Frances Conway, descendant of the Backhouse family

'The day they tried to break the Bank at Bishop Auckland'
The Backhouse Bank became involved in the financing of the pioneering Stockton and Darlington Railway which became the first public railway to use steam locomotives. The cost of the construction of a canal linking the Auckland coalfield to the estuary of the River Tees was considered to be prohibitive.
The first application to Parliament for permission to construct the railway failed because the Earl of Darlington, a great fox hunter, did not want the railway to pass close to his covers. He attempted to bankrupt the bank by accumulating the bank’s paper notes to the point where their value exceeded the gold stock. Backhouse foiled this by sending a coach to London to obtain additional bullion stocks. On the return journey the coach lost a wheel but the chaise was balanced by placing the gold at an appropriate point over the rear axle.