Barnstaple Railway Station - History

History

A railway for goods traffic was operated from Fremington Quay, opening in August 1848. On 1 August 1854 the North Devon Railway opened from Barnstaple to Crediton. Trains were extended via Fremington to Bideford on 2 November 1855. This route was eventually extended to loop back to Okehampton via Torrington and Halwill Junction.

The station became known as Barnstaple Junction on 20 July 1874 when the railway opened the Ilfracombe branch line. The line crossed the river on a large bridge to a station at Barnstaple Quay which in turn was replaced by Barnstaple Town on an adjacent site in 1892 when the narrow gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway was opened. This station is now a smart school.

On 1 June 1887 a loop line was laid to connect the station with the Devon and Somerset Railway, later taken over by the Great Western Railway, which had opened its own Barnstaple station at Victoria Road as the terminus of the line from Taunton on 1 November 1873.

The North Devon Railway was amalgamated into the London and South Western Railway on 1 January 1865, this railway passing to the Southern Railway in 1923 which was in turn nationalised into British Railways in 1948.

The Junction station was extended in 1874 for the Ilfracombe services and again in 1924. The first services to be withdrawn were the passenger trains to Bideford on 2 October 1965. Passenger services had been transferred from Victoria Road in January 1960 and the line to Taunton closed on 3 October 1966. Victoria Road remained open for goods traffic, accessed via the loop line from Barnstaple Junction, until 5 March 1970, when it closed entirely. The line to Ilfracombe was closed later that year, on 5 October, and so the station became plain Barnstaple once more.

On 21 May 1971 the track was simplified and the line to Umberleigh was reduced to just one track. A new booking office was opened on 10 November 1981 but goods trains beyond on the Fremington line were withdrawn on 31 August 1982 leaving the station as a terminus.

In 2006 the bridge that carried Sticklepath Hill (the A3125) across the former Bideford and Ilfracombe lines was demolished to make way for a road junction for the Barnstaple Western Bypass, which opened in May 2007. The roundabout here has been built on a raised platform in order to allow for the reopening of the line to Bideford should this be proved viable in the future. Work from the bypass has also included a larger station car park and better bus access – a large number of Barnstaple town services, as well as services to Bideford, Ilfracombe and South Molton now call at the station.

During the year ended March 2009, passengers using Barnstaple station exceeded ¼ million for the first time.

In 2009 the Association of Train Operating Companies included the Barnstaple to Bideford route in its Connecting Communities: Expanding Access to the Rail Network. This recommended some closed lines ought to be rebuilt to restore a railway service to large communities. This same line was rebuilt for one day that same year using OO gauge track in a television project orchestrated by presenter James May, in attempt to build the longest ever model railway. Although the track was restored between the two towns the model railway trains were only able to reach the site of Instow signalbox before failing. May stated that he chose the location for the attempt due to his desire to see the line restored.

May repeated this experiment in 2011, using Hornby R603 rails laid as double track by a mechanical track layer. A competition saw a British team, led by May, racing three trains from Barnstaple to Bideford, against a German team running the route in the opposite direction. All six trains completed the 10-mile run, with the British team claiming a 2:1 victory.