Lydbrook church and the course of the railway

Image: © John Winder Taken: 2 Apr 2018

The track leading off to the left of the church is now a private driveway, but until 1956 it was the course of the Severn & Wye Railway. This was opened in 1810 as a plateway (which is to say the wagons run on L Shaped iron plates, rather than rails as we know them) as The Lydney & Lidbrook (sic) Railway; the name was changed in late 1810. The line was converted to locomotive haulage and broad gauge in the 1860s, and to standard gauge in the early 1870s. Most of the line's traffic was freight: coal, stone and timber from the Forest of Dean. There was a passenger service on the line from 1875 until 1929, but it was never heavily used. WWII saw an increase in traffic levels after a protracted decline in the company's fortunes beginning in the 1890s. After the war, however, traffic nosedived and the line closed completely between 1949 and 1960: the section pictured here closed in 1956.

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