Walk Eleven - Almeley
The image at the top of the page shows the old station at Almeley serving Nieuport House on the Kington and Eardisley line.
The express train and the tortoise
Nothing too much has changed around Almeley since the days of the “express” train. Our walk offers a glimpse of one of those romantic, rustic railways; built partly on the route of the old horse-drawn tramway, the Kington & Eardisley line was opened in 1874 with a celebratory lunch in the field next to Almeley Station. The single storey facilities, without any accommodation for the stationmaster, were notoriously Spartan. “Romantic”, though, because it was just along the line that one of those trademark stops occurred when the engine driver spotted a tortoise wandering across the line; just managing to pull up in time, he jumped out and returned his even slower counterpart to its grateful owner.
The first chairman of the Kington and Eardisley Railway Company was used to slightly more boisterous surroundings: Major Charles Morgan of Titley Court took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. Significantly, one of the proprietors was Thomas, son of Andrew Foley who owned Nieuport in the parish of Almeley and added to its beauties by extending the walks and plantations; not by coincidence did the route chosen for the railway skirt just outside the edge of the Nieuport Estate.
In 1875 the K and E reached its peak traffic on weekdays of four passenger trains calling both ways at Almeley, but by the time the First World War came around, it was closed. The line’s chequered career resumed, however, in 1922, partly because a sanatorium was opened at Nieuport House to cater for patients suffering from TB. Although this was a rather remote outpost for health care, visitors were able to alight within easy walking distance. Advocates of the social function of the railway could also point to a new use for the Nieuport Estate. Its 4,000 acres were now divided into 38 tenant farms for soldiers returning from the Great War, and they argued that the lack of a railway would inflict hardship on these small-holders who were surely owed a debt of loyalty by the community.
In 1952, Nieuport was let to Latvian refugees who had beaten a retreat from Stalin’s Soviet Russia. They proceeded to buy the house, garden, paddock, orchard and walled garden and remained there until 2000. In the meantime, the stately progress of the railway had spluttered to a halt in 1962.
For a parish with two old castles, it’s fitting that a third one happens to be Almeley’s most famous son. Sir John Oldcastle, who lived at the original 14th century Nieuport, is generally accepted to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Falstaff. He was a soldier and, as a trusted general of Henry IV, Sir John was in command of Herefordshire forces at the 1405 Battle of Pwll Melyn in the Welsh War of Independence. The rebels, this time fighting under Owain Glyndwr’s eldest son Gruffudd, incurred over 1500 casualties beforea nother 300 were executed in front of Usk Castle.
Oldcastle’s faith was that of a Lollard, or “mumbler”, who followed the writings of John Wycliffe; in denial of the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, Lollards came to be condemned as heretics. Some twelve years after Usk, despite being a favourite by now of Henry V, it was the prosecution of his faith that led to Oldcastle’s capture and his own grisly demise at the stake. “The biter bit.”
Nieuport House has looked much the same since about 1718 -except the walled garden changed sides from west to east in 1767. With gardens sometimes open to the public, the estate is now taking on a more traditional appearance. The tiny stone-built station at Almeley, closed for good in 1940, is now a private residence, and the same is true of its grander counterpart up the old line at Lyonshall. But that’s another storey.