Parallel Lines: Leominster to Kington with guest Ian Marchant
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- Опубликовано: 22 июн 2023
- Parallel Lines: Lost Railways by Air follows the Leominster to Kington railway that branched off to New Radnor and Presteigne with guest Ian Marchant.
Ian Marchant, author, broadcaster and performer is the grandfather of hip railway enthusiasm and author of the best selling Parallel Lines and he joins me in conversation as we explore the line back to home town of Presteigne.
Ian's book Parallel Lines is available to buy..highly recommended
www.amazon.co.uk/Parallel-Lin...
You can find the 40th anniversary performance featuring Ian Marchant at Sheep Music 04 here at 40:50
• Sheep Music Festival 0...
Lovely stuff. Thank you.
Superb! Thanks for that. Just got back from coast walking on Anglesey, camped by the old line that ran to Amwlch, rails etc. still in place as they argue over what to do with it.
yes, they are doing a good job of tidying the old line up in Anglesey but what next?
I can remember that last day the line was open as i was sat on the bonnet of my grandads car at Pembridge Station,a sad day!!!!!!
The stretch from Leominster to just beyond Kingsland was a godsend for getting back into Shobdon when the weather turned ugly. You'd hug the course of the railway until your heading indicator read 240 degrees, count 15 seconds, hang a right onto west and the runway would be right in front of you. It never let me down!
Great conversation. Takes me back to my childhood in a way, and Ian is still very funny. Nice!
The little cottage at the crossing is now a holiday let property.
My last trip to Leominster included buying a lot of railway-related bits and bobs from a book auction at Russell, Baldwin & Bright. Horrified to see their last ever auction was in May 1998!
A beautiful film.
Thanks, very glad you enjoyed it
Where in leominster can you see the remains of the medieaval slums, please?
you would have to speak to Ian about that.. I believe he was cheekily referring the to the narrow lanes and back streets in the town centre
Had the Kington, Leominster & Stourport Canal Company not run out of money there would have been a canal between Leominster and Kington. As built the canal was only completed between Mamble in Worcestershire to just outside Leominster. In fact the canal never actually reached Leominster let alone Kington or Stourport!
Some construction was begun at Kingsland and the aqueduct over the river Lugg was partially built. I remember in the summer of 1968 seeing the remains of the abutments in the river bed. Had the aqueduct been completed it would have been similar to the partially demolished aqueduct over the river Teme east of Wooferton.
The Leominster to Kington line was not the first railway to reach Kington. As the town was on the route of the longest horse worked plateway in Great Britain.
The 36 & 1/4 mile long plateway ran from the Brecon & Abergavenny Canal at Brecon through Hay crossing the Wye using the road bridge at Whitney-on-Wye.
The 24 miles of track between Brecon and Eardisley via Hay was owned by the Hay Railway with the 16 & a 1/4 miles between Eardisley and the limestone quarries at Burlinjob in Radnorshire via Kington being owned by the Kington Railway.
The Hay Railway had opened between 1816 & 1818 and the Kington Railway had opened between 1820 and 1825.
Closures and partiall conversion into standard gauge steam railways started in 1860 when the Hay Railway closed. The last remaining sections of the Kington Railway were finally closed in 1875.
Thanks that is some very interesting information.. I will follow the lost railway between Hay and Brecon and have some footage already with regards to the Mid Wales line.
@@julesdingle Thank you. You may be interested to know that not all of the Hay Railway between Brecon and Hay was used by the Hereford, Hay & Brecon Railway after its closure in 1860.
For example various bridges/culverts survive as does the albeit rebuilt Talylllyn Tunnel (674yards), which originally opened on the 7th May 1816.
By the time the H,H&BR closed in May 1964 the 148 year old tunnel was the oldest working railway tunnel in the world. There are also some nice sections of embankments surviving around Hay particularly at Gypsy Castle and the Warren. The most substantial structure used by the Hay Railway that still survives (Though it predates the line) is the toll bridge at Whitney-on-Wye.
As rather than building their own bridge or using a rail ferry (This was done in South Wales to avoid the cost of bridge)
It was decided to use the existing bridge.
Today, the horse worked industrial Dramroads/Plateways/Tramroads/ Tramways/Waggonways etc etc of Great Britain are largely forgotten and/of overlooked.
Yet in operation they lasted in various forms from c.1604 (It has been suggested that some of the short tramways around Shropshire's Severn Gorge may date from the 1590's) until May 1999 when the last horse worked colliery tramway in South Wales finished.
The Railway & Canal Historical Society have published a number of very useful books on railways of this type including the Hay Railway/Kington Railway and the line from the Brecon & Abergavenny Canal to Hereford.
Like the line from Brecon to Burlinjob more than one company was involved.
In this case there were three companies.
1) The Llanfihangel Railway.
From the B&A canal at Govilon Wharf to Llanfihangel Crucorney via Abergavenny.
It was 6 miles long.
2) The Grosmont Railway.
From an end-on junction at Llanfihangel Crucorney to Llangua Bridge.
It was 7miles long.
3) The Hereford Railway.
From an end-on junction at Llangua Bridge to Wye Bridge in Hereford.
It was 11miles long. So the total length was 24miles. It was a 3'6" gauge plateway.
Like the Hay Railway and Kington Railway. The line to Hereford was partly converted into a standard gauge railway.
When I travel between Newport and Hereford I look out for the long closed course of the old plateway.
Such pioneering railways deserve to be remembered.
thanks Nicholas