Abergavenny railway station

sign-out

Abergavenny railway station

This station was built by the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway, which opened its line from Pontypool to Hereford on 6 December 1853. Another company opened a line between Hereford and Shrewsbury on the same day. The NA&HR’s line joined up with a railway which had opened in 1852 between Newport and Pontypool.

The original stone-built station building survives at Abergavenny. Its design is ascribed to Charles Liddell, the NA&HR’s engineer. Notice the low section of station platform between the main platform and the station building. This indicates the height of platforms in the early decades of rail travel, when passengers had to climb up into the coaches. At Chepstow the whole station building was raised when higher platforms were installed, but that was impractical here because of the size of Abergavenny’s station building.

In 1860 the NA&HR became part of the West Midland Railway, which in turn was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1863. By this time a new railway had been built from Abergavenny to Merthyr Tydfil, with a new station at Brecon Road. A third station, Abergavenny Junction, was constructed where the lines diverged.

British Rail renamed this station Abergavenny Monmouth Road after the railways were nationalised in 1948. The station reverted to plain ‘Abergavenny’ after the line to Merthyr closed in 1958.

Today Abergavenny is an important railhead for Monmouthshire and the Heads of the Valleys. Transport for Wales Rail Services provides frequent trains south to Cardiff, Swansea and Pembrokeshire and north to Manchester and Holyhead.

Postcode: NP7 5HS    View Location Map