The Golden Valley Railway was a 19-mile-long single-track branch railway line that ran along the valley of the River Dore

River Dore

The River Dore is a tributary of the River Monnow in Herefordshire, England.It rises on Cusop Hill, in the foothills of the Black Mountains, close to the border between England and Wales. It flows for through the villages of Dorstone, Peterchurch, Vowchurch, Abbey Dore and Pontrilas, before...

 from in Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, to Hay on Wye in Brecknockshire

Brecknockshire

Brecknockshire , also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, and a former administrative county.-Geography:...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 (although Hay station itself lay just inside England), via six intermediate stations at Abbey Dore

Abbey Dore

Abbey Dore is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, known for Dore Abbey, a 12th century Cistercian abbey, expanded in the 13th century. The village is situated in the Golden Valley, and has a population of 342. Abbey Dore Court has large gardens open to the public in spring and...

, Vowchurch

Vowchurch

Vowchurch is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, situated in the Golden Valley, on the River Dore. The village is about southwest of Hereford. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 163. The parish church, St Bartholomew, serves a large ecclesiastical...

, Peterchurch

Peterchurch

Peterchurch is a village and civil parish in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England, which has a Norman church, dedicated to St. Peter, built on the unusual basilica model with four, rather than three chambers. The church's foundations are thought to go back to 786, and parts of the Saxon walls...

, Dorstone

Dorstone

Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. There is a thriving community with a church and public house with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers excellent hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is noted for its scenery...

, Westbrook, and Clifford

Clifford, Herefordshire

Clifford is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, four miles to the north of Hay-on-Wye. It lies on the south bank of the River Wye, which here forms the border between Wales and England....

.

History

The line, which was built between 1876 and 1889, was opened on 1 September 1881 from Pontrilas as far as Dorstone and was extended to Hay on Wye in 1889. It closed in 1898 after running into financial difficulties, but was bought and reopened by the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 in 1901. The line passed to British Railways (Western Region) in 1948. The last train to Hay ran in 1949 and to Dorstone in 1953.

External links

• Satellite pictures of the route and stations
• The rise and fall of the Golden Valley Railway