150 Years from WT to MD: The Dawn of a New Era

Minehead’s modern history starts in the 16th century when Elizabeth I granted the town borough status. The harbour was rebuilt and enlarged and the town began to develop as a holiday resort. When other towns gained railways, the visitors decided to go there instead and there was a danger Minehead would decline.

Once people saw the advantages of railways, every town wanted one. A railway brought prosperity.
It enabled goods to be transported more easily and much more cheaply. It meant that people
could begin to travel more easily, and visitors would bring money in. West Somerset was no
exception to this, and plans for lines in the district began to be made.

In the 1850s, iron ore began to be mined in commercial quantities in the Brendon Hills and gained
a ready market across the Bristol Channel in the new smelters in South Wales. In 1856, a standard
gauge railway, the West Somerset Mineral Railway, was built to carry the ore from the hills to
Watchet, where it was transferred to ships for the journey across the water. The opportunity for
them to return with coal which could then be taken to Taunton was the impetus to build the West Somerset Railway.

This idea was very popular: railways were the new, modern thing and a new line would see Watchet connected to the main line at Taunton and thus directly to London, the centre of the Empire. The price of coal in Taunton would be reduced and the people of West Somerset saw the possibility of exporting their goods to a wider market. A railway to Watchet was a win-win for everyone and the West Somerset Railway Company was formed in 1856 to build a line from Taunton to Watchet. Brunel was engaged as the engineer and the line opened in 1862.

Immediately the people of Minehead wanted the line extended to their town. Financial difficulties meant that thus was not completed until July 1874.