page_title: Rogiet
section_title: Arrival of the railway
hierarchical_section_title: Rogiet / History / Arrival of the railway
caption_attribution_description: English: Severn Tunnel Junction railway station viewed looking east from the nearby road bridge. Cymraeg: Gorsaf rheilffordd Cyffordd Twnnel Hafren
context_page_description: Rogiet is a small village and community in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, between Caldicot and Magor, 8 miles west of Chepstow and 11 miles east of Newport, which covers an area of 847 hectares. It lies close to the M4 and M48 motorways, and the Second Severn Crossing. It has a railway station named Severn Tunnel Junction. Rogiet only has a population of 1,813.
  In the village is Rogiet Primary School, a 210-place school for pupils aged between 4 and 11 years. The school moved to a new, eco-friendly building in November 2009.
context_section_description: The South Wales Railway, now the Gloucester to Newport line, was opened through Rogiet in 1850, although the nearest station was two miles away, at Portskewett.
  A junction station was built at Rogiet to serve the new Severn Tunnel, that opened in 1886. This Severn Tunnel Junction station was in operation for tunnel works traffic by 1883 and as a functional station by 1885 although it is unclear if it was open to the public at this date, before the official opening of the tunnel in 1886. The sidings of the new station were built on the Caldicot Levels, using spoil excavated from the cutting into the tunnel. The name 'Rogiet Station' appears on several contemporary maps, although these are always in conjunction with a planned station, as the junction for the new tunnel line. There is no evidence for a station before this date, or for a constructed station ever having been called 'Rogiet Station'.
  The station developed an importance out of all proportion to the size of the village, owing to the South Wales coal traffic and the large marshalling yard, the largest and most important on the GWR. This in turn required engine sheds of proportionate size, housing around 70 engines in 1939.
  The presence of the station became a catalyst for the growth of the village. The censuses of 1851, 1861 & 1871 show the main employment to be agricultural, with a few working in the limestone quarries at Ifton, but no railway workers. The parish population increased from 84 in 1881 to 122 in 1891. The first new building was the construction of red-brick bookend terraces: Ifton Terrace, Railway Terrace and Seaview Terrace, all still extant today. These were followed by the village's only building of note, other than the church, its only pub the Roggiett Hotel. This was a relatively large pub for such a small village, and operated as an active hotel, mostly serving the farming trade at the cattle market. It has been closed since 2008, leaving the village without a pub. A school was also built and by 1891 a post office had opened.
  A major phase of housing expansion took place after World War I, increasing by three times to World War II. Half of this growth, 94 houses, was due to the Severn Tunnel Garden Village Society, constituted in 1924, whose membership was limited to railwaymen. Population increased from 136 in 1921 to 234 in the 1931 census. Many railwaymen still commuted from the other local villages though, and over a thousand worked at Severn Tunnel Junction by the outbreak of World War II.
caption: Severn Tunnel Junction station at Rogiet
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