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{{Short description|Railway station in Berwyn, Denbighshire}}
{{Other places3|Berwyn station (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
{{Infobox
| name = Berwyn
| type = Station on [[heritage railway]]
| image_name = Berwyn railway station in 2006.jpg▼
|
| original = [[Llangollen and Corwen Railway]]▼
| country = Wales
| preservation = [[Llangollen Railway]]▼
| coordinates = {{Coord|52.97948|-3.19544|type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:npemap.org.uk-enwiki|display=inline,title}}▼
▲| locale = [[Berwyn range|Berwyn]]
| grid_name = [[Ordnance Survey National Grid|Grid reference]]
|
▲| coordinates = {{Coord|52.97948|-3.19544|type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:npemap.org.uk-enwiki|display=inline,title}}
| platforms = 1
▲| original = [[Llangollen and Corwen Railway]]
| years = 1 May 1865{{sfn|Butt|1995|p=33}}▼
|
|
|
|
| events1 = Renamed '''Berwyn Halt'''
| years3 = March 1986▼
|
▲| years3 = March 1986
| events3 = reopened
| embedded = {{Infobox designation list|embed=yes
| designation1 = Grade II
| designation1_feature = Berwyn Railway Station
| designation1_date = 22 December 1989
| designation1_number = 1234<ref name=nhaw>{{NHAW|desc=Berwyn Railway Station|num=1234|accessdate=28 October 2021}}</ref>
}}
}}
'''Berwyn railway station''' in [[Denbighshire]], [[Wales]], is a [[railway station]] on the former cross-country line between [[Ruabon–Barmouth line|Ruabon and Barmouth]]. The station, which opened in May 1865, was a stop on the [[Great Western Railway]] (GWR) line between [[Llangollen]] and [[Corwen]]. It remained open for almost a hundred years, and it was due to be closed to passengers on Monday 18 January 1965. However, it was closed prematurely due to flood damage on 14 December 1964.
In 1986 the station was reopened as part of the heritage [[Llangollen Railway]]. It is now reportedly one of the best 10 stations to visit in Britain.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/oct/01/10-of-the-best-railway-stations-in-britain-uk-simon-jenkins|title=10 of the best railway stations in Britain |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=1 October 2018}}</ref>
== Location ==▼
The station today is located within a wooded gorge with only few houses and a riverside hotel nearby. In Victorian times, it was surrounded by a vibrant community including a post office and Methodist chapel. However it was the local gentry who were the main reason for the station’s existence. The chairman of the [[Llangollen and Corwen Railway]] lived just up the road at Plas Berwyn and an 1861 agreement announced:▼
==History==
:''A station to be called The Berwyn Station shall be built in ornamental style and contain a first class waiting room in addition to the general waiting room. All passenger trains shall stop at Berwyn if and when required by the owner or occupier of, or visitors to, Plas Berwyn mansion.'' ▼
The Llangollen to Corwen railway was opened in 1865. The route was constructed by [[Thomas Brassey]] under the direction of the prolific Scottish engineer, [[Henry Robertson]].
▲
▲:''A station to be called The Berwyn Station shall be built in ornamental style and contain a first class waiting room in addition to the general waiting room. All passenger trains shall stop at Berwyn if and when required by the owner or occupier of, or visitors to, Plas Berwyn mansion.''
Berwyn station was built with a single right-handed curved [[side platform]], station master's house, waiting room and booking office. As the station was too remote to be supplied by [[coal gas]], its interiors were decorated with elaborate oil and paraffin lamps.
During the [[First World War]], local teenage conscripts wrote their names and messages in indelible pencil on the wall of a pedestrian tunnel beneath Berwyn station in 1915. They did this shortly before boarding trains that would take them to their battalions. In 2007, research was undertaken to find out who they were. At least one young man is known to have died on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]], and his name is now on the Llangollen War memorial.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/6269586.stm|title=WWI tunnel 'messages' exhibition |publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=4 July 2007}}</ref> Work is now underway to protect the surviving messages from water damage.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45163110|title=WW1 soldiers' farewell notes on Llangollen bridge being lost to damp|date= 13 August 2018|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>
[[File:Berwyn railway station 1863370 cbdae269.jpg|thumb|left|Berwyn station on the abandoned [[Ruabon–Barmouth line]] in September 1967]]
By the 1950s, the waiting room and booking office had both been closed as Berwyn had become an unstaffed halt. Although the station was planned to close in January 1965 the last passenger train ran on 12 December 1964 after which the line closed prematurely due to flooding. Goods traffic continued on the eastern section of line between {{rws|Ruabon}} to Llangollen goods yard until 1968. After closure, the whole line was lifted. In the early 1970s, the Llangollen Railway Society was formed with the intention of reopening part of the line as a heritage railway.
By the 1980s, the newly relaid heritage line approached the former GWR station. Restoration work then began on the station dilapidated buildings. The first passenger train from Llangollen to return to Berwyn was a [[Diesel multiple unit|DMU]] on 19 October 1985. Steam hauled services began operating to Berwyn in December the same year. The station received a full passenger service in March 1986, with a formal opening ceremony being performed by the [[Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster|Duke of Westminster]] on 13 June 1986. As the station had become the western terminus of the new line, a run-round loop was installed just past the station.
==Berwyn Viaduct==
The six-arch stone-built '''Berwyn Viaduct''' is a Grade II listed building directly to the west of the original station,<ref name="cadw">{{cite web |title=Full Report for Listed Buildings |url=https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=1235 |website=CADW |publisher=Welsh Government |access-date=7 January 2023}}</ref> and now forms part of the station as the platform extends over most of the viaduct's length. The viaduct lies between the [[River Dee, Wales|River Dee]] and the [[A5 road]]. In addition to crossing a steep-sided valley it also forms a bridge over the B5103 (which crosses the Dee on another viaduct at a lower elevation) and the unnamed brook draining from the north side of Vivod mountain.<ref>{{cite web |title=Berwyn Railway Viaduct, Llangollen and Corwen Railway |url=https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/34760/ |website=Coflein |publisher=RCAHMW |access-date=7 January 2023 |date=4 August 2010}}</ref>
Berwyn station originally had a relatively short platform but with an increase in summer services in the early [[Edwardian period]], the platform was extended across the viaduct with timber decking on wrought iron frames. This unusual cantilevered platform at the western end of the station was dismantled in the late 1950s due to its deterioration and a lack of passengers. In 2003 the Llangollen Railway decided to restore the platform at Berwyn to its original extended length across the viaduct which required significant repair work to restore the drainage system and platform supports. The work, which cost £353,000, was completed in March 2004. The platform restoration received a civil engineering award from the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Berwyn Viaduct |url=https://dsace.co.uk/portfolio-item/berwyn-viaduct/ |publisher=David Symonds Associates |access-date=7 January 2023}}</ref>
==Preservation==
[[File:Berwyn Porter.jpg|thumb|
=== Booking office ===
The term booking office – still used today – is adopted from the old coaching practice of issuing tickets from a book. Originally these tickets on the early railways were handwritten and the process was very laborious. In 1837 a [[station master]] and trained cabinet maker named [[Thomas Edmondson]] introduced the Edmondson railway ticket. These pre-printed tickets were all individually numbered and date-stamped by a machine upon issue.
=== Waiting room ===
The station's tea room is located within the former first class [[waiting room]]. During the Victorian period, the station boasted a separate waiting room for men and women travelling first class, with comfortable seats and a fire in winter. Those in the general waiting room had bench seats.
=== Station master's house ===
[[File:Berwyn Victorian Weekend.jpg|thumb|Victorian re-enactors inside the station's waiting room during the Llangollen Railway's Victorian Weekend]]
From 1865 until the mid-1950s, the station master was the key authority figure at Berwyn railway station, well-respected with significant local social standing. He sold tickets, handled parcels, tended to the
The station master's house is the mock-Tudor part of the Berwyn station building. Although the house came with the job, the station master had to pay rent to the GWR; in 1924 this cost 7 shillings and sixpence a week. The house has been restored and is now available to rent as a self-catered holiday cottage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://llangollen-railway.co.uk/holiday-let/|title=Holiday Let - Llangollen Railway|website=llangollen-railway.co.uk|language=en-US|access-date=2017-12-05}}</ref>
===
The platform has been extended back to its original length. This means that Berwyn can now accommodate 5-coach trains. However, due to the curve of the platform, a “Right Away” indicator has been installed at the western end of the station to enable a train guard to manage the train safely.
▲[[File:Berwyn Porter.jpg|thumb|The volunteer station staff recreate scenes of yesteryear]]
▲The railways enabled a regular supply of fresh milk from the countryside. The milk was transported in tall conical metal [[Milk churn|churns]], being taken by a delivery cart from the local farms to the nearest railway station. The churns, generally with a capacity of seventeen gallons, were very heavy. Handles enabled two men to lift one when necessary, but more commonly they were rolled along on their bottom rims by one man, making a distinctive rattling noise. Two milk churns would arrive at Berwyn every day from the nearby Llantysilio farm for transport to the [[Corwen]] creamery.
=== Chain bridge ===
[[File:(Chain Bridge Hotel, Berwyn Valley, Llangollen, Wales) (LOC) (3751632199).jpg|thumb|The second Chain Bridge across the River Dee]]
At the time of the railway's opening in 1865, the only way of crossing the River Dee at Berwyn was by using a [[chain bridge]]. There have been three such bridges. The first was built by mine owner Exuperius Pickering who needed to get his coal across the river to deliver it to [[Corwen]] and [[Bala, Gwynedd|Bala]]. Permission for the bridge was granted in 1814 and it opened in 1817 or very soon afterwards.
In the 1870s, a replacement bridge was built by [[Henry Robertson]] (the railway's engineer) and this lasted until February 1928, when an exceptionally heavy flood washed it away. The surviving [[Chain Bridge (Berwyn)|Chain Bridge]] was built in the summer of 1929, with six metal chains supporting the bridge deck from above and two chains supporting from below.
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=== Llangollen Canal and the Horseshoe Falls ===
[[File:Victoria & Horseshoe Falls.jpg|thumb|The tranquil Horseshoe Falls]]
The [[Llangollen Canal]] is located on the opposite side of the River Dee and accessible over the Chain Bridge (step-free access from the station platform).
==
{{Heritage rail start}}
{{rail line|previous=[[Glyndyfrdwy railway station|Glyndyfrdwy]]|route=[[Llangollen Railway]]|next=[[Llangollen railway station|Llangollen]]<br />({{small|''terminus''}})|col=000000}}
{{
{{rail line|previous=Deeside Halt|next={{rws|Llangollen}}|route=[[Great Western Railway]]<br /><small>[[Ruabon–Barmouth line]]</small> |col={{GWR colour}} }}
{{s-end}}
==References==
*{{Butt-Stations}}
{{Reflist}}
{{commons}}
==Further reading==
*Lawton, Paul (2010). ''Berwyn Memories''.
*{{cite book|title=Ruabon to Barmouth|first1=Vic|last1=Mitchell|first2=Keith|last2=Smith|at=figs. 29-33|publisher=Middleton Press|location=West Sussex|year=2010|isbn=9781906008840|oclc=651922152}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Berwyn Railway Station}}
[[Category:Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1865]]
[[Category:Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964]]
[[Category:Former Great Western Railway stations]]
[[Category:Beeching closures in Wales]]
[[Category:Heritage railway stations in Denbighshire]]
[[Category:Llangollen Railway]]
[[Category:Grade II listed buildings in Denbighshire]]
[[Category:Grade II listed railway stations in Wales]]
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