RAILWAY AND CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY

TRAMROAD GROUP

Occasional Paper 131

Was the Bicslade Tramroad nationalised in 1947?

Angus Watkins

In Occasional Paper 126 Harry Paar draws attention to the well illustrated article on the Bicslade Tramroad by Ian Pope, published in The New Regard no 13. This includes photographs showing the tramroad in use in the 1930s and '40s. In particular, one photograph by the Rev. D.A. Tipper, previously published by Mr Paar as Plate 31 of his Severn and Wye Railway , shows the transfer siding at Bicslade Junction by Cannop Ponds with this part of the tramroad still in use in 1948.

In the Severn and Wye Railway Mr Paar has shown that the Bicslade branch was built as an integral part of the and Railway under their 1809 Act 1. (The name of the company was changed to 'The Severn and Wye Railway and Canal Company' under a further Act of 1810.) Ian Pope 2 indicates that after conversion of the Severn and Wye main lines to locomotive-hauled broad gauge (later standard gauge) railways the connection between Bixhead and Lydney was cut at some time between 1871 and 1874. After this time traffic coming down the Bicslade tramroad had to be trans-shipped onto the modernised Severn and Wye main line at Bicslade Junction.

After the sale of the Severn and Wye to the MR and GWR jointly in 1894 Mr Paar states that maintenance passed to the GWR who introduced heavier chairs on the Bicslade tramroad and the use of 4 yd long 'angle iron' plates 3. I conclude that the Bicslade remained as a branch line of the Severn and Wye Joint Committee's network rather than, say, a private siding to Bixhead Quarries or to the Cannop Stoneworks, both of which it served, and I presume that this continued to be the case under GWR management after the 1923 Grouping.

So what happened under the 1947 Act? The photographs show that the lower part, at least, of the tramroad was still in use at the time of railway nationalisation. Was the Bicslade Tramroad taken into public ownership with the rest of the GWR on January 1st 1948?

My guess is that it did – but it's only a guess. And would that have made it the only nationalised, operating plateway in the UK? Someone must know the definitive answer – what is it?

March 1998

References

1. Paar, H.W. 1973. The Severn and Wye Railway . Newton Abbot: David and Charles, p 20 2. Pope, I. 1998. 'The Bicslade Tramroad'. The New Regard no 13, p.21 3. Paar, H.W. ibid , p.37