Cookson Terrace, consisting of nine gabled dwellings built of local sandstone, was constructed in 1859 by the Severn & Wye Railway Co. Ltd. and was named after the Company’s chairman, Mr Joseph Cookson. The Severn & Wye Railway Company also owned the Railway Hotel, a large gabled property located in the middle of the elegant terrace. The Railway Hotel had a substantial annual rateable value of £54.15s.0d. in 1891 and 1903. The hotel was classified as an alehouse and was free of brewery tie. The Railway Hotel was near to Lydney docks and the railway junction but a considerable distance from Lydney town centre, consequently closing time was an hour earlier than those in pubs in town. No doubt the sight of slightly drunken cyclists riding precariously in the dark lanes towards Lydney to get the chance of a couple of more pints before the pubs closed at eleven must have been quite common.
By the end of the First World War the leasehold of the Railway Hotel had been taken by the Wickwar Brewery (Arnold, Perrett & Co., Ltd) from the joint owners the Midland Railway and Great Western Railway. In 1926 the Wickwar Brewery paid an annual rent of £130 for the lease. From 1937 the Cheltenham Original Brewery supplied their ales to the Railway Hotel, and presumably in its last years of trading it was a West Country Breweries house. The Railway Hotel closed c.1970.
The Grade II listed building was put up for sale in January 2014 when three flats were sold collectively at auction. The flats were all in need of complete modernisation and had a guide price of £135,000 – £155,000. After some renovation work the second floor two bedroomed apartment, benefiting from having a newly fitted kitchen and bathroom, was put on the market in December 2014 for £124,999. The buyer would have a share of the freehold of the building and of the management company which was to be set up on completion of all the three flats that once comprised the premises of the old Railway Hotel.
Landlords at the Railway Hotel include:
1861,1870 John Ridler
1876, 1891 Mrs Emma Ridler
1902, 1919 Miss Kate Ridler
1927 Caleb White
1939 Edward P. Green
