Coming of the Railway

As elsewhere, the 19th century was a time of accelerating change in Pembrokeshire. One event which signalled the end of the sea-trading era was the coming of the railway to Haverfordwest.

In 1844 The South Wales Railway was formed. The idea was for the railway to service the industrial and population centres of South Wales and continue on into Pembrokeshire where a port for Ireland would be developed. Pembrokeshire was chosen as the line's terminus as its westerly location meant a much shorter sea crossing than from Swansea or Bristol. The terminus itself was originally to be Goodwick near Fishguard where the port would be built.

In 1846 work began on building the line throughout South Wales but there was anger in Pembrokeshire that the line would only run through the centre of the county and then up to Fishguard thus ignoring all the other towns. As a result an Act of Parliament in 1846 authorised a five mile branch line from Clarbeston Road to Haverfordwest and this defused some of the opposition.

Construction began in Pembrokeshire in 1847 but in Ireland disaster had struck with the Irish Potatoe Famine of 1846 which left the Irish economy in ruins. The South Wales Railway was now in serious financial trouble having invested heavily in railways in Southern Ireland that were intended to link up with ferry services from Fishguard. Doubts about a port at Fishguard from an engineering point of view were also apparent when, in 1847, Brunel changed the planed location of his terminus and port to Abermawr, an isolated bay some four miles to the west. In 1848 work began on the line to Abermawr but this was soon halted when the directors stopped all work west of Swansea.

By 1849 there was a financial crisis in Britain as well as in Ireland and the struggling South Wales Railway no longer wanted a railway to Pembrokeshire at all. The shareholders (many with Irish interests) thought otherwise and the G. W. R. used its muscle as parent company and refused to accept a halt at Swansea. In June 1850 the railway was opened to Swansea and work then began again further west. In 1851 Brunel again changed his mind over the terminus and port and now selected Neyland on the Milford Haven waterway. A new route to there from Haverfordwest was approved by Parliament in 1852.

Work went on in Pembrokeshire throughout the early 1850s and in 1853 the line was open to Haverfordwest, and Pembrokeshire was at last on the railway map. From this year onwards bulky goods could be transported rapidly and cheaply overland. This lead to the decline of haulage by sea and the number of vessels using the port of Haverfordwest lowered considerably.