelworks, the first in the world to make large-scale use of the Bessemer process, as only the LNWR required enough steel to keep a Bessemer plant continuously occupied. He also introduced mass-production techniques, whereby as many parts as possible were identical between one engine and another.

Ramsbottom retired in 1871 and was succeeded by the legendary Frank Webb, a colourful and controversial figure who was known as 'The Uncrowned King of Crewe'.

By the 1890s Crewe junctions had become so busy that a survey revealed 1,000 trains passing within a 24-hour period. Since half of these were freight trains which did not need to call at the station, the company decided to build a completely separate four-track railway line passing to the west of the station, joining the existing lines beyond the north and south junctions, burrowing beneath them and avoiding them completely. This huge undertaking also included a vast marshalling yard to the south of the station at Basford Hall, a revolutionary 'tranship shed' which allowed fast transfer of freight from wagons to road vehicles under cover, and the increase in the size of the passenger station by one-half again.

In 1923 the LNWR became part of the London, Midland and Scottish railway group. Crewe remained the centre for locomotive construction. In 1948 the LMS was nationalised as British Railways London Midland Region. These changes had less effect on Crewe than the reduction in station use caused by the end of steam traction on Britain's railways. Trains did not need to stop to change locomotives, and many smaller branch lines had closed, which resulted in fewer trains terminating at Crewe. In 1985 the entire track layout was modernised, simplified and reduced, eliminating a vast array of points and crossings and allowing 80 mph running over the North Junction. At the same time all but one of the 1902 extension platforms were taken out of use.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Crewe station."

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Crewe, Virginia

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Crewe is a town located in Nottoway County, Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 2,378.

Geography

Crewe is located at 37°10'46" North, 78°7'39" West (37.179316, -78.127549)¹. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 5.3 km² (2.0 mi²). 5.3 km² (2.0 mi²) of it is land and none of the area is covered with water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 2,378 people, 971 households, and 645 families residing in the town. The population density is 452.3/km² (1,171.6/mi²). There are 1,074 housing units at an average density of 204.3/km² (529.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 77.04% White, 21.15% African American, 0.34% Native American, 0.17% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.21% from other races, and 1.01% from two or more races. 0.80% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 971 households out of which 34.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.9% are married couples living together, 15.7% have a female householder with no husband present, and 33.5% are non-families. 28.7% of all households are made up of individuals and 16.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.45 and the average family size is 2.98. In the town the population is spread out with 29.1% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 18.1% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 86.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 79.9 males. The median income for a household in the town is $33,828, and the median income for a family is $40,625. Males have a median income of $35,350 versus $20,819 for females. The per capita income for the town is $16,826. 16.5% of the population and 14.6% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 22.5% are under the age of 18 and 9.7% are 65 or older.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Crewe, Virginia."

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Modern Usage: CREWE

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Commercial Usage: CREWE

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Digital Photo Gallery: CREWE
 

"Crewe Train Station" by Neil Smith Commentary: "A picture taken from the train, whilst passing through Crewe train station."	"Mostly Autumn" by Martin Kessel Commentary: "A heavilly lit shot of Mostly Autumn playing at 'The Limelight' club in Crewe. D100 3 shot stich."
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Usage Frequency: CREWE

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Name Usage Frequency: CREWE

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Cities: CREWE

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Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.