Brighton Tram 53 Society

Discussions held about creating an Electric Tramway for the town.

The Amber Ale/Longhurst Brewery site at Preston Circus was purchased for laying of track, a new Tram HQ and Depot but after demolishing the building an underground stream deemed it not suitable ground for a building or tram sheds because of the weight of the trams.

Brighton Corporation apply for a Parliamentary Bill to use the town’s roads to construct and establish a public passenger tramway.

A Brighton Corporation Act was made into law to install and operate a corporation run Tramway. Purchase of land, formally a traveller’s site to build the Lewes Road Head office / 6 track Tram Sheds + 1 track paint shed / Workshop-Garage / Exterior Yard, 30 Tramcars (Numbers 1 - 30) purchased.

Lewes Road buildings started and finished by November using direct council labour. The 1st Tram route also completed in November (Palace Pier to Lewes Road). On November 25th the First Tramcar driven ceremonially by John Stafford the then Brighton Mayor, ticket price 1d/2d. The public service started at 1.15pm using just one route and 20 trams, by the end of day service the trams had carried 19,074 individual passenger journeys with total ticket sales £79 9s 6d.

Completion of the full tramway network being a total track coverage of 9.5 miles, using 9 routes with a “next tram arriving waiting time” at each tram stop of just 4 - 5 minutes. Start of refurbishing of all trams as deemed necessary because the quality of workmanship and features on the trams purchased was deemed poor. This continued until 1927.

Brighton Corporation Tramways have 232 staff – 74 Motormen, 68 Conductors.

Having now purchased a total of 80 trams from Milnes Co, who built the bodies and used Westinghouse trucks, the Corporation choose to build all their future trams inhouse due to suppliers not offering a quality-built tram. Using their own superior design, improving year on year for passenger ride and comfort, the Corporation built a total of 116 trams but had no choice in that all trams had to have an open top deck due to regulations of the 1900 Corporation Act.

Street Wooden Passenger shelters were built at the ends of each tram route with a few built mid routes.

A parcel service was added, for example returning a book back to library.

At the outbreak of war Brighton Corporation Tramways had 273 employees. The War Mobilisation Order meant 114 were conscripted. The result being all employees were working 7 days a week for 11 hours a day.

It was decided when finding replacement male employees to include 6 female employees which were recruited as conductresses proving more reliable than the new men employees. Brighton was the first town in the UK to employ conductresses.

The total conductresses employed was now 48 being 73% of all the conducting staff. Another 82 men left to join HM Forces.

All conductress’s have now been replaced by returning male soldiers.

The minimum 1d (penny) fare was abolished increasing to 2d (pence).

Having now rebuilt all the tramway track with better quality rails, the tram maximum speed was increased from 16 mph to a max of 20 mph.

The General Strike of 1926 had a massive effect on the Brighton Tramway. The strike called by the TUC over striking coal miners paralysed the UK and in Brighton the strike was complete with everything closed down including the Tramway. On the 11th May an attempt was made to get non striking employees into the depot for training but the 4,000 strikers from around the town thought it was an attempt to start the trams working. The result a battle occurred now recognised as ‘The Battle of Lewes Road’. 22 arrests made and many injured. The General strike started 4th May and finished by 12th May.

All trams on the network have now been built at the Lewes Road Corporation workshop.

Trams 51, 52 & 53 were built by General manager/engineer William Marsh without specific authorisation from the Corporation. They were the very last open top trams built at the Brighton Workshop and the whole of the UK. The new 53 was the third tram to use this number.

The Tramway network was scrapped having carried a total of 629 million passengers over 52 million miles of passenger journeys, making a profit every year from 1905. The total profit over 38 years of operation was £54k equivalent (2026) of £4.6 million paid back into Corporation coffers to help the cost of running the town. The tramway network never needed any subsidy and had a near perfect safety record of only one major accident. Sadly, no one realised the environmentally friendly, non-polluting, energy efficient, smooth riding tram, was the future for public transport.

Guy Hall a model maker, hears a story that there is a forgotten Brighton tram on a farm in West Sussex. After discussions with the farmer this tram, the only survivor of the 38 years of Brighton’s Tramway, it was agreed he would start a full restoration program making it a fully working Heritage tram. A 16 year restoration period of the former Brighton Corporation Tramway tramcar 53 starts. The Brighton Tram 53 Society is formed.

With restoration nearly complete, the Society formally asks Brighton & Hove City Council officers and Councillors to be given the use of two barns and courtyard at Home Farm, Stanmer Park, converting the two buildings to be the permanent home of Tram 53, being tram sheds and a museum. Then to add a permanent Tramway travelling down to the park entrance gate and back up to the park’s historic Barn.

First UK Horse Tramway opened by Surrey Iron Railway to be used for carrying freight.

The first in the world operating, fare paying Passenger Horse Tram running between Swansea & Mumbles, Wales — Oystermouth Railway.

The first UK street Passenger Horse Tramway, a distance of 1 1/2 miles, set up by an American Mr George Francis Train — The Birkenhead Railway, Birkenhead.

The First London Horse Tram introduced.

The First Tramways Act put in place by Parliament to provide protection for local authorities from Tramway proposals.

The First UK ELECTRIC Tramway, Volks Electrical Railway, opens in Brighton.