page_title: Avon and Gloucestershire Railway
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Avon and Gloucestershire Railway / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: The bridge for the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway under the Keynsham to Willsbridge road
context_page_description: The Avon and Gloucestershire Railway 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 long, single track, and 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in 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.
context_section_description: 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.
  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 (K&ACC) agreed to subscribe £10,000 towards the project, which was estimated by John Blackwell to cost £20,226 11s 2d. The promoters obtained an Act of Parliament for their line on 19 June 1828; the parliamentary expenses were paid by the Canal company.
  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 three-mile (4.8 km) branch to Wick Limestone Rocks; this was not in fact built. A 43-chain (0.54 mi; 0.87 km) branch to Soundwell Colliery from Siston Common was built, as was a 25-chain (0.31 mi; 0.50 km) 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.
caption: A&GR bridge under the Keynsham to Willsbridge road
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