The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad, also known as the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway, connected Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

 with Cheltenham

Cheltenham

Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

 with horse-drawn trams. Its primary economic purpose was the transport of coal from Gloucester's (then new) docks to the rapidly-developing spa town of Cheltenham, and onwards to the Cotswolds

Cotswolds

The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...

. It also linked with a route from quarries on nearby Leckhampton Hill, aiding considerably in bringing Cotswold stone

Cotswold stone

Cotswold stone is a yellow oolitic limestone quarried in many places in the Cotswold Hills in the south midlands of England. When weathered, the colour of buildings made or faced with this stone is often described as 'honey' or 'golden'....

 down to central Cheltenham, where it was desirable as a building material, and carried other freight and passengers.

History

Construction began in 1809, and the official opening took place on 4th June 1811. A series of experiments were undertaken with using steam power on the line, though these are believed to be abortive, with no full journeys completed. The majority of the line was closed in 1861, however the link to Leckhampton's quarries and its system of inclined planes (the steepest of which rose 210 feet at an average gradient of 1 in 2.1) continued to operate until 1922. The quarry continued until an accident involving a Fiat

Fiat

FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

 lorry prompted its closure in 1927 for safety reasons.

Like many other primitive tram roads – or plateways as they are sometimes called – the Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad offered a smoother alternative to contemporary highways for horse-drawn waggons. It also guided plain wheeled carts by means of upright flanges on the inside edges of its metal running plates, which themselves rested on stone blocks. In the case of the Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad, these flanges were to be set 3’ 6" apart.

Route

Prior to construction several routes were considered. The route ultimately built left the docks crossing Southgate Street, around the south of the city centre and across Barton Street and Horton Road (near the current level crossing). It then turned north-east along Elmbridge Road meeting Cheltenham Road in Longlevens

Longlevens

Longlevens is an area of Gloucester, United Kingdom. It was once a small farmstead outside the city of Gloucester. The name is believed to be based on the old Roman name Colonia Glevensis. Another possibility is that it was named after a row of eleven houses with long gardens...

, the route of which it followed, along with Cheltenham Road East through Churchdown. It ran in parallel with a turnpike

Turnpike trust

Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...

 road past Staverton Bridge, the then Plough Inn and Arle Court. It followed what is now Gloucester Road turning left towards Cheltenham Spa railway station

Cheltenham Spa railway station

Cheltenham Spa railway station is in Gloucestershire, England, on the Bristol-Birmingham main line. It is managed by First Great Western and is about one mile from the town centre.-History:...

. At this point it split into two branches.

The first ran along Gloucester Road to the terminus depot near the junction with Tewkesbury Road. The second ran down Queen's Road to Westal Green, across Tivoli and Leckhampton

Leckhampton

Leckhampton is a district in south Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The area constitutes a civil parish and is part of the district of Cheltenham.-History:...

 (and where the Norwood pub stands) before ascending Leckhampton Hill via inclined plane

Inclined plane

The inclined plane is one of the original six simple machines; as the name suggests, it is a flat surface whose endpoints are at different heights. By moving an object up an inclined plane rather than completely vertical, the amount of force required is reduced, at the expense of increasing the...

to the quarries there. The Railway Inn in Leckhampton was named after the Tramroad..