Walk Six - Kerne Bridge and Welsh Bicknor
The image at the top of the page shows Kerne Bridge over The Wye and station serving Goodrich Castle.
Drama in the beautiful Wye Valley
Continuing from Walford Halt, Ross and Monmouth trains proceeded southwards for a further mile to Kerne Bridge (4 miles 10 chains altogether from Ross-on-Wye), where a small station was provided on the east bank of the River Wye. Kerne Bridge boasted a small, but solidly built station building, while the nearby goods yard provided the usual range of accommodation for coal, livestock and general merchandise traffic. The station, employing three people in 1903, was situated in an attractive setting - as we can see on our route – in convenient proximity to Goodrich, which was just half a mile up to the west. Held by local cavaliers during the Civil War, then slighted by Parliament in 1646, Goodrich Castle became a tourist attraction and the ruins were placed in guardianship as an Ancient Monument in 1920.
It is indicative of the importance placed on tourist traffic by the Great Western Railway that Kerne Bridge appeared in the company’s public time tables as “Kerne Bridge for Goodrich Castle” – and the information was also displayed on the station name boards for the benefit of visiting tourists or holidaymakers. (Stanley Jenkins, The Ross, Monmouth and Pontypool Road Line.)
From here, the railway crossed from the left bank of the Wye by single track bridge outside the station to the right bank by a cottage that we pass on our walk; it then followed the riverbank for a quarter of a mile. Notorious for its lack of speed when water on the railway line forced it to proceed at walking pace, the train was affectionately known as “The Monmouth Bullet”.
Now in the parish of Welsh Bicknor, we are beckoned into a dreamy loop of the Wye in the south-east corner of Herefordshire. The opportunity to walk the riverside boundary with Gloucestershire not only traces the course of the bygone railway between Kerne Bridge and the crossing to Lydbrook Station – but also wartime events. While the old railway route vanishes “inland” for 634 yards under Thomas Wood, the walk continues along the riverbank through wonderful meadow and pasture beneath the Courtfield Estate, so named to recall the period when Henry V was growing up there.
Along the way, St. Margaret’s Church is a landmark familiar to canoeists and walkers, but a gem hidden from the passing motorist. Just beyond we are re-joined by the railway, where it emerges from the tunnel to re-cross the Wye to the old Lydbrook Station. This station served the Edison Swan Cable Works, which played an important part in both World Wars. Cable for field telephones was manufactured during the first, specialist undersea cable to link the Empire; and (PLUTO) The Pipeline Under The Ocean was partly produced here in the Second World War to supply fuel for the D-Day Landings.
Standing below Green Farm, a few fields beyond the crossing to Lydbrook, farmer Onslow Kirby was used to the hooting of the Monmouth Bullet on the other side of the Wye but nothing could prepare him for the sights and sounds which assailed him on a bright and clear Sunday afternoon on 7th June 1942. He first heard and then saw a Halifax Bomber approaching him and flying just 20 feet over the treetops of Court Wood and Raven Cliff. As the aircraft passed over the mid-point of the River Wye the starboard wing became detached from the fuselage. At this point the aircraft rolled over on to its back and dropped almost vertically towards the ground falling in an arc down into the field about 250 yards away. There was absolutely no chance of survival for any of the eleven members of the flight and it is assumed that they were either killed instantly upon impact or died very shortly afterwards in the fire. A memorial stone is placed just beneath the tragic site on our route.
info@herefordrailwaywalks.co.uk.
website designed and maintained
by Hereford Web Design