The Edmondson Ticket

I've come across a fascinating story concerning an invention by one of our Edmondsons. It was called the Edmondson Railway Ticket, and was the brainchild of Thomas Edmondson (1792 - 1851).

While working as a station master on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (in England), Thomas devised the idea of a new type of railway ticket: a small piece of cardboard, pre-printed with journey details (as opposed to the then current hand-written paper bill). The tickets would be numbered by hand, and validated by a separate date-stamping press when purchased. He later developed a machine which would print tickets in batches complete with the serial numbers. He patented this machine, and was able to charge a royalty to railway companies amounting to ten shillings per annum per mile of the company's routes. The Edmondson ticket continued to be used by British Rail until 1990.

The tickets often had "security measures" included to prevent counterfeits. For example, on the route between Manchester and Leeds, eastbound tickets had a picture of a fleece on the back, and westbound tickets a bale of cotton.

This web page has pictures of many variations of Edmondson tickets, as well as printing machines, plates, date stamps and ticket racks. Excellent stuff.

Click here to see a picture of the marker on a home in Lancaster, marking Thomas Edmondson's birthplace.