The following contemporary account relating to the planned construction of the Settle - Carlisle railway appeared on page 5 (column 5) of the May 19th, 1866 edition of the Lancaster Guardian.
Midland Railway
A Wharncliffe meeting of the shareholders of this company was held at Derby, on Tuesday, Mr Hutchinson in the chair, when a number of bills were sanctioned. The "bill for enabling the Midland Railway Company to construct railways from Settle To Hawes, Appleby, and Carlisle, and for other purposes," met with a good deal of opposition, and on the resolution being put, the chairman declared it to be carried; but, as a number voted against it, he stated that, in order to comply with the standing orders, a poll would have to be taken. Dr. O'Brien said that was absolutely necessary if the thing was to be done legally. Mr. Carter, solicitor, said they must have the votes of three-fourths of the proprietors to carry the resolution. The result of the poll gave a large majority in favour of the directors. The meeting was then adjourned until the 6th June.
Acknowledgements
The text quoted above was manually transcribed from a 35mm microfilm copy of the newspaper by Mark R. Harvey during a visit to Lancaster Library on July 10th, 2007.