By Alan Brown
Just over one hundred years after the first steam locomotive had pulled into the new terminus on the shore of the Milford Haven waterway in 1856, the Beeching cuts to the British railway network signalled the end to all operations at Neyland and the last train departed in 1964. Anything that was salvageable was progressively removed from the flat ground that Brunel and his engineers had created to house the station and sidings, leaving behind a derelict area that was slowly returning to nature. The Westfield Pill inlet, whose sheltered waters had once been regularly visited by fishing boats and cargo ships carrying both livestock and minerals, became empty for two decades.
A transformation came in 1985: in this year, Neyland Marina was opened as a venue for pleasure boating, as well as the occasional visit by police and other official vessels. A program of dredging increased the depth of water, while a layout of floating jetties provided berths for over 400 privately owned yachts. The Marina also offered land-based accommodation for storage of larger boats, as well as fuelling, construction, repair and maintenance facilities.
In addition to the above, the old station grounds became the home of several small businesses, with excellent year-round dining facilities in the form of The Bar restaurant and Manillas café. It would be fair to say that, after many years of stagnation, the Marina had brought new life to Neyland.