Railway 200 And The 250th Anniversary Of George Overton
RAILWAY 200 AND THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF
GEORGE OVERTON
This year is being celebrated as the year of the railway – RAILWAY 200, a nationwide celebration marking 200 years of the modern railway, from the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) of 1825 to 2025, and inspiring a new generation of young pioneering talent to choose a career in rail.
Royal Mint £2 new coin to celebrate 200 years of the modern railway © Royal Mint
Hang on you may say – didn’t Wales celebrate the bicentenary of steam locomotion in 2004? Yes with the historic run of Richard Trevithick’s Penydarren locomotive. It was however, the first leg of a journey that George Stephenson and others would take forward and result in the birth of the modern railway 21 years later
South Wales figures strongly in this journey starting with that famous run of 1804 on the Merthyr Tramroad, on which the world’s first working steam locomotive ran in 1804. Then there was the first passengers carried by a railway on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in 1807. And with South Wales based engineer George Overton (1775-1827) carrying out surveys between Stockton and Darlington, his 1821 survey enabled the Stockton & Darlington Railway to obtain its first Act of Parliament
Who was George Overton? Well he was one of Wales’ most important early civil engineers, who for the latter part of his life, lived in the village of Llandetty near Talybont-on-Usk. Overton’s early work focused on the development of tramroads and infrastructure for horse-drawn trams, of which he engineered many such early railways in South Wales. He constructed the Llwydcoed Tramroad in 1802 for the Aberdare Canal Company. His tram bridge in Robertstown near Aberdare is the second oldest surviving iron railway bridge in the world. In 1803, Overton became a partner in the Hirwaun Ironworks and built the Hirwaun to Abernant tramroad between 1806 and 1808
George Overton’s iron bridge at Robertstown, constructed in 1811 to carry the Llwydcoed Tramroad over the river Cynon near Aberdare. ©Stephen K. Jones
Nearer to what would become his home was the Brinore Tramroad, which linked the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal at Talybont-on-Usk with the Tredegar iron works and Trefil limestone quarries. Around the time of that line, 1815, he bought Llandetty Hall which is right behind the Brecon and Monmouthshire Canal, fitting in with the work he was doing on the Brinore at the time. Today, the wharf associated with the tramroad at Talybont is still known as ‘Overton’s Wharf’ and walkers can follow the route of the Brinore Tramroad along a right-of-way for 8 miles to Trefil.
Overton would spend much time on his Stockton and Darlington work, which occupied him from 1818. His second survey was used by the S&DR to submit a Bill that received its Royal Assent on 19 April 1821, its first Act of Parliament. It was also on that date that George Stephenson, with another engineer, met with Edward Pease at his home in Darlington. Despite his personal connections, and that he had himself subscribed £2,000 to the SDR, Overton found that he did not have the full support of Pease.
Stephenson would persuade the S&DR to adopt steam locomotion on part of the proposed line for goods, Overton’s opinion was that the line should be built as a tramroad and operated by horses because he believed that locomotive haulage was fraught with problems, a view that probably stemmed from observing Trevithick’s run in 1804: ‘… I have seen Trevithick’s Engine heading trains 20 years ago…’. He would have witnessed the breaking of the brittle cast-iron plates of the tramroad by the weight and unbalanced motion of the steam engine.
Overton’s tomb at Llandetty Church on the 250th anniversary of his birth, 16 January 2025
© Stephen K. Jones
His final project was Rumney Railway, a plateway from the Rhymney Ironworks to the Monmouthshire Canal tram road, which opened shortly after his death. On this was the Bassaleg masonry viaduct, built over the Ebbw River in 1826. It remains the oldest operational railway viaduct in the world. It is hoped that a commemorative plaque to George Overton will be placed this year on the canal towpath close to Llandetty Hall and the churchyard where he is buried.
Stephen K. Jones