We are keen to develop using buildings & other items saved from the developer’s bulldozer where-ever possible and will always be interested to follow up pointers to any items under threat.
A few years ago we collected a number of structures & fittings from the
former LNWR workshop in the Lower Yard at Abergavenny Brecon Road. Since the closure of
the line through here in the late 1950s, this site had been used as a depot by
Monmouthshire County Council, but this has now been closed & the site is being sold for
redevelopment. Our thanks go to Roger Hoggins & Mike Parry of the council for much
assistance in obtaining the following items. Apart from gas light fittings, cast iron
signs, & other small Victorian artefacts we have also obtained the following structures
from his site starting with this wonderful elevated office, shown on the left, that
would originally have been used by the shop foreman to oversee his workforce. This is
now in store at Long Marston awaiting a long term suitable home.
Similarly a former Signal & Telegraph store, on the right, that is believed
to have been moved from Brynmawr in railway days was dismantled and still awaits reconstruction at
Toddington. This appears to have been reconstructed by the railway utilising parts of earlier
buildings including a former colliery sidings signal box. Finally a small wooden office building
presumably of London & North Western Railway origin, built in 1874 so pre-dating the battle of the
Little Bighorn by a couple of years, was lifted and transported to Toddington intact as can be seen
below. This structure is very sound and has since been restored as another exhibition centre located
behind platform 2 at Toddington. This is pictured below in its original location in
Abergavenny on the left and then upon its arrival at Toddington. Further information
regarding its subsequent history can be seen at Toddington East
Other items that have subsequently been acquired include a former Midland Railway
corrugated iron lamp hut originally located at Stonehouse that had been in use as a
garden shed in a churchyard for the last 30 years. From further afield we have also
obtained the Great Western Railway goods shed hand crane from Usk that had still seen
occasional use by the tenants on the site up until its removal. This has now been
re-erected on the bay platform at Toddington as a symbol of the yards working past,
with the picture on the left showing the excavation for its base and the rig to hold the
supportings bolts in place when the concrete was poured in.