Six Bells Halt railway station was a station which served the

Six Bells Colliery Six Bells Colliery was a colliery located in Six Bells, Abertillery, Gwent, Wales. On 28 June 1960 it was the site of an underground explosion which killed 45 of the 48 miners working in that part of the mine. It is now the site of the artistica ...

near

Abertillery Abertillery (; cy, Abertyleri) is a town and a community of the Ebbw Fach valley in the historic county of Monmouthshire, Wales. Following local government reorganisation it became part of the Blaenau Gwent County Borough administrative area. ...

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 halt was opened by 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 ...

on 27 September 1937 on its line from branch from to . The route had first opened as a

tramroad A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange o ...

in 1824 by the

Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company The Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company was a canal and railway company that operated a canal and a network of railways in the Western Valley and Eastern Valley of Newport, Monmouthshire. It started as the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation and op ...

before being converted to a railway in 1855. It became part of the

in 1880 and remained there at the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. The station was situated to the north-east of

which was served by a network of sidings which remained in use until 30 November 1980. The line was four-tracked to the south of Six Bells Halt narrowing to two lines going through the station beyond which was a loop serving two small collieries. The 35-lever Cwmnantygroes

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, which lay to the north, was in use until 11 October 1964. The station was provided with an

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

reached via a footbridge. A private siding for J. Lancaster & Co. Ltd trailed off to the west; this was in use from 1891 to 1980. In 1947, two special trains for

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

staff were running daily between Ebbw Vale and Six Bells. This attracted criticism in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

on the basis of the costs involved. Passenger services were withdrawn from the station on 30 April 1962. The line through the station was singled on 3 May 1971. The route was progressively shortened as collieries were closed, with the last section being taken out of use in 1989 after the closure of Six Bells Colliery. To the south of Six Bells Halt, there had been a previous station which served the colliery between July 1897 and July 1902. This was an untimetabled halt for the use of miners.

Proposed re-opening

In 2010

Sewta South East Wales Transport Alliance (Sewta) was a consortium established by the 10 local authorities in South East Wales to promote and develop transport strategies and projects in the region. Founded on 1 April 2003, Sewta worked in close liaiso ...

proposed to reopen the line through Six Bells Halt as part of a scheme which would see a new station at Abertillery with an hourly service to Cardiff. The estimated cost of extending the line to Abertillery was estimated at £16.7m according to Sewta. Part of the trackbed, which is owned by Blaenau Gwent Council, is used as a cycleway and there was thought to be sufficient space for a single track. However, after the scheme was omitted from the

Welsh Government The Welsh Government ( cy, Llywodraeth Cymru) is the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of ministers and Minister (government), deputy ministers, and also of a Counsel General for Wales, counsel general. Minist ...

's National Transport Plan for funding priorities until 2015, Welsh Transport Minister

Carl Sargeant Carl Sargeant (1968 – 7 November 2017) was a Welsh politician who was the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children in the Welsh Government. He represented the constituency of Alyn and Deeside in the National Assembly for Wales from 20 ...

AM confirmed that the new station would not be a priority until after 2015.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * * * *{{Quick-Stations Disused railway stations in Blaenau Gwent Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1937 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1962 1937 establishments in Wales 1962 disestablishments in Wales Abertillery