The Wantage Tramway was built to connect the Great Western Railway's station at Wantage Road on their route to Swindon with the town of Wantage, two and a half miles away. It operated from 1875 until 1946, with passenger services running until 1925.
Towards the end of passenger days, the service was much vilified in the local press for its slow speed and unreliability. Our postcard is one of a number of comic cards that reflected this point of view with mocking of the tramway, and is taken from a cartoon of the time. There are at least two versions of this postcard, perhaps more. The one shown is a photographic card published by Tom Peveley of Wantage. A typographic printed one from the same artwork was produced by Willsons of Leicester.
The cards carry a poem by a person with the initials E.C.F. which is dated Sept. 1923. The text reads:-
An Actual Fact
A curious race has come to pass,
Between an engine and an ass.
The Wantage Tram all steam and smoke,
Was beat by Arthur Hitchcock's moke.
This was indeed an actual fact. Arthur Hitchcock was a chimney sweep with a wooden leg, which is just visible in the drawing, as are his brushes. In September 1923 he raced the tram with his donkey cart and won.
The loco in the view is clearly No.5, an 0-4-0 tank engine built by George England & Co. in 1857 and which survived into preservation. For the tram trailer more artistic licence has been used, but at the date of the race it would have been bogie car 4 or four-wheeler 5.
More details of the Wantage Tramway can be found with our postcard of the real thing.
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