The Saundersfoot Railway was a

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 ...

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard-gauge railway, standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum r ...

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, built between 18301834, to connect

Saundersfoot Saundersfoot ( cy, Llanusyllt; Old Welsh: ''Llanussyllt'') is a large village and community (and former electoral ward) in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is near Tenby, both being holiday destinations. Saundersfoot lies in the Pembrokeshire Coast Nat ...

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

to the

local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s. Trading began on 1 March 1834 and within a few years it comprised a small network of over along the coast from Saundersfoot to

Wisemans Bridge Wisemans Bridge (Welsh; Pont-yr-ŵr) is a coastal hamlet between Amroth and Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The small beachfront community, which is part of the parish of Amroth, was once an important centre for the mineral industry in Wes ...

and on to the collieries at Stepaside and

Kilgetty Kilgetty ( cy, Cilgeti; ) is a village immediately north of Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, Wales, at the junction of the A477 between St. Clears and Pembroke Dock and the A478 between Tenby and Cardigan. Community The villages of Kilgetty, Re ...

, and later, running inland to Thomas Chapel near

Begelly Begelly ( cy, Begeli) is a village and parish in south Pembrokeshire, Wales, north of Tenby on the A478 road. The parish includes the hamlets of Thomas Chapel and Broom and has a web of small settlements associated with the 19th century anthra ...

. It provides the first example in Pembrokeshire of the joint construction of a harbour and tramway, and remained independent until it closed in 1939.

History

There were worthwhile deposits of high quality

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

in the

area; part of the

Pembrokeshire Coalfield The Pembrokeshire Coalfield in West Wales is one of the smallest British coalfields, but continuously worked from the 14th to 20th centuries. The main coalfield extends across south Pembrokeshire from Saundersfoot on Carmarthen Bay westwards to Bro ...

. To move the extracted coal to the coast for onward shipping transport, a tramroad was proposed. The Saundersfoot Railway and Harbour Company was formed in 1828 to build a harbour at Saundersfoot and a tramway to connect it to the collieries around Begelly and Stepaside. In 1829, Parliamentary authorisation was given for the Saundersfoot Railway and Harbour Company. This was to be a four-feet gauge horse operated tramroad, connecting collieries with a new harbour at Saundersfoot. The tramway, which consisted of two main mineral lines and a number of small branches, originally used horses to pull up to three laden

wagons A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

along the tracks. Of the two main lines, the first was built to connect the collieries near Stepaside and the later ironworks using local iron ore at Stepaside, and run along the coast through a series of short tunnels to terminate in the centre of Saundersfoot at the harbour.D S M Barrie, ''A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, volume 12, South Wales'', David St John Thomas Publisher, Nairn,1994, The second line ran from the harbour to Thomas Chapel colliery near Begelly. The route, which traversed an incline of 1 in 5 approximately half a mile from the harbour, passed beneath the GWR station through a tunnel at King's Moor. When the

South Wales Railway The South Wales Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd De Cymru) was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to ...

was authorised, the directors of the Saundersfoot Railway and Harbour Company decided to seek powers to build a line linking both Tenby and Saundersfoot to the SWR Pembroke branch at

Reynalton Reynalton is a small village and parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales, near Tenby and Kilgetty, and is in Kilgetty/Begelly community. History Parish The parish is small, just , and rural. There were 109 inhabitants in the 1830s. The population in 187 ...

. This was authorised in 1846 as the Tenby, Saundersfoot and South Wales Railway and Pier Company, with authorised capital of £140,000. The South Wales Railway opened its line as far as Haverfordwest on 2 January 1854, and to Neyland on 15 April 1856. However, the South Wales Railway did not attempt to build their Pembroke branch, so construction of the Tenby and Saundersfoot line was not started. As part of a modernisation project, the whole line was upgraded to a narrow gauge railway in 1874. The tramway was relaid with flat bottom rails on wooden sleepers allowing a locomotive to be used on the line to Stepaside. Following the cessation of large-scale mining near Begelly, the track from the King's Moor tunnel to Thomas Chapel was lifted in 1887. In around 1914, it was re-laid and a new 1.5 mile branch line built to support the opening of a short-lived colliery at Reynalton. A new engine was purchased for this purpose. But by the late 1920s

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

was in recession and the line closed. In 1932 a brief resurgence in local mining led to the lines being briefly reopened. However, only seven years later, due to financial considerations and the workings becoming exhausted, the railway finally closed on the eve of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Subsequently, the rolling stock along with the tracks were scrapped for use in the war effort.

Today

The section of the route that follows the coastline from Saundersfoot to Wisemans Bridge is now a part of the

Pembrokeshire Coast Path The Pembrokeshire Coast Path ( cy, Llwybr Arfordir Sir Benfro), often called the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, is a designated National Trail in Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales. Established in 1970, it is a long-distance walking route, mostly at ...

. Walkers using the trail pass through three tunnels on the former line.

Locomotives

Both engines used on the line had low profiles so they could work the tunnels. Although ''Rosalind'' was scrapped, ''Bulldog'' continued to work at Llanelli steel works until 1951.

References

Bibliography

External links

The Saundersfoot Railway
at Industrial Wales {{Historical Welsh railway companies 4 ft gauge railways in Wales Early Welsh railway companies Industrial railways in Wales Railway companies established in 1828 Railway lines opened in 1829 Railway lines closed in 1939 Horse-drawn railways 1828 establishments in Wales British companies established in 1828