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Ashburton railway station is a closed
Ashburton station, along with the rest of the branch from Totnes, was opened by the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway on 1 May 1872. The railway was
The station buildings with the important
Chuley Road Masterplan
In their final Masterplan, issued in 2015, the former trackbed up to and including land close to the former station site were proposed to be used for developing housing, a supermarket and light industrial units. The "Friends of Ashburton Station" (FoAS), backed by the South Devon Railway Trust (SDRT), successfully legally challenged the Masterplan, with the courts decreeing that the plan had to return to draft status, as it had not been fully consulted on by local residents. FoAS and the SDRT are now working on a £20M proposal to eventually return heritage railway services to the unique station, whilst in the short term using the site for local arts, educational and training initiatives. Following further investigations, DNPA and TDC have presently formally withdrawn the Masterplan, although they presently will consider individual planning applications within the designated Chuley Road site, on their individual basis and within the existing local planning map of TDC.
Friends of Ashburton Station
{{coord, 50, 30, 51.3, N, 3, 45, 15.7, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB-DEV, display=title Disused railway stations in Devon Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1872 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1958 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1969 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1971 Ashburton, Devon
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
situated in the town of Ashburton in Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, England. It was the terminus of a branch line from Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and abo ...
.
History
Ashburton station, along with the rest of the branch from Totnes, was opened by the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway on 1 May 1872. The railway was amalgamated
Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form.
Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal
**Pan ama ...
into the Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
in 1897 and this in turn was nationalised
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...
into British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British ...
on 1 January 1948. The station closed to passengers in November 1958 although goods traffic on the line continued until 7 September 1962.
The station was briefly re-opened by the Dart Valley Railway, a heritage railway
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...
, on 5 April 1969 following which occasional works trains operated but the station was closed finally in 1971 when the track bed
The track bed or trackbed is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid. Trackbeds of disused railways are sometimes used for recreational paths or new light rail links.
According to Network Rail, the trackbed is the layers of ballast a ...
between Ashburton and Buckfastleigh
Buckfastleigh is a market town and civil parish in Devon, England situated beside the Devon Expressway ( A38) at the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. It is part of Teignbridge and, for ecclesiastical purposes, lies within the Totnes Deane ...
was needed for improvements to the A38 road
The A38, parts of which are known as Devon Expressway, Bristol Road and Gloucester Road, is a major A-class trunk road in England.
The road runs from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. It is long, making it the longest two-d ...
. The South Devon Railway, a successor to the Dart Valley Railway, still operates the remainder of the branch between Totnes and Buckfastleigh.
The site today
The station buildings with the important overall roof
A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train ca ...
and the nearby goods shed
A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...
both still stand as reminders of the town's railway past.
In 2014/15, the planners within the Dartmoor National Park Authority
The Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) is a national park authority in England, legally responsible for Dartmoor in Devon. It came into existence in its present form in 1997, being preceded by a committee of Devon County Council (from 1951 t ...
(DPNA) working with Teignbridge District Council
Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Newton Abbot.
Other towns in the district include Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish and Teignmouth. It is named for the old Teignbridge hundred.
The ...
(TDC - the managing local government authority), recommended that the residual trackbed within the town, together with the area surrounding the station - a total of - be designated for redevelopment under thChuley Road Masterplan
In their final Masterplan, issued in 2015, the former trackbed up to and including land close to the former station site were proposed to be used for developing housing, a supermarket and light industrial units. The "Friends of Ashburton Station" (FoAS), backed by the South Devon Railway Trust (SDRT), successfully legally challenged the Masterplan, with the courts decreeing that the plan had to return to draft status, as it had not been fully consulted on by local residents. FoAS and the SDRT are now working on a £20M proposal to eventually return heritage railway services to the unique station, whilst in the short term using the site for local arts, educational and training initiatives. Following further investigations, DNPA and TDC have presently formally withdrawn the Masterplan, although they presently will consider individual planning applications within the designated Chuley Road site, on their individual basis and within the existing local planning map of TDC.
References
Further reading
* * *External links
Friends of Ashburton Station
{{coord, 50, 30, 51.3, N, 3, 45, 15.7, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB-DEV, display=title Disused railway stations in Devon Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1872 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1958 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1969 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1971 Ashburton, Devon