Check out our latest online exhibition on Ernest Marples – the controversial Minister of Transport who oversaw the closure of a huge portion of the UK’s railways in the 1960s.
Somehow the name of ‘Beeching’ survived while that of ‘Marples’ faded. I discovered him to be rather impressive – a key figure in the repositioning of the Conservatives as a socially responsive party before 1979.
Martin Upham, biographer and co-author of “Ernest Marples: the shadow behind Beeching”
The new catalogue to the Marples Papers is available here.