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Early Railways Between Abergavenny and Hereford by RA Cook & CR Clinker
Early Railways Between Abergavenny and Hereford by RA Cook & CR Clinker
Soft Cover
96 pages
Copyright 1984
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
1 Before the Railways 8
2 The Canal Era 11
3 The History of the Lines 13
4 The Line of Route 35
5
Part 1 Personalia 46
Part 2 Financial 52
Part 3 Organisation and Rolling Stock, Toll Houses, Track Repairs, Land, Tolls and Salaries 59
6 Purchase and Demise 64
7 Maps 73
References 81
Appendix 1 Lists of Subscribers 85
Appendix 2 Tolls - Comparison Table and Actual Tolls (where known), Powers to make Regulations and Statutory Display Requirements and Hours of Passage on Railway 86
Appendix 3 Form of Final Notice of Closure and Sale of Materials 88
Appendix 4 Table of Deposited Plans 89
Appendix 5 The Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners 90
Acknowledgements 91
Bibliography 92
Index 94
ILLUSTRATIONS
Map of railways between Abergavenny & Herefordfrontispiece
Usk Bridge, Abergavenny 15
Bailey's warehouse on B & A CanalC 18
Llanvihangel Railway canal wharfC 19
Llanvihangel Railway canal wharfC 20
Junction of lines near Govilon wharfC 22
LlanfoistR 23
Llanvihangel Railway, AbergavennyR 26
Usk Bridge, AbergavennyC 27
Triley Mill TeatR 30
Grosmont Railway, MardyR 31
Llangua BridgeR 32
Hereford Railway, St. MartinsB 33
Track plans, Govilon, Llanfoist, Pontrilas37
Track plan, Triley Mill39
Track construction 43
Llanvihangel Railway, milepost near TrileyR 45
Grosmont Railway Co. `ticket'R 55
Tollhouse, PenishaplyddC 62
Wye Bridge building, HerefordC 62
PontrilasC 68
Haywood TunnelC 69
Llanvihangel StationC 70
Detail maps of route74-80
Llanvihangel Railway, milepost near TrileyR 87
INTRODUCTION
The area surrounding the Black Mountains, bounded by Brecon, Hay, Kington, Hereford and Abergavenny, is a singularly attractive one for both the historian and for lovers of the open countryside, with the rolling hills given, in the main, to agriculture, cattle and sheep; the entire area having little in the way of industry to disfigure the landscape.
At the beginning of the 19th century in the Welsh valleys to the south of the river Usk lay vast deposits of coal and other minerals, whilst in the area between the rivers Severn and Wye, lay the Forest of Dean with its equally large mineral resources. The area to the north of Hereford was, and still is, largely agricultural. In the Black Mountains themselves there was extensive sheep farming.
The only natural outlets to the Bristol Channel for agricultural produce, and for reciprocal trade in coal and minerals, were the rivers and the numerous radiating roads. The unsatisfactory state of both led initially to the age of the canal, and then to the numerous tramroad and railway feeders. From the canals which traversed the route from the river Severn to Brecon were two major rail lines which gave access to west Herefordshire. To the north-west of the Black Mountains was the Hay Railway, and its continuation, the Kington Railway. South-east of the mountains were the Llanvihangel, Grosmont and Hereford Railways which formed a through route from the canal to Hereford. It is the second of these lines which is the subject of this book. There are, however, many reasons to consider in some detail the period before the coming of the railways since the Grosmont Railway owned and maintained a toll road.
The difficulties of linking the canal with Hereford were many considering the sparseness of population in this rural area, a matter brought home by the fact that it required three companies to complete the 24 mile line, and which was 13 years in the making. The piecing together of this story has been made difficult because almost all the official Company documents have been lost and there is no doubt that further information will come to light when Estate and other papers are studied in depth. In consequence, this account is far from complete.
There is the perennial question of whether these early lines should be termed tramways, tramroor railways. Opinions differ widely, but since the three lines were incorporated as Railways they will be referred to as such, even though the type of track was that normally associated with tramroads or plateways. However, where contemporary accounts are used the often incorrect descriptions of titles or trackwork will be quoted verbatim.
It is with great personal sadness that the untimely death of Mr. C.R. Clinker must be recorded, literally days before the manuscript was finalised. He was thus unable to read the completed work and one can only hope this story proves worthy of the standards he himself set.
R.A. Cook. 1983.
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