The Bullo Pill Railway was an early British railway, completed in 1810 to carry coal mined in the Forest of Dean Coalfield to a port on the River Severn near Newnham, Gloucestershire. It was later converted to a broad gauge steam line by the Great Western Railway, and was closed in the 1960s.
Background
The Forest of Dean has been exploited since ancient times, not merely for its timber, but also for the minerals beneath. All the ingredients for iron-making exist and have been used since the Roman period. The Industrial Revolution brought increased demand for coal and iron, but the Forest, while having both in abundance, was at a disadvantage, being isolated from its potential markets with only a few frequently impassable roads linking it to the outside world. The hilly terrain was unsuitable for the canals of the type which were being built elsewhere, but in the first decade of the nineteenth century plans were laid for a number of horse-drawn railways to carry goods cheaply to the Rivers Severn and Wye.
Development
Bullo Pill, on the Severn near Newnham, originally a small tidal creek off the main river used for boat building, was developed by building a dock basin with lock gates, and wharfs for loading goods for shipment. Coal and stone from the Forest could be loaded at the dock and exported on the Severn trows up or down the river. In addition there was a flow of barges carrying coal across the river to Framilode and then along the Stroudwater Canal to Brimscombe, Stroud and Chalford.
A private railway was built from Bullo Pill to Cinderford Bridge, a distance of nearly four and a half miles; when it was nearly complete, the Bullo Pill Railway Company applied for an Act of Parliament in order to extend the railway a further two miles to the summit of the hill above Churchway Engine, and to make branches. The Royal Assent to the Act was made on 10 June 1809.
The railway was of approximately 4 ft gauge, laid as a plateway, with rails of L-shaped section, spiked to stone blocks. Rails were supplied by the Ayleford Foundry, near Soudley; a branch line was constructed from the foundry. All traffic was horse-drawn, using privately owned four-wheeled wagons of an approved type, with an oak underframe supporting a hopper-shaped body, and with unflanged cast-iron wheels. The line was single, with frequent passing loops.
The tunnel at Haie (or Hay) Hill was 1,083 yards long, completed in 1810; at the time it was the longest railway tunnel in the world.
From Bullo Pill the line heads west for a mile to the entrance of Haie Hill Tunnel; emerging at the far end at Lower Soudley. From there, it follows the Cinderford valley northward through Upper Soudley, Cinderford Bridge and Bilson to Churchway.
In 1811–12 there was an attempt to excavate a tunnel under the River Severn, apparently as an extension to the railway. The tunnel began on the bank between Bullo Pill and Newnham, and was intended to emerge on the far side near Arlingham. The tunnel had been extended 226 yards out, about half way, but an inrush of water in November 1812 meant work was abandoned.
In 1812 the Severn and Wye Railroad Company line was extended to meet the Bullo Pill Railway at Churchway, but there seems initially to have been little traffic passing between the two.
The Forest of Dean Railway
By 1815 Bullo Pill was shipping up to 1,000 tons of coal and stone daily, but the end of the Napoleonic Wars brought about a recession, and by the 1820s the railway was a shadow of its former self. It was bought by Edward Protheroe, who introduced plans to revitalize it. A second Act of Parliament received the Royal Assent on 5 May 1826; this turned the line into a public company, renamed the Forest of Dean Railway Company.
Industry
The coming of the railway stimulated industry along its length, connected by sidings or short branches to the main line. There were collieries at Bilson, Crump Meadow, Churchway, Quidchurch, Foxes Bridge and numerous other locations, iron mines at Buckshaft, Shakemantle and St Annals, and stone quarries at Shakemantle and Staple Edge. Two major ironworks operated close to the railway at Cinderford and Soudley. Other industries included brickworks, chemical works, tinplate works and timber yards.