In the Miscellany (Ch XXIX The Wye Valley Railway and Penallt) the story was told of the 1810 plan to link Redbrook on the east bank of the Wye with “Pool Dee on Penallt Common” – that is Pwll Du, now the ornamental pond in the grounds of Moorcroft House. The idea was to provide transport of quarry products out of the village.
There being no real prospect of business on the return journey and a discouraging 1 in 7 gradient past Glyn Farm, the plan folded. It included a branch to Whitebrook but nothing was done beyond limited levelling of ground on the north bank of the White Brook. We are able now to include sketch-maps based on the plan as described by Prof. D.G. Tucker who lived for a time at Church Cottage by the Old Church. He was a friend and colleague of the late Stanley Coates of Monmouth to whom the writer is indebted for kind guidance and ready friendship in the early 1980s.
[from: Penallt Revisited]