£25.00

Author:   Ian Pope

Published:   2019
Edition:   Hardback
Pages:   958
Condition:   New
Genre:   Great Western Railway (GWR)

Status:   In Stock

Synopsis

Severn & Wye Railway Forest of Dean Volume 5 by Ian Pope.

The casual visitor to the Forest of Dean will no doubt find it a pleasant, though unassuming, area in which to escape the pressures of everyday life, the absence of splendour in the landscape being more than compensated for by the tranquillity to be found in its lush and gentle greenwood. The more observant traveller may, however, perceive places where the rough scars of man’s work interrupt the natural contours of the land, and pathways whose alignment and earthworks betray their former purpose.

In fact the Forest was once a rather different place to that promoted today by the Wyedean Tourist Board. Its dense, leafy canopy concealed a rich mineral wealth which was known and exploited as far back as Roman times, reaching a peak around the turn of the twentieth century. Ambitious traders, anxious to convey their hard-won products to the markets of the outside world promoted and built a network of tramroads and, later, railways which were to play a vital role in the area’s rise to industrial prominence.

Volume 5 looks at all facets of the harbour at Lydney where the vast majority of Forest coal was transshipped into small coasting vessels for shipment to Bristol, round the coast of the West Country and to Ireland.

Chapters

Lydney Yard
General History
Lydney Crossing
The Upper Basin
The Line to Pine End
The Coal Tips and Tipping
The Canal
The Lower Basin
The Dredger
The Lock
The Tidal Basin
Off the Pier Head
The Shipyard
Chapter of Accidents
Bye Laws
Extracts from the 1894 S&W&SBR Directions