Ernest Marples: The Shadow Behind Beeching

Product Information

Tenants of his block of flats in Harwood Court, Upper Richmond Road, Putney, London, were demanding that he repair serious structural faults and had threatened legal action. This led to accusations of a conflict of interest in his subsequent responsibility for decisions on the relative merits of road and rail transport. Later Transport Minister Fred Mulley officially did not have a car, though his wife drove an Austin Maxi. By the end of the year Fraser was on the backbenches and in 1967 he quit politics altogether to become Chairman of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board.

In 1945, a delegation from the British Road Federation and the Society of Motor Manufacturers visited Germany to inspect the autobahn system. But this background in construction also meant that he was the best choice in Westminster to push forward the modernisation of Britain’s road network, and the political consensus of the time was that this was the way forward. The automobile was seen as the future of personal mobility and the British road lobby was active in persuading the new Government of the need of a fast road network. The only reason why I have the temerity to stand on my feet now as an Englishman is that I was a regimental sergeant major in the London Scottish.The authors were fortunate in being able to make good use of his diaries and other personal papers – over thirty boxes – at Churchill College, Cambridge. Britain as a whole had a vested interest in encouraging the growth and expansion of the motor industry and, as the manufacturers constantly pointed out, they needed a vibrant home market from which to seek out export markets. Nearly seventy car marques – including Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC – had bicycling beginnings. As Minister of Transport, Marples oversaw the introduction of parking meters and the provisional driving licence in 1958, panda crossings in 1962 and two Transport Acts.

He was no stranger to controversy, as both his personal life and political career were rocked by scandals in his later years. Quite when Ernest Marples took possession of the car is not known, as he did not officially take ownership of the car until August 1968, when the Mini had evolved into the MkII version and the Cooper 1275S had long supplanted the 1071S.One problem with expecting more people to drive was the provision for parking in inner cities soon being outstripped, though all the thinking was done when cars were still a status symbol.

The collection shows how Marples came under scrutiny for allegedly soliciting prostitutes and reveals the records he kept to make his defence. In the autumn of 1963 Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister to be replaced by Alec Douglas-Home, although Marples remained in situ. The Area Committee heard objections at a public meeting at Bridgnorth on 8 November 1962 and on 20 November confirmed that it had reported to Marples that closure would cause hardship to users.

Beeching’s appointment and Marples’ penchant for road building would be controversial enough, but questionable business practices and his later abscondment to Monaco to evade a hefty tax bill did little to rescue his reputation. His approach was to draw up a list of railways for closure, thus continuing and extending the scope of the closures already carried out by BR British Rail or British Railways. The conspiracy theory is that Marples, in cahoots with the road lobby, deliberately ran down the railways. I wish more would actually go and study the Beeching Report, Beeching identified the fact those very many of those lines had revenues of a tiny fraction of operating costs, they could never pay their way!

In 1948 the two men founded Marples Ridgway and Partners, a civil engineering company that started with one five-ton ex-army truck and one crane. The greater availability of credit enabled many ordinary people to dip their toes into the world of car ownership.For anyone who wants to understand why the British railway system was transformed in the 1960s, this book is highly recommended.