St Briavels Station was a station along the

Wye Valley Railway The Wye Valley Railway was a standard gauge railway that ran for nearly along the Lower Wye Valley between the towns of Chepstow and Monmouth, crossing several times between Wales and England. Opened on 1 November 1876, it was leased to, and w ...

. It was built in 1876 during the construction of the line on the

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 ...

side of the

River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of Wal ...

at Bigsweir, and was intended to serve the nearby villages of

St Briavels St Briavels (pronounced ''Brevels'', once known as 'Ledenia Parva' (Little Lydney)), is a medium-sized village and civil parish in the Royal Forest of Dean in west Gloucestershire, England; close to the England-Wales border, and south of Colefo ...

, across the river in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...

, and

Llandogo Llandogo ( cy, Llaneuddogwy) is a small village in Monmouthshire, south Wales, between Monmouth and Chepstow in the lower reaches of the Wye Valley AONB, two miles north of Tintern. It is set on a steep hillside overlooking the River Wye and acro ...

, which is further down the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; cy, Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. The River Wye ( cy, Afon Gwy) is the fourth-longest river in th ...

. It was closed on 5 January 1959 when the line was closed to passenger services.B. M. Handley and R. Dingwall, ''The Wye Valley Railway and the Coleford Branch'', 1982,

History

The station was opened on 1 November 1876 as Bigsweir Station. It was renamed St Briavels and Llandogo in 1909, shortly after the line's amalgamation with 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 ...

. It was finally renamed St Briavels Station in 1927 with the opening of Llandogo Halt. The station consisted of a station building, goods shed, signal box, storage shed, sidings, crane and the only level crossing on the Wye Valley line, for the

A466 road The A466, also known as the Wye Valley Road, is a road from Hereford, England to Chepstow, Wales via Monmouth, Tintern and the Wye Valley. The road was largely developed during the late 18th and early 19th centuries by turnpike trusts in Here ...

. The station was closed to passenger and freight services in January 1959. Following closure, the level crossing gates and signal box were removed. The station building and goods shed remain mostly on site. The goods shed, now minus its roof, is now the last surviving shed on the whole line.

References

External links

Information about re-opening the line, it includes photos and information on the railway before closure

Wye Valley Railway Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1876 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1959 Disused railway stations in Monmouthshire {{Wales-railstation-stub