Grosmont Railway

Last updated

The Grosmont Railway was an early horse-drawn railway line in Monmouthshire completed in 1819.

Contents

History

Grosmont Railway embankment at Werngifford, Monmouthshire (SO333212) Grosmont Railway embankment at Werngifford.jpg
Grosmont Railway embankment at Werngifford, Monmouthshire (SO333212)

The Grosmont Railway was constructed as an extension of the Llanvihangel Railway from its terminus at Llanvihangel Crucorney to Monmouth Cap on the border with Herefordshire. With a length of approximately seven miles (11 km), it was engineered by John Hodgkinson as a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge plateway, and was horse drawn throughout. The Act of Parliament for the railway received royal assent on 20 May 1812, [1] construction started in 1817 [2] and the line opened in 1819.

In 1829 the Hereford Railway was completed with an end-on connection with the Grosmont Railway at Monmouth Cap and extending the line to Wye Bridge at Hereford.

The Grosmont Railway was sold in 1846 to the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway Company for £16,250, along with the Llanvihangel Railway for £21,750 and the Hereford Railway for £19,460. The new company replaced the combined tramroads with a standard-gauge steam railway. [3]

Remnants

The replacement railway was built to the north of the old line, while the tramroad became a road (now part of the main A465 road between Abergavenny and Hereford). At Werngifford a major remnant survives in the form of a 360m length of tramroad embankment with stone sleepers in situ. It is designated a scheduled monument. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hay-on-Wye railway station</span> Former railway station in Powys, Wales

Hay was a railway station serving the town of Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales, although the station was located just across the English border in Herefordshire. Hay had one of the earliest railway stations in the country, being part of a horse-drawn tramway.

Hereford has seen a history of expansion and decline in its railway history.

The Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, also known as the Heads of the Valleys line, was a railway line which operated between 1860 and 1958 between the Monmouthshire town of Abergavenny and the Glamorgan town of Merthyr Tydfil in South East Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llanvihangel Crucorney</span> Human settlement in Wales

Llanvihangel Crucorney is a small village in the community (parish) of Crucorney, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Abergavenny and 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Hereford, England on the A465 road.

The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in 1853.

The Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway was a railway company formed to connect the places in its name. When it sought Parliamentary authorisation, it was denied the southern section, and obliged to use the Monmouthshire Railway between Pontypool and Newport.

The Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company was a canal and railway company that operated a canal and a network of railways in the Western Valley and Eastern Valley of Newport, Monmouthshire. It started as the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation and opened canals from Newport to Pontypool and to Crumlin from 1796. Numerous tramroads connected nearby pits and ironworks with the canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandy, Monmouthshire</span> Village in Monmouthshire, Wales

Pandy is a hamlet in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hay Railway</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Hay Railway was a narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway in the district surrounding Hay-on-Wye in Brecknockshire, Wales. The railway connected Eardisley in Herefordshire, England, with Brecon in Wales. The Brecon terminus was Watton Wharf on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal.

The Bullo Pill Railway was an early British railway, completed in 1810 to carry coal mined in the Forest of Dean Coalfield to a port on the River Severn near Newnham, Gloucestershire. It was later converted to a broad gauge steam line by the Great Western Railway, and was closed in the 1960s.

The Kington Tramway was an early narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway that linked limestone quarries at Burlinjobb near New Radnor in Radnorshire, Wales, to Eardisley in Herefordshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Gavenny</span> River in Monmouthshire, Wales

The River Gavenny or sometimes the Gavenny River is a short river in Monmouthshire in south Wales. It rises 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of the village of Llanvihangel Crucorney from springs near Penyclawdd Court, supplemented by springs in Blaen-Gavenny Wood and tributary streams there and within the Woodland Trust-owned Great Triley Wood. It flows south for about 4 miles (6.4 km) to its confluence with the River Usk towards the eastern end of Castle Meadows at Abergavenny. The town derives its English-language name from the Gavenny's confluence with the River Usk. Of the buildings on the banks of the river, the Gothic Decorated style church of St Teilo at Llantilio Pertholey is especially notable. Parts of the church date from the thirteenth century with multiple additions since. Blaengavenny Farm, the name of which signifies the 'head of the Gavenny', is a sixteenth-century farmhouse near the river's source.

The Coleford Railway was a railway company that constructed a short railway from near Monmouth to Coleford, close to the Forest of Dean. The company was sponsored by the Great Western Railway. It was built on part of the course of the Monmouth Railway, a horse-operated plateway, and it was intended that its primary business would be the conveyance of minerals and forest products from the Forest of Dean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway</span> Railway in Monmouthshire, Wales

The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway (CMU&PR) was a standard gauge railway of 16 miles (26 km) which ran from Monmouth to Little Mill, near Pontypool in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was intended to convey the mineral products of the Forest of Dean to the ironworks of South Wales, by connecting to the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway at Little Mill Junction. The NAHR made the onward connection over its Taff Vale Extension line. The CMU&PR intended to acquire the Monmouth Railway, actually a horse-operated plateway, and convert it to locomotive operation.

The Sirhowy Tramroad was a plateway built to convey the products of ironworks at Tredegar to Newport, South Wales. It opened in 1805 between Tredegar and Nine Mile Point, a location west of Risca, from where the Monmouthshire Canal Company operated a tramroad to Newport. The Sirhowy Tramroad was operated at first by horse traction, but early locomotives were used, and a passenger service was operated.

The Monmouth Railway, also known as the Monmouth Tramroad, was a horse-drawn 3 ft 6 in gauge plateway. It ran for about 5 miles (8.0 km) from Howler's Slade, east of Coleford, in Gloucestershire and Monmouth; there were two branches from other mineral sites. It was intended to bring mineral products of the Forest of Dean to Monmouth, and to the works alongside the River Wye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouth Cap</span> Hamlet in Monmouthshire, Wales

Monmouth Cap is a hamlet in the north of the county of Monmouthshire, Wales. It stands to the north of the village of Grosmont, and to the south of the village of Pontrilas, just over the border in England.

The Blaenavon Railroad was a horse drawn tramroad built to link Blaenavon Ironworks with the Monmouthshire Canal in south east Wales.

The Llanvihangel Railway was an early horse-drawn railway line in Monmouthshire which operated over a 6.25 mile route between the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal and Llanvihangel Crucorney from 1814 until 1846. The Act of Parliament for the railway received the Royal Assent on 25 May 1811,. The line was initially constructed only as far as Blaengavenny and it was 1820 or 1821 before it was extended to Llanvihangel.

The Hereford Railway was an early horse-drawn railway line in Herefordshire which operated over a 12 mile route from its junction with the Grosmont Railway at Monmouth Cap on the Welsh border to the River Wye at Hereford opening in September 1829.

References

  1. "Joseph Priestley: Priestley's Navigable Rivers and Canals, 1831". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  2. Cook, R. A.; Clinker, C.R. (1984). Early Railways between Abergavenny and Hereford. RCHS. p. 26. ISBN   0901461369.
  3. Helen J Simpson: The Day the Trains Came: the Herefordshire Railways, Gracewing Publishing, 1997
  4. "Grosmont Railway (34971)". Coflein. RCAHMW . Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  5. Cadw. "Tramway Embankment of Grosmont Railway (MM199)". National Historic Assets of Wales . Retrieved 13 April 2023.