ABSTRACT
From the new town's inception in 1840 until the 'abdication of leading Company officers from the town council' in 1890, the railway company controlled practically every level of politics there through the level of economic influence it exercised in the new town. Initially this railway company influencing of local life was extra-political in character. Local government and representative, party politics were poorly developed in early 19th-century Britain. The railway town of Crewe was established during a key juncture in British political history. It was a period when Chartism was rife; and where, with the restricted franchise, representation of local interests was usually made via the influence politics of local landowners and employers. From New Crewe's establishment therefore the Railway Company was much associated with first the Established Church and then, as party politics gradually emerged, with local Toryism and the 'Drink Interest'.
