Authors: Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith
Publisher: Middleton Press
ISBN: 9781906008123
Price: £18.95
Publication Date: 1st August 2007
Number of pages: 96
Format: Hardback
How Obtained: Purchased
The Sirhowy Valley line from Newport to Nantybwch has been a popular subject for book and magazine articles for over a century. With the publication of extensive studies of both the early tramroad era and the later railway period published during the last two years, is it worth considering earlier books?
One of these is the Sirhowy Valley Line by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith. Published in August 2007, it is part of the Welsh Valleys series from Middleton Press and still available to buy new direct from the publishers.
A journey up the long lost Sirhowy Valley line from Newport
The book uses the popular photograph with descriptive annotation format. Opening sections provide a geographical and historical background to the railway followed by a brief mention of the early tramroad phase. This focusses on just the track and two early locomotives. These formalities dispensed with, the book follows the familiar format when dealing with this route by focussing on locations of interest moving up the valley starting from the docks and Newport High Street Station. From here the major junctions are featured along with the halts, villages, and towns of the valley up to the junction with the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny line at Nantybwch.
Each location is placed in context using Ordnance Survey maps from the first half of the 20th Century. The 120 black and white photographs in the book mainly cover the line when it was operated by the LMS and later British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. However, there are some from the pre-1923 era when it was operated by the LNWR. Informative annotations which point out remarkable or important features ably support the photographs.
An unusual but effective book structure
The pictures are selected from various collections and while many will be familiar from other publications there are some rarer additions. A striking feature, however, occurs right at the beginning of the book. The contents page is ordered alphabetically by location rather than conventionally by page number. This makes sense as the page also contains a clear map of the line which means you can instantly see the physical order of the contents. Closer inspection reveals that in fact there are no page numbers with each photograph being sequentially numbered. Maps are identified by roman numerals.
Since the South Wales valley railway system was tightly interconnected, it is inevitable that adjoining lines are covered by separate volumes of the Welsh Valleys series. Where this occurs, a note is made in the text. For example, some images of the important Bird-in-Hand junction are provided in the Pontypool to Mountain Ash album and a note to this effect is provided in the Pontllanfraith section. The downside is that photographs of Newport High Street station are spread over a further five books which makes it an expensive proposition!
In Summary
For the later railway phase of the line this is a well-researched and entertaining book. More recent volumes cover the subject in greater depth and analysis, but as a photograph-based overview of the line it is recommended.
The Good
- Excellent photograph annotations present interesting facts in an easy to read manner.
- The image numbering and structure of the book makes cross-referencing unobtrusive and effective
- Effective use of maps which place the photographic information in context
The Not So Good
- Photographs of important locations are spread across separate books
- The section on the tramroad era is overly brief making it appear contrived and unnecessary.
Outline Contents
- Argoed Halt
- Bassaleg junction
- Bedwellty Pits Halt
- Blackwood
- Hollybush
- Markham Village Halt
- Nantybwch
- Newport – Docks
- Newport – High Street
- Pochin Pits Colliery Platform
- Pont Lawrence Halt
- Pontllanfraith High Level
- Risca
- Rogerstone
- Sirhowy
- Sirhowy Tramroad
- Tredegar
- Tynycwm Halt
- Wyllie Haly
- Ynysddu
Related reviews
Railways and Industry in the Sirhowy Valley by John Hodge
Railways in the Sirhowy Valley by W.W. Tasker