Forest of Dean Local History Society
OS Grid Reference: SO536102
Redbrook Incline is on the Redbrook Branch of the the Monmouth Railway, a horse-drawn tramroad which ran from Broadwell to May Hill, near Monmouth, via Coleford, Newland, and Redbrook. This 3 ft 6 in. gauge line opened on 17 August 1812 and the Redbrook Branch appears to have gone into use about the same time. It was nearly 3/4 mile long and was used mainly to suppy coal to the Upper and Lower Redbrook Tinplate Works; there was also a wharf on the River Wye. The rope-worked, self-acting incline was 18 ft wide, with two tracks, and there was a weighhouse at the top. The bridge near the bottom carried the line over the Redbrook-Newland Road, along which runs the English-Welsh border! There was little traffic on the Monmouth Tramway by 1872, and it was converted into the Great Western Railway’s standard-gauge Coleford Branch, which opened on 1 September 1883. Fair. The stone incline bridge is in good condition, but the incline itself is largely overgrown. ((April 2002)