Riding the Forest of Dean ghost rails
For much of the ride we followed the routes of railway lines long gone and long forgotten. In their place: cycle paths and forests tracks.
By the late nineteenth century, railway companies had stretched their fingers deep into the Forest of Dean – keen to get their hands on revenue from transporting minerals and then, later, passengers. It didn’t last long, however. Less than a century later, the last of these lines fell silent after collieries closed and the railway companies struggled. The forest’s railway boom was over.