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Journey from Gloucester to Chepstow mid-19th Century

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About five years ago, having travelled along the western bank of the River
Severn from Gloucester to Chepstow, I made an exciting discovery in a Chepstow
antiquarian bookshop. This was The Book of South Wales, the Wye and the Coast
(1861) by Mr. And Mrs S.C. Hall.

Josephine Jeremiah
http://www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com

The Halls travelled from Gloucester to Chepstow on the railway and this is an
edited account of their journey

Leaving Gloucester (by railway 114 miles from London) we are in an island at
first -- formed by two branches of the Severn -- Alney Island ... The river is
crossed by two ugly railway bridges; gradually we lose sight of the graceful and
beautiful cathedral tower; we may, if we please glance back at the masts of tall
ships moored at distant quays, and look back on green hills that shelter the
venerable city. We run over lowlands, where cows are at pasture, with little to
arrest the eye except fertility -- and that is everywhere.

The rich meadows and blooming or productive orchards of Gloucestershire greet us
as we proceed. On one side is the Severn, always to the left of the line; on the
other are the green fields, backed by cultivated hills, with now and then,
rising above the trees, the steeple of a village church, round which are
gathered pleasant cottages, half-hidden by thick hedgerows, and here and there,
a mansion; -- all indicating ease, comfort and prosperity, and presenting a
scene such as only England can show.

And so our FIRST STATION out of Gloucester --GRANGE COURT -- is reached, a
distance of seven and a half miles from the city. Here commences the SOUTH WALES
RAILWAY; hitherto we have travelled by the Great Western: and we should still do
so if we journeyed on to Ross and Hereford ...

We have lost the river Severn for some miles: presently it again comes into
sight, affording a pleasant subject for the pencil -- of which the artist has
availed himself. The distant church is that of WESTBURY. The next station
reached is NEWNHAM; whence we obtain another view of the broad Severn ...
Newnham is a market town, and was formerly of some note ...The church dedicated
to St. Peter, though not of very remote date, occupies the site, and is partly
formed from the remains of a more ancient structure; it stands on a commanding
cliff that overlooks the river.

We now have the Severn always with us, until its junction with the Bristol
Channel. Passing the small station of Bullopill, at which few trains stop, and
reaching that of Gatcombe, we take note of "Purton Passage," -- the old ferry
across the river. There is no bridge after we leave Gloucester, the Severn soon
becoming too wide and too deep; and the only way of reaching the fine, fertile
tract of country -- in Gloucestershire -- we see on the opposite side, is by
boats; it will be readily understood that in bad weather the passage is a voyage
and not without danger. If the tide is out the eye will be constantly arrested
by huge sand-banks; these are of sufficient importance to have names: --
Frampton Sand, Waveridge Sand, the Ridge Sand, Prinn Sand, Sanager Sand, Lydney
Sand, Sheperdine Sands, Oldbury Sand, rapidly follow each other between
Gloucester and Chepstow.

For some miles we have skirted the famous Forest of Dean: it is on our right,
the Severn being on our left ... The forest contains about 30,000 acres; there
are now large and flourishing towns within its boundaries; its mines of coal and
iron are richly productive; and the trees that grow there continue to furnish
our dockyards. One of the chief outlets of its produce is the small town of
LYDNEY -- the station we next approach.

The tall spire of the church at Lydney is seen long before the station is
reached; and then the masts of vessels -- coal barges they are, and none other
-- which mark the nature of the traffic in this busy district ... Lydney is now
the great outlet for coal and iron from the neighbouring forest.

The station that succeeds Lydney is Woolaston: it is in no way remarkable.
Between the two stations, however, there is a fine range of hills, that
accompanies us all the way -- to the right; the Severn, sometimes near and
sometimes distant, being on the left. As we approach Chepstow, the eye is
cheered by a remarkably pretty village -- the village of Tidenham; and presently
we cross the railway bridge over the Wye, leave Gloucestershire and enter
Monmouthshire -- the river dividing the two counties. We have travelled
twenty-seven mile and a quarter since we left Gloucester city.

Description of the inhabitants of the Forest of Dean

The inhabitants of the forest are a singularly primitive people; for centuries
they were completely isolated, and had little or no intercourse with the world
beyond the shadow of their trees. They are described by historians of various
epochs, as "a robustic, wild people:" so indeed they are to this day; still
following their old "customes," believing in witchcraft, in the evil eye, in the
efficacy of charms and incantations, and of course, in apparitions. "One half of
the forest population is understood to be employed at the coal works; a fourth
part at those of iron; and the remainder in quarries and woods." That
population, by the census of 1851, numbered upwards of thirteen thousand, having
more than doubled within a century.