The Great Western Way is a pedestrian footpath and cycleway built over the culminating section of the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway Line. The original line was constructed in the 1850s and closed over 100 years later in 1964. Bought by the Hereford City Council for just £1, the 2.2km of track was landscaped in 1983 as a 5m-wide traffic free tarmac footpath and cycle way.
This series comprises of 37 35mm colour slides all stored in a container labelled “Great Western Way”. The majority of slides show the stretch between Broomy Hill and Red Hill Junction. Other slides show pathways leading from the Great Western Way, bridges that the Great Western Way travel over, and the Wye Valley Walk.
Great Western Way, Hereford
Looking along the bridge carrying it across the River Wye. The Great Western Way is the trackbed of the original route into Hereford from Abergavenny, which closed to passengers in the 19th century but survived for freight until 1967.
THERE is a magical route from the Grafton area of Hereford, only usable by walkers and cyclists, that takes you all the way to Credenhill without having to go along a single road, other than to cross some occasionally.
This route takes you through some beautiful countryside, hidden mysteries of Hereford, a tight squeeze between two fences, over a footbridge so high Bulmers is laid out before you and a hamlet so rural yet so near to town.
The final stretch taking you alongside Sterling Lines to Credenhill.
The bridge opened in 1853 and carried the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway’s line into Hereford. It now carries the Great Western Way cycleway linking Hereford’s south western suburb of Redhill with the city centre.