The Ledbury and Gloucester Railway (also known as the Daffodil Line), was a railway line in Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

 and Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, running between Ledbury

Ledbury

Ledbury is a town in Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and south of the Malvern Hills.Today, Ledbury is a thriving market town in rural England. The town has a large number of timber framed buildings, in particular along Church Lane and High Street. One of Ledbury's most outstanding...

 and Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

. It opened in 1885 and closed in 1964.

History

Most of the line was built over the route of the southern section of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal

Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal

The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal is a canal in the west of England, which ran from Hereford, the county town of Herefordshire to Gloucester the county town of Gloucestershire, where it linked to the River Severn...

, which had opened in 1798. After a period of financial struggle the canal was leased to the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 (GWR) in 1863 and in 1881 work started on conversion to a railway. The railway was built by two companies, the Newent Railway and the Ross and Ledbury Railway. The line opened on 27 July 1885 and was operated by the GWR. Both of the smaller companies were amalgamated

Consolidation (business)

Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...

 into the GWR in 1892. The line closed to passenger traffic in 1959, with the Dymock to Gloucester section remaining open to goods traffic only until 1964.

Route

The line followed a south and then south-easterly route between Ledbury railway station

Ledbury railway station

Ledbury station is a small railway station on the outskirts of the town of Ledbury on the Worcester to Hereford line in the English Midlands. It also has services to Birmingham as well as Cotswold Line trains to London....

 and Gloucester Central railway station, it joined the Gloucester to Newport Line

Gloucester to Newport Line

The Gloucester to Newport Line is a railway line that runs along the bank of the River Severn in the United Kingdom from Gloucester to Newport....

 at Over Junction. Stations were constructed at Ledbury Town Halt

Ledbury Town Halt railway station

Ledbury Town Halt was one of two stations serving the town of Ledbury. It was situated at the junction of Bridge Street and Bye Street, just to the north-east of the point where Bridge Street crossed the line...

, Greenway Halt

Greenway Halt railway station

Greenway Halt was a request stop on the former Ledbury and Gloucester Railway. It closed in 1959 when the line was closed to passengers....

, Dymock

Dymock railway station

Dymock railway station was a stop on the former Ledbury and Gloucester Railway. It opened in 1885 and served the village of Dymock It was closed for passengers in 1959 but remained open for freight traffic until 1964 when the line was closed....

, Four Oaks Halt

Four Oaks Halt railway station

Four Oaks Halt was a request stop on the former Ledbury and Gloucester Railway. It was closed in 1959 when the line was closed to passengers....

, Newent

Newent railway station

Newent railway station was a stop on the former Ledbury and Gloucester Railway. It opened in 1885 and served the town of Newent, it was closed for passengers in 1959 but the line remained open for freight traffic until 1964 when the line was closed....

, Malswick Halt

Malswick Halt railway station

Malswick Halt was a request stop on the former Ledbury and Gloucester Railway. It was closed in 1959 when the line was closed to passengers....

 and Barbers Bridge

Barbers Bridge railway station

Barbers Bridge railway station was on the Ledbury and Gloucester Railway in Gloucestershire, England. It was opened on 27 July 1885 and it closed to passengers on 13 July 1959, and then fully closed in 1964....

. An interesting skew bridge

Skew arch

A skew arch is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its plan view being a parallelogram, rather than the rectangle that is the plan view of...

 that carried the line across Hereford Road

Hereford Road Skew Bridge

Hereford Road Skew Bridge is a disused railway bridge in Ledbury, Herefordshire. Built in 1881 to carry the Ledbury and Gloucester Railway across the Hereford Road at an angle of approximately 45°, it was built as a ribbed skew arch with stone spandrels and wing walls, and ribs of blue brick.The...

in Ledbury remains in use as part of the Ledbury Town Trail footpath.