Pontrilas railway station

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Pontrilas
Pontrilasstation1.jpg
A busy scene at Pontrilas Station in 1907
General information
Location Pontrilas, Herefordshire
England
Coordinates 51°56′37″N2°52′35″W / 51.9435°N 2.8765°W / 51.9435; -2.8765
Grid reference SO397276
Platforms3
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original company Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway
Pre-grouping Great Western Railway
Post-groupingGreat Western Railway
Key dates
1854Opened [1]
9 June 1958Closed [2]
Postcard from 1927 at the busy junction station Pontrilas railway station (postcard).jpg
Postcard from 1927 at the busy junction station
Arriva Trains Wales service passing the disused station Railway at Pontrilas - geograph.org.uk - 889611.jpg
Arriva Trains Wales service passing the disused station

Pontrilas railway station is a former station which served the Herefordshire villages of Pontrilas and Ewyas Harold, and was a little distance from Grosmont, in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was located on the Welsh Marches Line between Hereford and Abergavenny. The Golden Valley Railway [3] ran from here through to the Midland Railway line at Hay on Wye. The station is now a private house with attached self-catering holiday cottage created from the former waiting room. [4]

The station closed in 1958 (see Pontrilas).

The remaining railway infrastructure includes the operating signal box. The sidings are still in use for infrastructure work and, less often, as a freight loop. It is at the end of the long climb from Abergavenny; freight and steam specials on this route provide a noisy spectacle coming through the station site. In the southbound direction the long section between Pontrilas and Abergavenny frequently results in trains being held here awaiting a clear run into Abergavenny.

The branch line junction and bridge, crossing the A465 onto the Golden Valley Railway, has been demolished in road widening - only the abutment to the bridge remains.

During the 1990s rail freight operated to this set of sidings, delivering wood to Pontrilas Sawmill. Plans were even mooted to open a short siding into it; this would have had to cross the A465 or replace the missing Golden Valley bridge so was unlikely. Freight traffic ended when British Rail closed its Freightliner service.

A large online model railway retailer - OnTracks.co.uk – was based in the business unit below the signal box. The unit is now occupied by Golden Valley Hobbies who operate a similar online store.

There are plans to open a new station for the village. [5] [6]

In March 2020, a bid was made to the Restoring Your Railway fund to get funds for a feasibility study into reinstating the station. This bid was unsuccessful. [7]

In October 2023, the local authority said plans to reopen the station had been shelved as they claimed it was poor value for money. The local authority also claimed that most passengers using the station would have instead used another station or the local bus network. [8]

Also October 2023, the local authority then took the opposite view that they could now make the plan work. The apparent contradiction likely due to media interpretations of differing opinions within the council [9]

Related Research Articles

Pontrilas is a village in south Herefordshire, England, half a mile from the border with Wales. It is in the parish of Kentchurch and lies midway between Hereford and Abergavenny. In 2011 the main village contained 66 residential dwellings, as well as Pontrilas Business Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hereford railway station</span> Railway station in Hereford, Herefordshire, England

Hereford railway station serves the city of Hereford, in Herefordshire, England. Managed by Transport for Wales, it lies on the Welsh Marches Line between Leominster and Abergavenny, is the western terminus of the Cotswold Line and also has an hourly West Midlands Trains service from Birmingham New Street. The station has four platforms for passenger trains and two additional relief lines for goods services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Valley (Herefordshire)</span> Valley in Herefordshire, United Kingdom

The Golden Valley is the name given to the valley of the River Dore in western Herefordshire, England. The valley is a picturesque area of gently rolling countryside. It lies in the lee of the Black Mountains, Wales.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ewyas Harold</span> Human settlement in England

Ewyas Harold is a village and civil parish in the Golden Valley in Herefordshire, England, near the Wales-England border about halfway between Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, and Hereford. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 census was 883. It lies on the Dulas brook, and is contiguous with the neighbouring village of Pontrilas.

<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.

Vowchurch railway station was a railway station on the Golden Valley Railway line between Abergavenny and Hay-on-Wye. It served the village of Vowchurch in Herefordshire, England, from 1881. The station closed and re-opened three times before the line's closure to passenger services in 1941.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbeydore railway station</span> Former railway station in Herefordshire, England

Abbeydore railway station was a station in Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, England. It was located on the Great Western Railway branch line linking Pontrilas and Hay-on-Wye. The area is known as the Golden Valley.

Abergavenny Junction railway station was a station situated near the junction made between the London and North Western Railway's Heads of the Valleys line and the West Midland Railway's Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway, which served the town of Abergavenny in the Welsh county of Monmouthshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bacton railway station</span> Former railway station in Herefordshire, England

Bacton railway station was a station in Bacton, Herefordshire, England. It was located on the Great Western Railway branch line linking Pontrilas and Hay-on-Wye. The area is known as the Golden Valley.

<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.

Walford Halt railway station is a disused halt on the Ross and Monmouth Railway constructed near the Herefordshire village of Walford. It also served the surrounding settlements. Nothing remains of the station. It was located approximately 3 miles and 12 chains along the railway from Ross-on-Wye station.

Hereford Barton railway station was a station in Hereford, Herefordshire, England.

The Golden Valley Railway was a railway company which constructed a branch line from Pontrilas in Herefordshire, England, to Hay on Wye. Pontrilas was on the Great Western Railway main line between Newport and Hereford. The Golden Valley company opened the first part of its line from Pontrilas to Dorstone in 1881. It was constantly beset with shortage of money, but opened an extension to Hay in 1889. Its directors had grand ideas of extending further to Monmouth and forming part of a long-distance trunk route. It issued misleading promotional material which secured significant investment from the public, but exposure of the falsehoods resulted in collapse.

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

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontrilas Army Training Area</span>

Pontrilas Army Training Area is a British Army training camp, located just north of the village of Ewyas Harold near to Pontrilas in Herefordshire, England. Originally developed pre-World War II by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as an ammunition dump, it was served by the Golden Valley Railway.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llancillo</span> Human settlement in England

Llancillo is a civil parish in south-west Herefordshire, England, and is approximately 13 miles (20 km) south-west from Hereford. The parish borders Wales at the south in which is the nearest town, Abergavenny, 7 miles (11 km) to the south-southwest. In the parish is the isolated Grade II* listed 11th-century Church of St Peter.

References

  1. "Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway". Herefordshire Council. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  2. Steele, Bob. "The rise and fall of the Golden Valley Railway". Ewyas Lacy Study Group. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  3. The Golden Valley Railway
  4. B&B and self catering cottage
  5. "Here's why a new Herefordshire railway station is looking even more likely". Hereford Times. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  6. Garcia, Carmelo (12 February 2020). "Welsh Government support for new station in Pontrilas". Sunshine Radio Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  7. Restoring Your Railway Fund: bids received gov.uk
  8. "Plans to reopen Herefordshire railway station shelved". BBC News. 1 October 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  9. "We can make Pontrilas railway station plan work, council says". Hereford Times. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2024.

Further reading

Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Abbeydore
Line and station closed
  Great Western Railway
Golden Valley Railway
 Terminus
St Devereux
Line open, station closed
  Great Western Railway
Welsh Marches line
  Pandy
Line open, station closed