The collection includes letters, accounts, specifications and plans as well as railway memorabilia. The contents of the collection may be summarised as follows:

S B Worthington

S B Worthington’s material relates to, among others, the Sheffield - Rotherham Railway, Caledonian Railway, Paris - Rouen Railway, Orleans Railway, Lancaster & Preston Junction Railway, Lancaster & Carlisle Railway Company (absorbed by London & North Western Railway Company in 1879) and the Gauge Commission of 1846-1848.

W B Worthington

W B Worthington’s material is much more miscellaneous but contains Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway reports of visits to America, items relating to arched bridges 1840-1921, and rainfall, 1929-1932.

General Papers and Documents

These items do not seem to relate directly to the careers of either S B or W B Worthington and may therefore be records of interest to or railwayana collected by the Worthingtons. These papers relate to, among others: the Kelso – Berwick Railway, 1809, 1824; East Lothian Railway, 1825-1826; Forth of Clyde – Stirling Railway, 1826-1827; Clydesdale – Glasgow Railway, 1828; Liverpool & Manchester Railway, 1824, 1836; Railway Chronicle Travel Charts, c 1840-50; new railway station at Hunt’s Bank, Manchester; Manchester Ship Canal, 1835-1894.

Items from the Worthington Family Archive

Personal and mostly non-railway items including a notebook of Samuel Barton Worthington, an account of a walking holiday by William Barton Worthington, and a book of carte-de-visite photographs.