Ebbw Vale (High Level) railway station was a station on a short branch from the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

's Heads of the Valleys line which served the town of

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; cy, Glynebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr con ...

in the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

county of

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

History

The first section of the

Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway The Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway, also known as the ''Heads of the Valleys line'', was a railway line which operated between 1860 and 1958 between the Monmouthshire town of Abergavenny and the Glamorgan town of Merthyr Tydfil in Sou ...

from to was opened on 29 September 1862. The line was leased and operated by the

(L&NWR) which acquired the smaller railway company on 30 June 1866. On 2 September 1867, a branch was opened to Ebbw Vale. The branch service started at and, prior to 1925, there was a daily service of more than thirty trains each way. Ebbw Vale was reached by the Beaufort Viaduct before reaching Ebbw Vale Junction and the Rhyd Viaduct. Much of the branch descended towards Ebbw Vale on 1 in 42 gradient. A connection ran north-eastwards to the Ebbw Vale Iron Works. A substantial amount of freight was carried to and from the ironworks. The station was sandwiched between James Street and Market Street, with the main station building facing the latter. St James Methodist Church was prominent behind the single platform which backed on to James Street. A signal box was at the south end of the station before the point where the line crossed Market Street on the level. The station was near the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

's own Ebbw Vale station and there was considerable rivalry between this company and the L&NWR. The L&NWR insisted that the signalman manning the signalbox descend to ring a handbell five minutes before the departure of a train and again once it had left. The station booking office was closed two minutes before the departure of a train which resulted in late would-be passengers having to wait outside a locked gate until the train departed. To distinguish the two Ebbw Vale stations,

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

added the suffix "High Level" (the L&NWR station) and "Low Level" (the GWR station) on 23 May 1949. The High Level station suffered from the disadvantage that, although it was more centrally-located than the Low Level, services went to Brynmawr and not to where most passengers wished to travel. Passenger services, which at that time consisted of two each way on weekdays and five extra services on Saturdays, were withdrawn from the branch on 5 February 1951, although goods facilities were provided until 2 November 1959. From 22 November 1954, goods services were routed via the

Sirhowy Railway The Sirhowy Tramroad was a plateway built to convey the products of ironworks at Tredegar to Newport, South Wales. It opened in 1805 between Tredegar and Nine Mile Point, a location west of Risca, from where the Monmouthshire Canal Company opera ...

and .

Present

The station site has been redeveloped as a shopping complex, having previously been a

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

. The angle of the building to the road follows the former railway alignment. The Ebbw Vale leisure centre has been constructed on the trackbed about north of the former terminus.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * *{{Cite book, last1=Tasker, first1=W.W., title=The Merthyr, Tredegar & Abergavenny Railway and branches, year=1986, publisher=Oxford Publishing Co., location=Poole, isbn=978-0-86093-339-7 Disused railway stations in Blaenau Gwent Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1867 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1951 1867 establishments in Wales 1959 disestablishments in Wales