MISTY FACE
HISTORY
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 five and a half miles (8.9 km) long, single track, and 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. 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. 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 nine miles (14 km) 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 was formed, in October 1827. In this article, the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway will be abbreviated to B&GlosR. In 1864 the Midland Railway obtained authority in an act of Parliament to build a branch line from Mangotsfield to Bath. At first, a proposal involved acquiring the alignment of part of the A&GR and using it for the new line, but this was not pursued. The revised route ran close to the alignment of the A&GR as far as Oldand Common. Near Siston Common, the route of the A&GR was altered at the expense of the Midland Railway to avoid the need for the new line to cross the A&GR twice. The A&GR alignment was chosen to avoid earthworks, and the Midland Railway was compelled to provide a cutting to accommodate the old line. Oldland Common tunnel was strengthened in the centre portion where the new line crossed it. Williams describes the extension of the Midland Railway to Bitton and Bath over this tunnel, which had to be lined for 90 feet (27 m) at MR expense to strengthen it. The Midland Railway line opened in 1869. The last entry in the A&GR account book had been in January 1867, so it may be that the new alignment never saw traffic. On 1 July 1851, the Kennet and Avon Canal company was taken over by the Great Western Railway.
On 5 July 1865, the GWR obtained an act of Parliament which permitted (among other things) the abandonment of the A&GR line, and the last entry in the A&GR account book was dated January 1867. In 1876 California Colliery at Oldland was re-opened and used part of the line, having repaired it at their own expense. In August 1892 this colliery sent 60 tons of coal a day to the Avon, and the last entry in the K&ACC wharfage book was on 30 January 1904. On 9 July 1906, the GWR traffic committee was informed that all traffic on the line had ceased. Obtaining the necessary land for the line proved difficult, and a further act of Parliament, the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway Act 1831 (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 (6 chains (0.075 mi; 0.12 km)) and Siston Common to Soundwell (43 chains (0.54 mi; 0.87 km)). Two others were authorised but were not built. At a committee meeting at the Backs Office, Bitton, on 27 October 1830, the committee 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.
Mangotsfield railway station was a railway station on the Midland Railway route between Bristol and Birmingham, 5 miles (8.0 km) north-east of Bristol Temple Meads and 82 miles (132 km) from Birmingham New Street, serving the village of Mangotsfield in South Gloucestershire, England. The station was opened in 1845 by the Bristol and Gloucester Railway but had very little in the way of passenger amenities. The station was resited in 1869 to serve the new Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line and became an important junction station with extensive facilities and six platforms. Passenger footfall however failed to match the station’s size, though at its peak eight staff were employed. The station closed in 1966 when services to Bath ended as part of the Beeching cuts, and the line through the station closed in 1969. The railway became a cycle path in the 1980s and is a popular resting point on the route as several of the station’s walls and platforms are still in situ. On 9 March 1853, there was a fatal collision between the morning mail train and another locomotive. The mail train from Gloucester – composed of a locomotive, passenger carriage, and mail van – had stopped at the station to allow the driver to adjust a loose pin on the locomotive. In dense fog, another locomotive, travelling from Gloucester to Bristol, crashed into it from behind at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h).
CRASH REPORTS
On 9 March 1853, there was a fatal collision between the morning mail train and another locomotive. The mail train from Gloucester – composed of a locomotive, passenger carriage, and mail van – had stopped at the station to allow the driver to adjust a loose pin on the locomotive. In dense fog, another locomotive, travelling from Gloucester to Bristol, crashed into it from behind at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h). The carriages of the mail train were smashed to pieces, with passengers thrown about. Two passengers – Thomas Jones and William Antill were killed, while several others suffered severe injuries. At the inquest, the deaths were attributed to neglect of duty by the mail train’s guard, Abraham Perkins, and the under-guard, William Maycock.
On 16 January 1861, a train derailed near the site of the second Mangotsfield station. A landslide, thought to have been caused by frost, dropped a large boulder to block the line towards Birmingham, causing the entire train — locomotive, luggage van and three carriages — to come off the tracks. There were no significant injuries, and the tracks were cleared within five hours.
On 23 September 1861, another collision occurred at the station. A goods train, which was being shunted into the sidings north of the station to allow a passenger train to pass, broke down while crossing the southbound track. There was no electrical telegraph system at Mangotsfield and, although efforts were made to alert signallers at Yate, an excursion train returning from Liverpool and Manchester crashed into the goods train. Three of the goods train’s wagons were derailed, and twelve passengers aboard the excursion train were injured, including one severely but no one died from the crash.
Another collision occurred on 30 August 1886, at the site of the first station. A goods train from the north had shunted onto the line towards Bath, on the eastern side of the Mangotsfield triangle. An excursion train from Cheltenham and Gloucester, heading for Weston-super-Mare, was arriving from the north and heading west into the station. As it was passing the junction, the goods train began to back out onto the main line. The locomotive and first few carriages of the excursion train, which was heavily laden, passed without incident, however, after this the rear of the goods train fouled the main line. The last goods van grazed the rest of the excursion train’s carriages, smashing the coaches’ steps and damaging the side panels. The guard’s van of the excursion train however had a projecting observatory box, in which the guard, James Quick, was sitting, and this hit the goods train. The observatory box and rear of the guard’s van were ripped off. Quick suffered severe head wounds, while two passengers received minor injuries.
On 18 February 1926, a wagon examiner named Daniel Alway suffered a fatal accident in the sidings at Mangotsfield. Always had been walking along the siding while a train was shunting, in the same direction he was walking, when he lurched towards the train “as though his ankle had given out, or that he had trodden on loose metalling” Alway was hit by the train and run over by it. He was rushed to the Bristol Royal Infirmary, where his lower legs were amputated, however, he became septic and died from heart failure on 26 February.
Another trackside worker lost their life at Mangotsfield in 1934: Albert Henry Noad, a platelayer with 35 years of experience, was clearing weeds from the side of the track when he was hit by a passing train. Coworkers stated Noad needed to be near the rails in order to do his job properly, but did not hear a shouted warning and misjudged the distance to the oncoming train. A verdict of accidental death was recorded. Further members of railway staff were hit and killed by trains in 1941, 1948 and 1949.
In 1935, two teenage boys were convicted of endangering the lives of railway passengers after they put a fishplate weighing 20 pounds (9.1 kg) on the tracks. The plate was subsequently run over by a train, causing damage to a sleeper and a wall.
Two passenger carriages derailed at Mangotsfield in 1936. The coaches were being shunted just west of the station when they became fouled on a set of points and derailed. Both coaches were empty, and there were no injuries.