Many a month has passed since last I blogged here. I confess to completely losing the desire to write this stuff, but a few friends have been kind enough to say that they're missing my posts... so here I am again. Whether I shall succeed in matching my previous output remains to be seen. My last post ended with the words, "For my next post I'm planning to take in the other end of Mierystock (or Mirystock) Tunnel, on one of my favourite forest walks." If you've been patiently awaiting that post, your wait is over!
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Regular visitors to Chez Angie rarely have to wait long before being cajoled into experiencing one of my favourite forest rambles ― a circular walk from Speculation carpark, taking in Meirystock tunnel, the remains of Trafalgar mine, the site of a tiny railway station in the middle of nowhere and the very strange Trafalgar Arch. Every part of this walk has appeared in this blog before, but never in a single post... so here we go.
This rather nondescript place is Speculation carpark, which takes its name from a colliery that once existed here abouts. I haven't found any photos of it, but it's clearly marked on old maps; already 'disused' by the 1880's.
From here our path heads north along the course of the old railway line that once ran through Lydbrook to a junction with the Monmouth to Chepstow line at Stowfield. One of the lovely things about walking in the Forest of Dean is that most of these old lines have been turned into very pleasant footpaths. There'll be plenty of those on this ramble.
Before long, we come to the elliptically-shaped southern portal of Meirystock Tunnel, here viewed through Meirystock Bridge. As mentioned in my last post, there are ambitious plans to reopen the tunnel, though at the present rate of progress, I doubt that I'll live to see it.
Our route crosses the bridge, passing between slag heaps that may have come from Meirystock Colliery, though they seem rather small. Over the centuries many small coal mines have come and gone, so perhaps these are much older than Meirystock, which closed in1959.
Skipping along a bit, we come to the site of Trafalgar Colliery. Here's a photo of it in operational days...
... and this is what it looks like now. The two stones mark the site of two shafts; the ones beneath the winding gear in the old photo, perhaps?
This splendid plaque to Sir Francis Brain has appeared quite recently; I don't recall seeing it before taking this photo last May.
On one side of the colliery site is a tunnel mouth. It's appeared on this blog before (here). Its gloomy bore linked Trafalgar to the delightfully named Strip and At It colliery on the other side of the hill.
Trafalgar Colliery was served by a tramway, and later by a long siding off the Cinderford line. Both are shown to be operational on this map dated 1888-1913.
Here's the course of that tramway. A few years ago Forestry England carried out a lot of tree felling in this area, turning the path into a mud bath but, as you can see, it soon recovered its charm. Such are the joys of rambling in a working forest.
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Moving along a little from the previous map brings us to the site of Drybrook Road Station. The tramway we've been following is at the top of the map.
In the best traditions of stations named 'road', Drybrook Road Station was nowhere near Drybrook, and accessible only on rough forest tracks. I'm told that it only really existed as a place for trains from Lydney to reverse on their way to Lydbrook Junction. Here's little me on a winter's day in 2014, wondering when the next passenger train might arrive. The last one left in 1929, after which the line only carried mineral traffic.
This photo, looking east towards Cinderford, was taken in the mid 1950s, presumably after closure of the line to Cinderford.
And here's roughly the same view in 2023. The station line ran to the left of the tree in the centre of my photo, whilst the broad cycle track follows the line that used to curve to the right.
Heading down the track in the opposite direction, we soon come to Trafalgar Arch - truly a bridge to nowhere. Trafalgar Colliery was to the right of my first photo and it seems that there was a real danger of its slag tips encroaching upon the railway track. Hence, the 'bridge' might either have been designed as a buttress against those tips, or intended to carry a tramway to new tips on the other side of the line.
One clue that it was probably an elaborate buttress is to be found on the west side (below). If you look carefully, you'll see that the arch brickwork has been left unfinished, which would make it much easier to lengthen the bridge as the slag tips grew. In the event, they didn't grow and Trafalgar Colliery closed in 1925.
A little way west of Trafalgar Arch was Serridge Junction, where our line to Speculation, Lydbrook and Stowfield diverged from the one to Lydney.
Fallen trees slow our progress, but I had no difficulty getting through. For less hardy (or more sensible) souls there's an easier path slightly to the right.
Finally, emerging from the trees, and only a few hundred yards from Speculation, Forestry England have been busy felling trees. And at my feet...
... a sole surviving railway chair, evidence that this tranquil spot was once home to a mighty industry, providing employment for hundreds of people.
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| 3.6 miles |
I love your Forest posts, Angie!
ReplyDeleteFascinating to see the old black-and-white pictures of how things used to be. The Forest must have been alive with train noises. It occurs to be that if you had a spare polytunnel in a vast back garden, you could recreate a big section of the Forest as it was in the 1920s, with hills and valleys and rivers, and all the snaking railway lines and tunnels and embankments, complete of course with the contemporary engines and waggons. I've no idea how long it might take to model all that, but what a project.
Lucy