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Meiry Stock Cycle track and a closed tunnel.
One of the reasons I've not walked a lot of track in the last 6 months is that much of what is left is cycle track and it really doesn't interest me that much. For an easy Sunday stroll I was accompanied by Will on his bike. We parked a mile south of Meiry Stock Tunnel and tried to follow the overgrown path that would have been the Speculation Siding. It was hard work with a bike and there was very little to see. As we joined the main line we soon came to a lovely bridge, just standing in the middle of the forest. As we stood on the bridge we could see the tunnel a couple of hundred feet in front of us. It's an oval portal which has been bricked, with a steel barred gate. One bar of the gate has been removed, but there's no way I could fit through and it looks very muddy in there. The spelling is interesting as the buffer/sleeper nameplate states Mierystock Tunnel and Mirystock Bridge, whilst old maps are marked Miery Stock Tunnel. Mind you, there's a new road sign at May Hill that says Mitchel Dean. It's Mitcheldean if you don't know.
The north portal is on the other side of the A4136 (Monmouth to Gloucester road). It's a sad sight as it's been covered over with earth. There is an unimpressive FC sign which I've quoted below. Note yet another spelling of the name. The inscription on the key stone reads A-D 1874. I believe a bunch of locals tried to clear the tunnel entrance using a JCB a few years back so that their kids could safely cross the busy road on their bikes, but the move was thwarted. As you can imagine, nothing exists of the railway here as everything has 30 feet of earth piled on top of it.

We returned the way we had come, but then ignored the siding and stuck to the main line which took us up to Drybrook Road Junction. It's cycle track all the way, though there are plenty of relics about. Sleepers stand vertically for pretty much all of the route and there's a long bridge on the way too, though it's not the prettiest I've seen. We neared Whitegates Junction an then returned home.

Mireystock (Mierystock) Tunnel
The engineering company J.E. Billups of Cardiff who also constructed Mireystock Bridge and the masonry work on the Lydbrook viaduct commenced construction of the tunnel in 1872 using forest stone. The tunnel is 221 metres in length and took 2 years to construct. The tunnel allowed the connection of the Severn and Wye Valley railway running from Lydney with the Ross and Monmouth network at Lydbrook. The first mineral train passed through the tunnel on 16 August 1874. Passenger services commenced in September 1875 pulled by the engine Robin Hood.

The history of this section of line is not without incident - a railway ganger was killed in the tunnel by a train in 1893 and a locomotive was derailed by a fallen block of stone in the cutting at the northern entrance in 1898.

The line officially closed to passenger trains in July 1929 but goods trains continued to use the line until the closure of Arthur & Edward Colliery at Waterloo in 1959 and Cannop Colliery in 1960. Lifting of the track was completed in 1962. The tunnel and cutting were buried with spoil in the early 1970's.

Thanks to the vision and enthusiasm of a group of local Forest railway enthusiasts assisted by Forest Enterprise the top of the northern portal of the tunnel (with its unusual elliptical shape) which has lain buried for 30 years has now been exposed.