The Avon and Gloucestershire Railway also known as The Dramway was an early mineral railway, built to bring coal from pits in the Coalpit Heath area, north-east of Bristol, to the River Avon opposite Keynsham. It was dependent on another line for access to the majority of the pits, and after early success, bad relations and falling traffic potential dogged most of its existence.
It was long, single track, and . It opened in part in December 1830 and carried its last traffic in January 1904, having been near-dormant since 1844. It used horses to pull wagons. Part of its route is accessible today as a footpath, and signs of much of the route are still visible.
Origins In the latter years of the eighteenth century, coal pits were opened up in what became the northern and eastern parts of the Bristol Coalfield and the Somerset Coalfield. Extracting the coal was only part of the process, and bringing it to market was the necessary next step; before proper roads existed, land transport of heavy bulk materials posed huge challenges, although rivers and canals provided a partial solution.
The important industrial city of Bristol generated a massive demand for coal, for domestic and industrial purposes, and the proprietors of pits in the Coalpit Heath area, about north-east of the city, turned their attention to wagonways and tramways as a solution to their transport problem. Numerous schemes were put forward, but none gained the necessary financial support until the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway (B&GlosR) was formed, in October 1827.
It was to be a horse-operated railway, running from pits in the Coalpit Heath area to a wharf on the Floating Harbour in Bristol. During the meetings to determine the support for the proposed railway, the Kennet and Avon Canal company had expressed a desire that here should be a branch to the River Avon, with which the canal connected, near Keynsham, and this was apparently agreed to. This was to enable the canal company to convey coal to Bath and further east to the Wiltshire towns it served.
At the meeting it was decided that construction of the Keynsham branch of the B&GR line would be handed over to a separate company, the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway (A&GR). The A&GR would have running powers over the section of the B&GlosR to reach the collieries. The Kennet and Avon Canal Company (K&ACC) agreed to subscribe £10,000 towards the project, which was estimated by John BlackwellJohn Priestley, Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, of Great Britain, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1831, accessible at to cost £20,226 11s 2d. The promoters obtained an act of Parliament, the (9 Geo. 4. c. xciv), for their line on 19 June 1828; the parliamentary expenses were paid by the canal company.Kenneth R Clew, The Kennet and Avon Canal, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968, Colin G Maggs, The Bristol and Gloucester Railway and the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway, second edition 1992, Oakwood Press, Headington,
As was usual at this date, maximum toll rates were stipulated in the act, as well as wharfage and warehousing; cranage was also specified: 6d for under two tons; 1s 0d for less than three tons; 1s 6d for less than four tons; and so progressively advancing 6d per ton.
The A&GR would run from a junction with the B&GlosR line at Mangotsfield (close to the site of the later Mangotsfield North Junction on the later main line railway) and follow a southerly course to the River Avon. Any coal from Coalpit Heath for the A&GR line would therefore travel over the B&GlosR line as far as the junction.
The majority of the shares in the new company were in the hands of the K&ACC and within a year the canal company bought out all the privately owned shares, so that they owned the A&GR outright. Following this, the K&ACC borrowed £20,000 to help fund the building of the A&GR. They borrowed a further £10,000 in 1831 and another £10,000 in 1832.
Mission creep followed, as several branches were proposed in October 1829, including a branch to Wick Limestone Rocks; this was not in fact built. A branch to Soundwell Colliery from Siston Common was built, as was a branch to Londonderry Wharf on the River Avon; also proposed at this time was a Shortwood Colliery branch from Mangotsfield; this was actually built by the B&GlosR.
The B&GlosR regarded these proposed branches as hostile: the colliery branches invaded territory they regarded as their own. The Londonderry Wharf branch was hugely significant as it lay on the Bristol side of Keynsham lock, on the River Avon: it would enable the A&GR company to transfer coal to river vessels there and take it into Bristol, by-passing most of the B&GlosR line. The A&GR declined to accept that there had been any territorial understanding, but did concede the transfer of the Shortwood branch to the B&GlosR.
Construction and opening
Obtaining the necessary land for the line proved difficult, and a further act of Parliament, the (1 & 2 Will. 4. c. xii) on 30 July 1831 authorised some deviations, additional capital of £15,000 and yet more branches; these were all short lines to pits close to the A&GR line. Two were actually built: Redfield Lane to Haul Lane (or Hole Lane) pit () and Siston Common to Soundwell (). Two others were authorised but were not built.
At a committee meeting at the Backs Office, Bitton, on 27 October 1830, the committeePresumably the management committee for the A&GR set up by the Kennet and Avon Canal Company as owners travelled from there to Haul Lane pit in a "pattern wagon". Presumably this means a standardised design for independent hauliers to adopt, and the journey was probably rail-borne.
It was reported that there were problems with the levels in the Willsbridge Tunnel, requiring it to be deepened, and that two bridges were found to have been constructed improperly, requiring remedial works by the contractor.
The advantages of the railway over horse-and-cart transport were to be considerable, and the pit proprietors were anxious to start using the line; six empty wagons were sent to Haul Lane on 30 December 1830. The Haul Lane coal must have been loaded on the main line, the coal being brought to the railway by horse and cart. (A tramway branch was built to the Pit but this was much later.) The loaded wagons were taken down immediately, so that the lower part of the line can be considered to have carried its first traffic on that day or shortly afterwards. The coal was destined for Bristol, but the Londonderry branch was not ready, so they were taken to the less-convenient Keynsham wharf, but the A&GR charged the rates as if Londonderry was used.
In January 1831 the owner of Soundwell Colliery asked the company to make a branch there, with a financial contribution from him. The committee were unable to take on the additional commitment, but indicated that they would give him every facility to do the work himself, including the use of the company's wagons and route for the actual construction without charge. In fact this seems to have been done by the company, and quickly accomplished; on 17 October 1831 the branch was ready; the cost of laying it was £716 13s 4d, which was repaid to the K&ACC by the colliery owner.
On 16 January 1831 traffic started to be carried from Siston Hill Pit, also being loaded on the main line. It was acknowledged that this was unsatisfactory, and that "turnouts" (sidings or passing loops) were required there and at Haul Lane, with possibly a branch at the latter.
The winter weather made further work difficult, and the B&GlosR line was in difficulty also; however its contractor, Woodward, undertook to complete the northern half of that line (which the A&GR needed, in order to receive the Coalpit Heath coal) by 1 August. The B&GlosR and its contractor were evidently delaying matters, and threats of legal sanctions by the A&GR company were required to force action by them; this resulted in the physical connection at the junction of the two lines at Mangotsfield being made ready on 5 June 1831; but the B&GlosR line onward to the pits at Coalpit Heath was not yet ready.
After further prevarication, the northern section of the B&GlosR was opened by 17 July 1832, although the exact date is unknown, and as the A&GR line had already been made ready this may be regarded as the date of its full opening, except for the Londonderry branch. The cost had been £52,710 6s 11d.
The Londonderry branch was only started in September 1832 and completed by July 1833; the wharf was opened in the first week in October 1833, having cost £1,541 15s 7d.
In full operation The railway seems to have been operating to full capacity from the beginning, and all the wagons were fully in use. From the opening until May 1835, receipts amounted to: tonnage (i.e. the toll for materials carried): £3,041 15s 3d; hire of wagons: £1,072s 5d; rent: £989 15s 0d. These sums probably exclude the Londonderry branch, which was treated as a separate entity. It was said that the opening of the line resulted in a reduction in the price of coal delivered to the K&ACC of three to four shillings.
The B&GlosR company had opened its line in 1835, and this resulted in considerable abstraction from the A&GR line tonnage carried had reduced to less than half. Suggestions were made of improper favouritism of the B&GlosR line as the destination for coal produced, although the reduction may simply have been the result of a cheaper route to market. The A&GR reduced some tonnage rates, and inevitably their income suffered.
Maggs states that "Most of the money loaned had been paid off ... but it was impossible to pay off the capital expenditure." This appears to mean that the company's bank loans and personal loans had been cleared, but a specific loan from the K&ACC for the construction of the line had not. In June 1843 the K&ACC, as parent company, decided to write off a £45,000 sum due from the A&GR as a bad debt.
Bristol and Gloucester Railway gauge conversion On 11 July 1839 the first meeting took place of the newly authorised Bristol and Gloucester Railway (B&GR); the new company name must not be confused with the existing Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway (B&GlosR). The Bristol and Gloucester company planned to form part of a chain of railways connecting to Gloucester and the huge manufacturing district of Birmingham. It was authorised to purchase the Bristol and Gloucestershire company, and to build a new line from Westerleigh on that line as far as Standish, about short of Gloucester. There it would join the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway (C&GWUR), then under construction, and trains would run over that company's line to Gloucester. A Birmingham and Gloucester Railway company had been formed and was under construction, completing the chain. However the C&GWUR was a broad gauge railway, and this break of gauge was to be a source of significant complication for all concerned, including the A&GR.
After considerable negotiation, in March 1843, the B&GR decided to build its line as a broad gauge railway; this would simplify the running from Standish to Gloucester, and ensure friendly relations with the powerful Great Western Railway—the GWR was in the process of purchasing the C&GWUR. The Bristol & Gloucester therefore had to convert the former Bristol and Gloucestershire route to the broad gauge.