The Wye Valley Railway was a standard gauge railway that ran for nearly 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.
The line was built with the hope of becoming part of a through trunk route between Bristol and the industrial Midlands, a development which never took place. Although tourism provided some new passenger business in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, the line's income was always weak.
After nationalisation, British Railways reviewed its viability and withdrew the passenger service on 5 January 1959. A limited goods and mineral service continued until 1964, after which residual traffic continued on the southern end of the route to Tintern Quarry, until 1981, and Dayhouse Quarry, near Tidenham, until 1990.
Origins Plateways
The town of Monmouth had become an important regional centre by the 19th century, with a developing local industry. Communication with Chepstow, on the River Severn, had long been undertaken by river transport along the River Wye or on the roads following the Wye Valley, and some mineral industries had been established along this route.B M Handley and R Dingwall, The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch, Oakwood Press, Usk, 1982 reprinted 2000, Keith E Morgan, Monmouth Through Time, Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2016,
By contrast, the nearby Forest of Dean was the source of a considerable output of minerals – coal, iron ore and stone – and the poor road network in the Forest had led early on to the provision of tramways there on a small scale. A more ambitious scheme resulted in the Monmouth Railway,Not to be confused with the Monmouthshire Railway, from Newport to Pontypool. which ran from east of Coleford to Monmouth at May Hill, on the east side of the River Wye. This toll plateway, with a gauge of , was horse operated. It opened in stages between 1812 and 1817.Joseph Priestley, Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways of Great Britain, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1831J J Davis, The Railways of Monmouth, in the Railway Magazine, September 1952
At the same time the Severn and Wye Railway was under construction from the northern and western parts of the Forest to Lydney on the River Severn. Its first section opened as a plateway in 1810 and the line was converted to a broad gauge edge railway much later, in the 1860s.Ian Pope, Bob How and Paul Karau, An Illustrated History of the Severn and Wye Railway: volume one, Wild Swan Publications, Upper Bucklebury, 1983,
Early railways A main line railway came to the region when the South Wales Railway opened from 1850; it eventually completed a through line from Milford HavenHere "Milford Haven" refers to the waterway of that name; the terminal railway station was later known as Neyland. to London in association with its ally, the Great Western Railway. Settlements connected to a railway line found that the cost of materials brought in became much cheaper, and local produce found better prices at market.
The Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway was opened in 1855 crossing the north of the region.Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, Branch Line to Monmouth, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 2008,
Coleford was considered the capital of the Forest of DeanRex Christiansen, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 13: Thames and Severn, David & Charles (Publishers) Limited, Newton Abbot, 1981, and it was the mineral production of the immediate area that encouraged railway access. The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway was authorised in 1853, intended to convey iron ore output by a shorter route than hitherto, to the ironworks of Nantyglo, Dowlais and Ebbw Vale. Its route would avoid the steep ascent, for loaded trains, of the Western Valley line. As well as building a new line from Monmouth to Little Mill, (near Pontypool, on the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway) to Monmouth, the CMU&PR was authorised to purchase part of the Monmouth Railway and convert it to main line standards suitable for locomotive operation: this would form the section from Coleford to Monmouth.
The CMU&PR opened from Little Mill to Usk on 2 June 1856, and on 12 October 1857 it was opened as far as Monmouth Troy station. Reaching Coleford, the primary object of building the line, required a crossing of the River Wye, and conversion of the Monmouth Railway. As well as relaying all of its permanent way, this would have involved considerable realignment to smooth out the worst of the sharp tramroad curves, and opening out the tunnel profile. However at this stage the CMU&PR had largely exhausted its financial resources.
After taking stock of the situation, and achieving a partial financial recovery, the CMU&PR set about building the bridge and viaduct to cross the River Wye at Monmouth, and extend its line as far as a mineral depotThe depot was described as a "wharf". This was a commonly used term for tramway depots at the time, and did not imply a riverside location. at Wyesham, from Monmouth. A transshipment facility was set up there, and the Monmouth Railway continued to operate, unmodernised, as far as that point. The extension of the CMU&PR from the Troy station to Wyesham opened on 1 July 1861.Stanley C Jenkins, The Ross, Monmouth and Pontypool Road Line, Oakwood Press, Usk, second edition, 2009, James Page, Forgotten Railways: South Wales, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1979,
Planning and construction Authorisation
In 1865 definite proposals were put forward to build a railway from Monmouth to Chepstow. At Monmouth it was to make a junction with the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway east of the eastern end of its Wye River Bridge near Monmouth.Prospectus in the Western Daily Press, 18 November 1865
The route was to follow the River Wye but the watercourse was extremely sinuous, and for much of its course it was hemmed in by steep hills. The 1865 projected route was submitted to Parliament in the 1866 session; the line was to be called the Wye Valley Railway. Extremely optimistic forecasts were circulated by the promoters, including the assertion that the line would form part of an artery to the North of England from Bristol, when the Severn Tunnel was opened. Tourism was becoming an important factor, and the natural beauty of the Wye Valley was expected to encourage revenue from that source.
The South Wales Railway had been constructed on the broad gauge, and it was assumed at first that the line from Monmouth would join it at Chepstow, and also be constructed on that gauge. The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool Railway was built on the narrow gauge (as standard gauge was then known), but interchange with that line was not considered important.Mixed gauge would have been needed between Wyesham and Monmouth. Nevertheless, national government had taken an interest in the gauge of new and existing railways, and a Gauge Commission had been appointed to recommend policy. This recommended that no new lines should be built on the broad gauge, except for certain designated extensions to the existing broad gauge network. This resulted in the Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. 57), which mandated that recommendation. The intended gauge of the Wye Valley Railway was changed to narrow gauge, no doubt recognising the reality that the South Wales Railway itself would eventually be converted.The South Wales Railway was converted to narrow gauge in 1872.
The Wye Valley RailwayChristiansen refers to the company on page 135 as the Monmouth and Wye Valley Railway, but this is not used by other authorities. was authorised by the (29 & 30 Vict. c. ccclvii) on 10 August 1866.Parliamentary Intelligence, August 10, 1866, in the Evening Mail, 13 August 1866 Share capital was to be £230,000. It was to run from a junction with the CMU&PR at Wyesham, near Monmouth, to Wye Valley Junction, near Chepstow.Map in F W Arrowsmith, A Description of the Monmouth to Coleford Branch, written at the time of opening, in Thomas B Peacock, Musing on Railways, Four Essays, 1948, T B PeacockE F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959
Construction
The timing of the authorisation was unfortunate, as on 10 May 1866 the banking firm of Overend, Gurney and Company suspended payments, having run out of money to discharge its liabilities, and the surrounding financial turmoil provoked a massive failure of the availability of investment money. The company found it impossible to secure the necessary capital, and the start of construction was much delayed. In fact nothing was done for several years, and as the authorising act specified a time limit, it was necessary to obtain a further act of Parliament allowing an extension of time. This was the (34 & 35 Vict. c. xlix) of 16 June 1871.Imperial Parliament, report in the Morning Post 17 June 1871
Still it proved impossible to get subscriptions, and a financial launch in 1874 offered £230,000 of shares to the public. Confidence was intended to be inspired by the assurance that the Great Western Railway were to work the line, guaranteeing (it was claimed) 6% on capital for five years. The railway was to "open a new and much shorter route from Liverpool and the north, Birmingham and the Midland districts, to Newport, Cardiff, Bristol and the West of England, and this through route will be very materially improved on the completion of the Severn Tunnel now in course of construction."Advertisement in the Morning Post, 9 May 1874 A further act of Parliament in 1874 authorised certain deviations of the formerly approved route, in particular affecting the crossing of the River Wye at Tintern, and the course down the eastern bank of the river.Report of Special General Meeting of the Company held on 12 February 1875, in the Western Mail, 13 February 1875
Construction was started at Tintern on 26 May 1874, the contractor Reid Brothers and Co having undertaken to complete the line by December 1875.Monmouthshire Beacon, 30 May 1874 The technical aspects of the construction were difficult, especially at the southern end of the route. There were two tunnels; the longer was Tidenham (or Denhill) tunnel. When completed it was in length (having been planned at ). The actual construction cost of the line was £318,000, the greater part of the expenditure being on the tunnel.
Tintern Wireworks branch
The delay to 1874 had resulted in a reassessment of the route of the line. In particular the route at Tintern took the line to the east of the town, and the station was some distance away. A petition was raised by residents and industrialists at Tintern, asking for a branch line to serve the Tintern town and the Wireworks factory there. This was agreed to, and a remarkable undertaking was given by the Wye Valley Company in the Wye Valley Railway Amendment Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. li): the branch was to be ready by 1 November 1874, and be for the exclusive use of the landowners. No charge was to be made for transportation on the branch. The company was to pay £3,086 for the land, but the branch was not to become part of the Wye Valley Railway Company undertakings without the consent of the landowners.
The branch involved a substantial bridge over the river Wye, in length, but was nevertheless ready for traffic on 6 August 1875, although the Wye Valley Railway main line was not yet open. Meanwhile, the Wireworks, the principal producer of business on the line, had ceased trading. The line lay dormant until the early 1880s when the Abbey Wire and Tinplate Company established a business there, but this ceased trading in 1901. However the hoped-for passenger station was not made: the branch was to serve industrial locations only.
Independent operation