The Forest of Dean Railways and Tramways

I have recently encountered two small books, both of which are facsimile editions of much older books. The first is a 19th century guide to the Forest of Dean for early holiday makers. The second provides a guide to the various coal mines in the Forest. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/10/05/two-pocket-books-about-the-forest-of-dean

 

The Bream Heritage Walk, the Oakwood Tramway and The Flour Mill Ltd

The Forest of Dean continues to be one of my favourites places. In 2020 we, once again, stayed there in the first week of September.

This post returns to two earlier themes from the Forest.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/09/0...k-the-oakwood-tramway-and-flour-mill-colliery

On 1st September 2020 we followed a sign-posted circular walk which started in the centre of the village of Bream on the Southwest side of the Forest. The route was planned with the support of the Big Lottery Heritage Fund and featured a series of different heritage locations around the village. ............. The walk took us first along the route of the China Bottom Branch of the Oakwood Tramway which was covered in an earlier post about the tramways in the Forest (http://rogerfarnworth.com/2017/10/02/oakwood-and-dikes-tramways).

 

This short addendum to my most recent post provides photographs with comments which were taken at the site of Flour Mill Colliery where The Flour Mill Ltd undertakes heavy engineering work maintaining and refurbishing steam locomotives.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/09/04/the-flour-mill-colliery-and-the-flour-mill-ltd-again

 

Darkhill Ironworks, Titanic Steelworks and associated railways and tramways. .....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/09/12/the-forest-of-dean-milkwall-tramway-at-dark-hill

 

Humphrey Household included a short chapter about the Forest in his 1984 book about the railways of Gloucestershire in the 1920s

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/09/17/the-forest-of-dean-tramways-and-railways-an-addendum

While on holiday in the Forest of Dean in September 2021, I picked up a secondhand copy of "Gloucestershire Railways in the Twenties" by Humphrey Household. [1] It consists of a review of the development of the railways in Gloucestershire supported by a series of photographs which were predominantly taken in the 1920s by Humphrey Household. The photos are a significant resource. The text of the book is well-written. Its final two chapters were of real interest to me.

 

I continue to find tramways and railways in the Forest of Dean of great interest. For this next post we return to Mr Brain's Tramway which primarily served Trafalgar Colliery in the Forest.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2022/06/26/brains-tramway-forest-of-dean

Further research has resulted in a bit more information about the locomotives that worked on the Tramway. ....

 

The Purton Viaduct and the Purton Steam Carriage Road. ....

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 which ran through Blakeney, or even associated with the Severn & Wye Railway which ran close to, but to the South of, the hamlet of Purton.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/09/10/the-purton-viaduct-and-the-purton-steam-carriage-road/