Category Archives: Forest of Dean Railways & Tramways

The Purton Viaduct and the Purton Steam Carriage Road

6 Replies

On the road between Purton and Etloe on the Northwest side of the Severn Estuary there is a railway viaduct. Seemingly it sits remote from any former railway. Although you might just be forgiven for thinking that it is a remnant of the Forest of Dean Central Railway, or even associated with the Severn & Wye Railway which ran close to, but to the South of, the hamlet of Purton.

The Severn Bridge Railway Station sat just to the South of Purton on the West Bank of the River Severn. [9]
Purton sits just to the North of the Severn Bridge Station on the Severn and Wye Railway. This map extract comes from the 25″ Ordnance Survey of 1901. [10]

It is, in fact, the main remnant of a planned railway/tramroad – the Purton Steam Carriage Road! It can be seen on the map extract below which shows the viaduct just to the North of the hamlet.

Purton Viaduct appears at the top-left corner of this map extract. The hamlet of Purton is bottom-left. Purton Pill is just below the centre of the extract. Historically, there was a ferry across the River Severn at this location. This map extract comes from the 1879 25″ Ordnance Survey. In 1879, a footpath can be seen following the approximate line of the proposed railway. [11]

The viaduct was built, circa. 1832, of red sandstone rubble with dressed voussoirs. It has 3 arches of diminishing heights, its main pier is wedge shaped, so that the viaduct is slightly angled. The tallest arch spans the road. The centre arch is damaged on the NE side. Its Southeast wall continues as retaining wall for some distance. Part of the parapet survives at the north west end.

The viaduct is of considerable historical and industrial archaeological interest: the Purton Steam Carriage Road was planned in 1830, just a few years after the Stockton and Darlington Railway first ran in 1825.

Sadly, it was never to carry the goods it was intended for, but it seems to have had considerable effect on local politics at the time, and on later railway enterprises in the area.

“The finance was to come from a prominent local Iron-master, Charles Mathias of Lamphey Court, Pembrokeshire. The viaduct is the most tangible surviving evidence for an industrial scheme which would have involved the first crossing of the Severn on a moveable bridge.” [1]

An arch of the Purton Viaduct, © John Winder and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0) [2]

The Purton Steam Carriage Road Company predated the Forest of Dean Central Railway and intended to build a line, 8 miles or so long, from a purpose-built dock at Purton Pill to the then-new Foxes Bridge Colliery in the Forest of Dean.

A scheme drafted earlier in the century was  revived in 1830 and supported by a number of Forest industrialists. As we have already noted, “The promoter of the Parliamentary Bill, presented to Parliament in 1832, was one Charles Mathias, who was so confident of the Bill’s success that he purchased the required land and began construction of the line. Unfortunately, the Bill met strong opposition from the Commissioners of Woods, failed to make its second reading and was withdrawn. Mathias’ premature and misplaced enthusiasm had led to the construction of various bits of railway infrastructure.” [3]

The structures completed included:

  • All or part of Nibley Hill Tunnel near Blakeney (the portals are each marked as “old quarry” on the 1892-1914 OS 25″ map);
  • A cutting here and there; and
  • Purton Viaduct.
Another arch of the Purton Viaduct. The road is that between Purton and Etloe, © John Winder and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0) [3]

Purton Viaduct is Grade II Listed by Historic England. It is recognised as being of “considerable historical and industrial archaeological interest”, but is suffering from the vegetation which has almost hidden it from view in places! [3]

The viaduct is noted in Neil Parkhouse’s, “Forest of Dean Lines and the Severn Bridge” which is the second volume in Lightmoor Press’, “British Railway History in Colour” series. [6]

Another view of the Purton Viaduct, © John Winder and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0) [4]
Another view of the Purton Viaduct, this time from the early 1970s. It shows the viaduct relatively clear of vegetation after a team of volunteers, led by archaeologist David Bick spent time removing vegetation, © John Bayes and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0) Interestingly, John Bayes calls the tramroad /railway, the ‘Hayes Locomotive Tramway’.[5]
This picture of the Viaduct in 2016 appears in Grace’s Guide. [8]

North of the Viaduct, the line of the Purton Steam Carriage Road can be followed on older maps, as the map extract below shows.

Purton Viaduct appears in the bottom-right of this map extract and the route of the planned Purton Steam Carriage Road can be seen as the double-dotted track heading Northwest from the viaduct. This extract is from the 1879 25″ Ordnance Survey. [11]
The line of the proposed Carriage Road runs from bottom-right to top-left on this extract from the 25″ 1878/1879 Ordnance Survey. [12]
The line of the proposed Carriage Road runs from the bottom-right towards the top-left on this extract from the 25″ 1878/1879 Ordnance Survey. Approximately at the centre of the extract the Ordnance Survey chose to name the made-made defile at Lanesbrookgreen as an Old Quarry. It is in fact the location of what was to be the Southern mouth of Nibley Hill Tunnel. [12]
This slightly out of focus extract from the 25″ Ordnance Survey of 1878/1879 shows both the North and South ends of Nibley Hill Tunnel marked as Old Quarries. The road running North-South adjacent to the line of the northerly length of Nibley Hill Tunnel and then crossing its line to the North of the proposed southern portal is now the A48. [12]
This composite image overlays modern satellite imagery over the 25″ Ordnance Survey from the turn of the 20th century. The defiles marking the proposed tunnel entrances can be made out at the top and bottom of this image. The A48 is easily made out. [14]

Nibley Hill Tunnel would have been 600 yards in length and would have taken the Purton Steam Carriage Road into the Forest of Dean close to the village of Blakeney.

The Purton Steam Carriage Road was one of two early proposed Tramroads in the Forest of Dean which were close to the line of what became the Forest of Dean Central Railway.

To the North was the proposed Moseley Green and Tilting Mill Tramroad which was intended to link the valley of Blackpool Brook with the outside world by connecting mines in the Moseley Green area with the Bullo Pull Tramroad. It was not pursued. Instead, in 1832, the Purton Steam Carriage Road was devised to access the Blackpool Brook valley. [13]

Its route North of Nibley Hill Tunnel is difficult to identify on the Ordnance Survey mapping of the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

References

  1. https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/IOE01/06871/35, accessed on 9th September 2023.
  2. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6503314, accessed on 6th September 2023.
  3. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6503290, accessed on 6th September 2023.
  4. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6503302, accessed on 6th September 2023.
  5. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1284797, accessed on 6th September 2023.
  6. The National Archive holds records associated with this proposed line which can be accessed at Kew. The relevant details can be found on the following links: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7435267, accessed on 17th September 2021. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7435264, accessed on 17th September 2021.
  7. Further details are available on Grace’s Guide, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Purton_Steam_Carriage_Road, accessed on 17th September 2021.
  8. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:JD_Purton_2016_01.jpg, accessed on 17th September 2021.
  9. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22482341#/media/File:The_Severn_Bridge_Sharpness_England.jpg, accessed on 9th September 2023.
  10. https://maps.nls.uk/view/109727260, accessed on 9th September 2023.
  11. https://maps.nls.uk/view/109727257, accessed on 9th September 2023.
  12. https://maps.nls.uk/view/109726411, accessed on 9th September 2023.
  13. https://booksrus.me.uk/gn/page%2079.html, accessed on 9th September 2023.
  14. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15.7&lat=51.75242&lon=-2.48792&layers=168&b=1, accessed on 9th September 2023.