The Blaenavon Railroad was a horse drawn

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 ...

built to link

Blaenavon Ironworks Blaenavon Ironworks is a former industrial site which is now a museum in Blaenavon, Wales. The ironworks was of crucial importance in the development of the ability to use cheap, low quality, high sulphur iron ores worldwide. It was the site o ...

with the

Monmouthshire Canal 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, wit ...

south east Wales South East Wales is a loosely defined region of Wales generally corresponding to the preserved counties of Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan and Gwent. Highly urbanised, it includes the cities of Cardiff and Newport as well as large towns in th ...

Background

In 1789 most of the building of Blaenavon Ironworks had been completed and the lease for the land was signed in November. At this time transport of goods between

Blaenavon Blaenavon ( cy, Blaenafon) is a town and community in Torfaen county borough, Wales, high on a hillside on the source of the Afon Lwyd. It is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent. Th ...

and Newport was by teams of packhorses and mules using hillside tracks and parish roads. A more efficient method of transport was needed and Thomas Hill I, the leading partner behind the ironworks, became one of the promoters of the Monmouthshire Canal. In 1791 a parliamentary bill proposed the canal and was given assent in 1792. The Canal Act also allowed for the building of tramroads to nearby collieries, quarries, and mines.

Construction

The newly formed Monmouthshire Canal Company appointed

Thomas Dadford, Jr. Thomas Dadford Jr. (ca. 1761 to 1801) was an England, English canal engineer, who came from a family of canal engineers. He first worked with his father in the north of Britain on the Stour and the Trent, but later independently, contributing to ...

as engineer for both the canal and tramroad. Construction started in 1793 and the tramroad/canal link to the port of Newport opened in February 1796. The tramroad was originally built with a gauge. The route to the canal at

Pontnewynydd Pontnewynydd is a predominantly working class suburb of Pontypool, Torfaen, in Wales. It should not be confused with Pontnewydd in nearby Cwmbran. Location It lies in between Pontypool to the south and Snatchwood to the north. The area of ...

was and descended .

Closure

In 1845 the Monmouthshire Canal Company obtained an Act of Parliament to improve the Blaenavon Railroad and connect it to a new railway to Newport under the control of a new company, the

Newport and Pontypool Railway Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia * Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on th ...

. The completed gauge line opened in 1854, replacing the tramroad.

Remains

Very little evidence of the tramroad is visible but an iron milepost exists on the road that was once the route of the tramroad.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite journal , last1 = Rattenbury , first1 = Gordon , title = The Cwm Ffrwd Rail Road , journal = Gwent Local History , date = 1977 , issue = 42 , page = 12 , url = http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewobject/llgc-id:1337732/article/000018119 , access-date = 15 April 2016 , via =

Welsh Journals Online The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million b ...

at the National Library of Wales {{cite book , title = Blaenavon Ironworks and World Heritage Landscape , author-first = Peter , author-last = Wakelin , others = Design by Ceri Staziker, Photography by Paul Highman , year = 2011 , orig-year = 2006 , publisher = Cadw , edition = 2nd , place = Cardiff , page = 7 , isbn = 978-1-85760-293-7 , oclc = 858824245 {{cite book , title = Eastern Valley - The Story of Torfaen , author-last = Barber , author-first = Chris , publisher = Blorenge Books , place = Abergavenny , edition = 1st , isbn = 1 872730 23 X , oclc = 43459623 , pages = 193 , year = 1999 {{cite report , title = Cwmavon Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan , date = April 2011 , url = http://www.visitblaenavon.co.uk/en/Publications/WorldHeritageSite/LookingAfterBlaenavon/CwmavonConservationAreaManagementPlan.PDF , publisher = Torfaen County Borough Council , page = 35 , access-date = 15 April 2016 {{cite web , work = Historic Environment Record (HER) , title = Milepost, Abersychan , url = http://cofiadurcahcymru.org.uk/arch/query/page.php?watprn=GGAT03192g , via=archwilio.org.uk (online database of the four

Welsh Archaeological Trusts The Welsh Archaeological Trusts ( cy, Ymddiriedolaethau Archaeolegol Cymru) are four archaeological organisations established in the mid-1970s to respond to rescue archaeology. They are independent charitable trusts which together provide a uniform ...

) , publisher = Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust (GGAT) , id = PRN 03192g , access-date = 15 April 2016 Rail transport in Monmouthshire Horse-drawn railways