Hidden gems
by Naylor Firth T
he industrial revolution during the 19th century sparked huge
investment in Britain’s railway system. For the fi rst time large
quantities of goods and numbers of people could be moved around the country cheaply and quickly. Railways enabled the
vast reserves of coal in South Wales to be moved effi ciently and a line from Swansea to Chepstow was opened in 1850 together with another from Gloucester to Tutshill in 1851. The task of fi lling the
missing link over the River Wye at Chepstow to connect South Wales with the Midlands and London was awarded to Isambard Kingdom Brunel who devised a revolutionary structure to meet the Admiralty’s stipulation for a minimum of 50ft clearance at high tide to allow masted vessels to pass. Brunel engaged Edward
Finch of Liverpool to build the structure and the resulting ‘tubular bridge’ was to become an iconic structure in Chepstow’s landscape for the next 110 years with it’s two large curved wrought-iron tubes supporting the suspended rail deck beneath. The ironwork was
constructed partly in Finch’s Liverpool works and partly in their newly acquired site on the Welsh side of the Wye beneath the landfall of the bridge.
The South tube was the fi rst to be raised and the
Above: Bridge Street, Chepstow around 1908. Right: Visitors relaxing in the rustic surrounding of Moss Cottage, Wyndcliffe, at around 1910. Both from Chepstow and the River Wye, revised edition, compiled by Anne Rainsbury.
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broad gauge line beneath it opened for crossing in July 1852. The North tube was successfully raised (see picture) to enable both lines to be opened in April 1853. As well as assisting the
movement of iron and coal from South Wales to the rest of the UK, Brunel also envisaged the continuation of the line to the Milford Haven to enable his revolutionary- designed ships the SS Great Western, the SS Great Britain and the leviathan the SS Great Eastern to expand links with Ireland and America. The railway network in
Britain contained a number of different gauge systems but the South Wales lines, including those over the Brunel Bridge, converted from broad gauge to the current standard gauge around 1872. The pressure for a more direct route from South Wales to the South East resulted in the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886 and a subsequent reduction in traffi c along the Chepstow line.
Nevertheless, fatigue
gradually affected the Tubular Bridge to the extent that trains were limited to 15 mph during the 1960s and this Chepstow landmark was eventually dismantled during 1962 (see picture) as a new, far less attractive replacement was rolled out underneath the original.
A LOOK BACK IN TIME...
Right: Lion Street, Abergavenny in the 1960s. Below: GWR staff from Monmouth Road station get ready for an outing. Both from Abergavenny Through Time by Irene Morgan.
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