I do envy the train spotter man on TikTok called Francis Bourgeois. He has taken the art and passion of train spotting to another level. It’s that passion that has rubbed off on me, when I see some of the last surviving structures of our closed railway lines in the Vale of Glamorgan, such as at Wenvoe, Sully and Cowbridge.
This week in the Barry and District we look at a lovely yellow and terracotta looking building: known as St. Athan Road station, just Northwest of the Aberthaw Cement works, and just up a private little road slip from the St. Athan to Barry Road; just behind the remaining railway bridge abutment.
Better known as the Aberthaw to Llantrisant line, it opened according to Wikipedia in 1865, and lasted in use for precisely 100 years. But, with many things on the internet, when checking my library, this is not completely correct. Infact, the Cowbridge to Aberthaw stretch of the Aberthaw to Llantrisant line didn’t open until October 1, 1892. Although the original Llantrisant to Cowbridge stretch did open on the September 18, 1865.
Readers, let’s go and double check the date for the building this week. Where better to turn to than my Ordnance Survey maps. St. Athan Road station building is marked on the map of 1898, but not on the 1877 map. And thus, we could closely agree that it was opened in 1892.
The railway line closed for goods and farm produce in 1965. But, even before that date, passengers stopped using the Aberthaw to Cowbridge stretch in 1932. Even after 1932, slowly but surely sections of the track were taken out of use, until it finally closed completely.
It’s interesting to see the now modern corrugated roof, thankfully protecting the late Victorian yellow and red brick below. And, maybe without taking apart this wonderful building we can only guess what name is on the brick ‘frogs’. Remember there were brickworks in Barry in the 1890s when this building was being constructed, then opened as a station in 1892.
The northern gable has a very tall doorway, small window, and the brickwork is intact. This is not a huge station building, but it did the job at the time. But, slowly overtime less and less passengers used the station, and the staff were finally transferred elsewhere when the station closed on May 5, 1930.
Although the track associated with our railway building has long since been removed, and with it most of the other structures and platform. Our station building is a great survivor of change in the Barry and District.
The location of St. Athan Road station is not totally random, as it was associated not only with the passenger service, but it was surrounded by the limestone quarries and farmers also. It does make one wonder why it was not built using local blue Lias limestone? However, it was likely that the Limeworks itself at this locality opened at the same time as the station. Limestone could now be moved around the Vale where required by the railway.
Thanks for joining us, for more of our heritage which gives the Barry and District its identity.
