Catalogue description Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway Company

The Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway Company was incorporated by the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway Act 1809 (49th George III, cap.23) and was authorised to construct a tramway from a quay on the River Severn at Gloucester to the Knapp Toll Gate in Cheltenham with a branch to the top of Leckhampton Hill in Leckhampton. The Railway Company was forced to obtain a further act in 1815 to raise more money to finance the scheme.

Section 21 of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway Act 1838 authorised the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Company and the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway Company to purchase the Gloucester and Cheltenham in equal shares. Those two companies respectively became parts of the Midland Railway Company (in 1846) and the Great Western Railway Company (in 1842) and these latter two companies decided to abandon the tramway. To do this, it was necessary to obtain an act of parliament.