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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Pontsarn Halt railway station

railway station in Pontsarn and Vaynor, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK, now closed

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ104871739 ↗
Source-derived summary

Pontsarn Halt railway station served the village of Vaynor and the area of Pontsarn, Glamorgan, Wales, 1869 to 1961 on the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway.

History

The station opened as Pontsarn in June 1869 by the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway. Its name changed to Pontsarn for Vaynor in 1884, which was changed to Pontsarn Halt on 1 March 1931. The suffix 'Halt' was dropped by the GWR timetables in 1935 and dropped completely in 1940. The suffix was added back in 1953. The station closed on 13 November 1961.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pontsarn Halt railway station” is railway station in Pontsarn and Vaynor, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK, now closed. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pontsarn, Halt and railway, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1869, 1961, 1884, 1931—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Pontsarn, Halt and railway is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “railway station in Pontsarn and Vaynor, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK, now closed” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104871739. Authority coordinates are 51.779, -3.387. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1869, 1961, 1884 and 1931.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pontsarn Halt railway station”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pontsarn Halt railway station primary sources, Pontsarn Halt railway station archive and Pontsarn research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pontsarn Halt railway station”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Pontsarn Halt railway station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.