Bridestowe railway station served the 2 miles or so distant village of

Bridestowe Bridestowe () is a civil parish and village in the district of West Devon, Devon, England. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Bratton Clovelly, Sourton, Bridestowe and Sourton Common, Lydford, Lewtrenchard and ...

West Devon West Devon is a local government district and borough in Devon, England. Towns and villages in the district include Chagford, Okehampton, Princetown and Tavistock, where the council is based. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, located outside

Okehampton Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based i ...

on the edge of

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

History

It was built by the Okehampton Railway, an independent company that was supported by the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(LSWR). On 17 July 1862 the company was authorised to build a line from Coleford Junction near

Crediton Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter and around from the M5 motorway ...

, to . Before construction began the line was leased to the LSWR and an extension authorised to Lidford. This was almost the highest point on the LSWR line. Renamed as the Devon and Cornwall Railway and construction began in 1864 and the line to Lidford was opened on 12 October 1874. Lidford was renamed as Lydford on 3 June 1897. The Devon and Cornwall Company was taken over by the LSWR in 1872, which was in turn incorporated into the Southern Railway in the grouping of railways in 1923. When rabbit warrening was an important rural industry on Dartmoor, Bridestowe sent away annually many more rabbits than passengers, mostly to London. It was used by several Dartmoor mining industries and also the Rattlebrook Peatworks which closed in 1921; it was an ordnance depot during the Second World War.Welcome to Tavistock
Retrieved : 2012-09-03 The Goods Yard closed in 1961 and the staffed became unstaffed in September 1965.The station was closed in 1968 together with the stretch of line from

Bere Alston Bere Alston is a village in West Devon in the county of Devon in England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bere Ferrers. History and geography With a population of about 2,000, the village lies in the Bere peninsula, between the rivers ...

. Since closure the disused railway station has been converted to a private dwelling.

References

;Notes ;Sources * * * Nicholas, John (1992). ''The North Devon Line''. Sparkford: Oxford Publishing Company. . * Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1874 Disused railway stations in Devon Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968 Beeching closures in England {{SouthWestEngland-railstation-stub