Development
Having reached Bude the L&SWR was anxious to encourage growth of holiday passenger traffic, and it marketed Bude strongly as a resort destination. However the journey from London and the Midlands was very long and although Bude developed, it never became a resort to challenge the South Devon seaside towns.
The area was a major producer of meat, and a heavy traffic was carried on in meat to London and the Midlands cities. However, the low population density in the district and the lengthy and difficult railway connection via Okehampton and Crediton, meant that when car ownership and road lorry usage became popular in the 1950s, the line's traffic went into decline.
Before arrival of the railway, sea sand from Bude was used to improve the agricultural qualities of land, as it was rich in minerals, particularly lime. This had been carried by the Bude Canal, and was its primary traffic. When the railway had opened to Holsworthy, this material was conveyed from Bude to Stanbury Wharf by canal, and then carted to Holsworthy station, a distance of about a mile, for onward conveyance by train. However in the last decade of the nineteenth century, manufactured fertilisers became available, and these were brought in to the district by train and the canal fell into disuse.
In 1925 the North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway was opened, connecting Halwill and Torrington. From that date, Halwill signal box may have been the most complex all-single-line junction in the country, with single line operation from the Okehampton direction, onwards towards Wadebridge and Bude, and northwards towards Torrington.
Read more about this topic: Okehampton To Bude Line
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