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The Transport and Industries of South-Western England

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The City of Bath

Quick links to :-     The City of Bath     Bristol and Avon     Clifton Rocks Railway
    South Gloucestershire Coalfield     Elsewhere in Gloucestershire

Sidney Gardens

This was where it started, around 75 years ago, trainspotting in Sydney gardens in 1950 with my mum. Then it was Kings, Castles and Halls; now IETs, 125s and 158s, I know which I prefer.

Along the Kennet and Avon Canal

From the River Avon to Limpley Stoke

Claverton Pumping Station

A steam-powered pumping house on the Kennet and Avon Canal

The Somerset Coal Canal and Camerton Railway

The Somerset Coal Canal started at Limpley Stoke as did the Camerton Railway that superceded it.

Around and about Bath

Warehouses, milestones and the Bathampton tramroad

The Somerset and Dorset Railway

Walking through the recently reopened Combe Down and Devonshire tunnels


Bristol and Avon

Quick links to :-     The City of Bath     Bristol and Avon     Clifton Rocks Railway
    South Gloucestershire Coalfield     Elsewhere in Gloucestershire

Railways at the Floating Harbour

Around the Harbour and Spike Island

Canons Marsh Gasworks and Lead Works

Albion Dock and Underfall Boatyard

The 'New Cut', the River Avon

The Harbour branch from Ashton Gate along Cumberland Road

Along the River Avon

The Portishead Branch


The Clifton Rocks Railway

Quick links to :-     The City of Bath     Bristol and Avon     Clifton Rocks Railway
    South Gloucestershire Coalfield     Elsewhere in Gloucestershire

The Clifton Rocks Railway, Bristol - ST 5660 7295

The Clifton Rocks Railway opened in 1893 and closed in 1934. During the war it was used as an air-raid shelter and offices by BOAC. It also became a broadcasting studio by the BBC from 1941 to 1960. Until 2005 it lay amost derelict when the Clifton Rocks Railway volunteers began to make it slightly more presentable - a formidable challenge indeed !


The South Gloucestershire Coalfield

Quick links to :-     The City of Bath     Bristol and Avon     Clifton Rocks Railway
    South Gloucestershire Coalfield     Elsewhere in Gloucestershire

Coalpit Heath

New Engine Colliery - ST 6778 7938

New Engine Colliery was sunk c1822 and became the supply and maintainence depot for the surrounding pits. It was 500ft deep and closed c1870 but the chimney and machinery survived until c1930. The dramway here became loco worked in c1865 and the original engine house and horse whim have survived though much altered.

Ram Hill Colliery - ST 6091 8024

Ram Hill Colliery started life as a drainage shaft in 1783 and a winding shaft in c1824, around 550 ft deep It was worked by a horse whim and later by a beam engine. The colliery appears to have ceased winding between 1870 and 1880.

Ram Hill Dramway

The Ram Hill Dramway connected the colliery to the line from Frog Lane Colliery to Bristol and the River Avon. It was one of the last lines to be built designed specifically for horsepower and was never worked by locomotives. It was also one of the few broad gauge horse tramways, being dual gauge for a time. A short spur ran to Church Leaze Colliery

Serridge Engine - ST 6747 7963

Serridge Engine was a drainage pit, with coal winding carried out at Orchard (or Middle Whimsey) Colliery, a few hundred yards away. It was sunk in c1785 to 300 ft and draining a wide area into the 'Clamp' pond. The underground workings include the pumping shaft, a reservoir shaft with a heading to the Clamp and an ash pit below the engine. It is likely the engine ceased work some time after 1845.

Yate and Engine Common

Rangeworthy New Pit (Oldwood Colliery) - ST 7000 8515

Originally sunk in 1867 for the Frampton Iron Co, Rangeworthy New Pit closed in 1889, shortly after the Yate collieries had closed and stopped pumping. Around 1881 the colliery had created anew drift mine and been linked to the Midland Railway by a short branchline.

Rangeworthy Old Pit - ST 7000 8479
Kedge Pit - ST 7013 8390

Two of the numerous old 19th century pits on Engine Common .

Yate No 2 New Pit - ST 7000 8422

Yate No 2 Pit came into being in the 1860s, incorporating a number of older pits. One of these was Staley's Pit, a pumping shaft operated by a Newcomen steam engine housed in a still existing engine house. A tramway connected the colliery with Yate No 1. The new colliery did not prosper and closed in 1888.

Yate No 1 Old Pit - ST 7013 8363

Yate No 1 Old Pit was the original colliery, known as New Engine Pit before becoming 'Old', probably dating from the early 1800s. It was linked by sidings to the Midland Railway and closed along with No 2 Pit in 1888.


Elsewhere in Gloucestershire

Quick links to :-     The City of Bath     Bristol and Avon     Clifton Rocks Railway
    South Gloucestershire Coalfield     Elsewhere in Gloucestershire

The East bank of the Severn Estuary

Aust Quadrant Tower - ST 5718 9003

The ruins of a Quadrant Tower and arrow. A 'quadrant tower' was a navigation device (like a sextant but simpler) used to measure the angle between the horizon and the sun to check the height and range of bombers using a bombing range in the Severn Estuary. Plus the Severn Ferry pier and sewage works !

Sharpness and Purton - ST 6880 0445

Sharpness Docks and the well-known hulks of Severn barges at Purton (the Purton on the East bank of the estuary...). These photos were all taken from the other Purton on the West bank of the esturary.


Acknowledgments, sources and further reading.

Many thanks to :- David Hardwick, Steve Grudgings, Peter McCrone and others, South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group (SGMRG), Friends of Ram Hill Colliery and Clifton Rocks Railway Trust.

'Kingswood Coal' and 'The History and IA of the Coalpit Heath Colliery Co' both published by the SGMRG


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