The site was set up in 1838 when the Monmouth Gas and Water Company was founded and the land leased for the site from the Duke of Beaufort[1] at the foot of the May Hill between Monmouth Town and Wyesham near Monmouth Mayhill railway station. In the 1850s a number of railways were built in the area, which improved on the existing tramways. A special branch line of the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway served the gas works at Wyesham.[2] The company's prime source of revenue at that time was the water side of the business. The gas part of the business supplied fuel for street and private lighting to the town.[3]
Until the 1930s the gas works were operated by the Monmouth Gas and Water Co. Ltd. The gas was manufactured from coal that was brought by railway. From some time before the Second World War, this gas works was owned along with other gas plants at Ross-on-Wye, Caldicot and Caerleon by the Severn Valley Gas Corporation.[4]
In the early twentieth century the gasworks was used by Charles Stewart Rolls, who had already co-founded Rolls-Royce Ltd and whose interest had turned to aviation. He was a founding member of the Royal Aero Club who were initially balloonists. Rolls, whose family lived near Monmouth, would travel to these gas works to have his balloon filled with gas.
The site ceased to be used as a gasworks sometime after 1960.
Monmouth is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Cardiff, and 113 miles (182 km) west of London. It is within the Monmouthshire local authority, and the parliamentary constituency of Monmouth. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8,877 in 2001. Monmouth is the historic county town of Monmouthshire although Abergavenny is now the county town.
Coleford is a market town in the west of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, two miles (3 km) east of the Welsh border and close to the Wye Valley. It is the administrative centre of the Forest of Dean district. The combined population of the town's two electoral wards at the 2011 census was 8,359. The population of the town's parish was 9,273 in the 2021 Census. The parish includes the village of Baker's Hill.
A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space.
Pontypool and New Inn railway station is situated to the south east of Pontypool town centre between the town and the suburb of New Inn, Wales. The station was formerly called Pontypool Road until renamed just Pontypool in 1972 and then to the present name in 1994.
The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales.
Dingestow is a small village in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) south-west of Monmouth and approximately the same distance north-east of Raglan in rural Monmouthshire. The River Trothy passes through the village.
The Wye Valley Railway was a standard gauge railway that ran for nearly 15 miles (24 km) along the Lower Wye Valley between the towns of Chepstow and Monmouth, crossing several times between Wales and England. Opened on 1 November 1876, it was leased to, and worked by, the Great Western Railway (GWR), before being fully absorbed by the GWR in 1905.
Monmouth Troy was one of the two former railway stations at Monmouth. It was built in 1857 by the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway and was used by several other branch lines as the local rail network expanded. The station closed in January 1964 following the closure of the last two lines to the station, the Wye Valley Railway and the Ross and Monmouth Railway.
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.
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 Ross and Monmouth Railway was a standard gauge railway of 13 miles (21 km) which ran between Ross-on-Wye, in Herefordshire, England and Monmouth, Wales.
Wyesham Halt was a request stop at Wyesham on the former Wye Valley Railway, it was also used by the Coleford Railway. It was opened on 12 January 1931 and closed in January 1959. The railway between Wyesham Halt and Monmouth Troy was originally built by the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway in 1861.
Monmouth Mayhill railway station is a disused railway station on the Ross and Monmouth Railway which was opened in 1873 and closed in 1959. It was one of two stations that served the town of Monmouth, Wales and was situated on the opposite bank of the river River Wye from Monmouth. It was the initial terminus of the line, but the line was extended across the River Wye to the junction station of Monmouth Troy in 1874 with the construction of the Duke of Beaufort Bridge.
Lydbrook Junction railway station is a disused railway station in England opened by the Ross and Monmouth Railway in 1873, it remained open for 91 years until 1964 when the line finally closed to freight, though passenger services ceased in 1959. The station was constructed in the hamlet of Stowfield approximately half a mile from Lydbrook and its viaduct on the Severn and Wye Railway. It was located approximately 4 miles and 34 chains along the railway from Ross-on-Wye station. In 1874 the Severn and Wye Railway opened a branch from Serridge Junction and Cinderford, passenger services commenced in 1875. All passenger trains along the S&W branch were withdrawn from 1929.
Monmouth Troy Goods Yard was a large goods yard near Monmouth Troy railway station in Monmouth, Wales. It was opened in 1857 by the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway at the same time as the station. As other railways reached Monmouth Troy the goods yard grew in importance. At its height, the goods yard was used by the Wye Valley Railway, Coleford Railway, Ross and Monmouth Railway as well as the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway. The goods yard closed in 1964 when the last two railways, the former Wye Valley Railway and Ross and Monmouth Railway, closed. The non-rail depot remained open until October 1964.
Usk (GWR) railway station is a disused railway station in the town of Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales. The station is now barely recognisable with the remains of the platforms beneath undergrowth, but the trackbed, the adjacent Usk Tunnel and road and river bridges remain extant and can be walked.
Raglan railway station was a station on the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway. It was not opened when the line was originally built, but constructed in 1876 to replace two previous stopping places, Raglan Footpath, a small station which was situated a little further west, and Raglan Road, an unofficial halt which closed in July 1876 and was reopened as 'Raglan Road Crossing Halt' in November 1930 by the Great Western Railway. The station was 6 miles and 34 chains from Monmouth Troy and was intended to improve the railway facilities at the nearby village of Raglan, which was the site a large castle which provided a steady stream of tourist traffic. It was closed in May 1955 due to a train drivers strike and was never reopened though a couple of special services continued to run along the stretch of track over the next few years, including a centenary special organised by the Stephenson Locomotive Society in 1957.
The geology of Monmouthshire in southeast Wales largely consists of a thick series of sedimentary rocks of different types originating in the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Triassic and Jurassic periods.
The Monmouth Railway, also known as the Monmouth Tramroad, was a horse-drawn plateway of 3 ft 6in gauge. 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.
The Monmouth Viaduct or Chippenham Meadow Viaduct is a 20-arch 183m red sandstone viaduct, with two 23m steel lattice-girder spans over the river. It carried the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway line across the River Wye at Monmouth, Wales. A further river crossing by the Ross and Monmouth Railway was later built nearby.
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