THE RAILWAY

The town of Oswestry was connected to the main Shrewsbury - Chester line by a branch line which came off at Gobowen, some three miles north of the town. In 1860 this line was extended south to Poole Quay via Llanymynech, then a few months later, to Welshpool and on to Llanidloes in mid Wales. Originally the railway was owned by four, small companies, but in a few years became incorporated into the Cambrian Railway Company.

In 1866 another line was opened from Shrewsbury to Llanymynech: the Potteries, Shrewsbury & North Wales Railway, which soon became known as the ‘Pots’ Line. On the 13^th of August 1866 large numbers of passengers arrived at the Abbey Foregate terminus to take the inaugural ride to Llanymynech. It must have been quite a sight in the small, rural village when all the visitors poured off the train. Many people climbed the Hill, still a working quarry then; others fished in the nearby River Vyrnwy and, no doubt, a proportion spent the time patronising one or more of Llanymynech’s five public houses. The drinkers would have been in for a cross-legged return journey, none of the rural stations had toilets! But any euphoria by the company’s directors was short-lived; passenger numbers quickly dwindled, there was little freight, (most of the limestone ore from the quarry was carried on the Cambrian line and the canal), and just four months later the company was unable to pay its bills and the line closed.

In 1868 the line was reopened, closed in 1880 and opened again in 1911 by a Colonel Stephens, a light railway fanatic. The Colonel tried his utmost to keep the railway running by using all manner of odd, second hand engines and rolling stock to keep costs down. One of the best known of these efforts was the Ford Railcar, a single, rickety carriage pulled along the rails by a Ford pick-up truck fitted with pressed steel wheels. The contraption was not popular. As the vehicle travelled along the pressed steel wheels gave out a continuous howl that set passengers ears ringing; and anyone else who was within earshot! The Colonel died and the line closed in 1933. Then eight years later, in 1941,the War department re-laid the track and the ‘Pots’ Line was given a new lease of life. No happy tourists this time - we were at war and the railway was used to carry ammunition to and from huge, secret camouflaged bunkers near Kinnerly, a few miles east of Llanymynech. The line was finally closed in 1960.

Throughout all these openings and closures of the ‘Pots’ Line, Llanymynech still maintained its railway link with Oswestry, with additional, small branch lines to the nearby quarries at Nantmawr and Porth-y-Waen. But the writing was on Dr. Beeching’s wall. The line was finally closed in 1965 and Llanymynech’s affair with the railway was over.

Local people still remember the railway era: . . ‘The Station Master, Mr. William Humphreys would hold the train for a few minutes for regulars who were late’. . . ‘There was a tea-room at Llanymynech’. . . ‘On cold days a fire always burned brightly in the Waiting Room’.

The main path to the Heritage Area follows the bed of the old railway, and the stone abutments of the bridge over the canal are still in place at the far end of the Area.