The Exe Valley Railway was a branch line built by 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 ...

(GWR) 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. Devon is ...

, England, to link its

Bristol to Exeter line Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in S ...

with its Devon and Somerset Railway (D&SR), thereby connecting

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

with (which is in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

). The line was in use from 1884 until 1964.

History

The first part of the line to be built was the Tiverton and North Devon Railway, which ran from the D&SR at south to . It opened on 1 August 1884. The Exe Valley Railway itself started from the Exeter main line at and ran northwards to Tiverton. This opened on 1 May 1885. Services generally ran through from Dulverton to . Trains could not stop at Stoke Canon station as the junction was built south of the station which had been opened on the main line in 1852. This was rectified in 1894 when a new station was built to the south of the junction. As with Stoke Canon, trains could not call at as the station was on the wrong side of the junction, but in 1928 a station was opened at the junction. In 1890, Mrs Towns was appointed signalwoman at Morebath Junction. She is the only recorded example of a signalwoman on any railway in Britain in the 19th century. In October 1913, the '' Railway Magazine'' reported that she was "very proud" of her job after 23 years service and hoped to continue indefinitely. On 1 January 1948, the GWR 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 pri ...

to become the

Western Region of British Railways The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex- Great ...

. Stoke Canon station closed in 1960 and passenger trains were withdrawn from the line from 7 October 1963, although goods trains continued to run to Thorverton until 4 May 1964.

Stations

The stations are described from north to south. They all closed on 7 October 1963 unless stated otherwise.

Bampton

Bampton station opened on 1 August 1884 on the west side of Bampton. South West England. It was a passing place so had two platforms for passengers and also a

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 ...

. It dispatched a lot of stone from local quarries. It was renamed "Bampton (Devon)" in June 1911 to avoid confusion with another GWR Bampton station in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. After the line closed the station was demolished, and the cutting in which it was situated was largely filled in.

Cove Halt

This was the first of the small stations that were opened along the line during the 1920s. A siding had been provided when the line opened near the

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

in the village of Cove, and a simple platform with a corrugated iron ''pagoda'' shelter was opened for passengers on 9 June 1924. The level crossing keeper had a cottage and small

signal cabin On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetabl ...

, both of which have survived as a house.

Bolham Halt

Another small station, this concrete platform was opened on 23 April 1928. It had a corrugated iron shelter with a simple sloping roof. It served the village of Bolham.

Tiverton

The station at Tiverton opened in 1848 as the terminus station of a

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

branch line from the Bristol and Exeter main line at . It was reconstructed with extra platforms in the 1880s to accommodate the Exe Valley trains. After the closure of the Stoke Canon to Morebath line, Tiverton continued to be served from Tiverton Junction until 5 October 1964 (passengers) and 5 June 1967 (goods).

West Exe Halt

This station was opened on 19 March 1928 to serve the western side of Tiverton and Heathcoat's Mill, a major employer in the town. It was equipped with a wooden shelter, and the original platform was almost doubled in length in May 1937. It was generally unstaffed, but at busy times a porter was sometimes sent from Tiverton to collect and sell tickets Tiverton station continued to be served from until 5 October 1964 (passengers) and 5 June 1967 (goods).

Cadeleigh

This station opened on 1 May 1885 to serve the villages of

Cadeleigh Cadeleigh is a small village in the county of Devon in England. It sits in the hills above the valley of the River Exe and is about 15 km (9 miles) north of Exeter and 6 km (4 miles) southwest of Tiverton. The village has a church th ...

and

Bickleigh Bickleigh may refer to the following places in Devon, England: * Bickleigh, Mid Devon, a village near Tiverton ** Bickleigh Castle * Bickleigh, South Hams Bickleigh is a small village on the southern edge of Dartmoor in Devon, England. It ha ...

and was therefore known as 'Cadeleigh and Bickleigh' until 1 May 1906 when it was changed to just 'Cadeleigh'. As a passing place it had two platforms and also a busy goods yard. After the railway was closed it was used by the county council, but in 1997 it was sold and is now used as the

Devon Railway Centre The Devon Railway Centre is in the village of Bickleigh in Mid Devon, England, at the former Cadeleigh railway station on the closed Great Western Railway branch from Exeter to Dulverton, also known as the Exe Valley Railway. The Centre operat ...

Burn Halt

This small platform with a wooden shelter was opened on 26 January 1929 to serve Burn Farm and the parish of

Butterleigh Butterleigh is a village and civil parish in Mid Devon, England situated about three miles south east of Tiverton. The village includes a public house, village hall, award-winning blacksmith and is famous for its harvest home. St Matthew's Chu ...

Up Exe

When the line opened in 1885 a platform was provided on the east side of the track near the hamlet of

Up Exe Rewe is a village and civil parish in the county of Devon in England. It lies on the river Culm, north of the city of Exeter and south of the town of Tiverton. Rewe is a linear village, with most of its buildings lying along the A396 road ab ...

with the name 'Up Exe and Silverton', although a

Silverton railway station There are 22 disused railway stations in the between and , 12 of which have structures that can still be seen from passing trains. Most were closed in the 1960s but four of them, especially around , were replaced by stations on new sites. 13 s ...

already existed on the

to serve that village. From 1 May 1905 the Exe Valley station was renamed 'Up Exe'. It was provided with a small stone building for passenger use and a house for the station master, although it never had a goods yard. A small

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

was provided next to the level crossing. From 1 October 1923 the staff were withdrawn from the station and it was designated 'Up Exe Halt'. The station master's house was then used by the level crossing keeper, and the station buildings became a house while the passengers were given a small iron shelter. Both the house remained in use as such after the closure of the line.

Thorverton

The station serving

Thorverton Thorverton is a civil parish and village in Devon, England, about a mile west of the River Exe and north of Exeter. It is almost centrally located between Exeter and the towns of Tiverton, Cullompton and Crediton, and contains the hamlets ...

village opened with the railway in 1885. Two platforms were provided as it was a passing place. The main buildings and goods yard were on the southbound side, while a wooden shelter was provided on the opposite platform for passengers travelling towards Tiverton. The station master had a house to the north of the station. The village was not on a main road and had no bus service with the result that the station was one of the best-used on the line and also generated a lot of freight due to nearby Thorverton Mill, a watermill that was connected to the station by a siding.

Camp coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

es were based here from 1936 to 1939 which provided accommodation for holiday visitors. Thorverton closed to passenger traffic with the rest of the Exe Valley line on 7 October 1963. Goods traffic ceased on 4 May 1964. Both the station and the stationmaster's house remain in use as houses, the former extended using stone from the demolished goods shed.

Brampford Speke

The station at Brampford Speke was a single platform on the west side of the line that opened with the line in 1885. Unusually there was no road access, passengers reached the station via a footpath from the village. It was provided with the usual building for passengers and a house for the station master. It had a signal box until 1907 but never any goods yard. It was closed for the whole of 1917 and 1918 as a wartime economy measure. From 1 October 1923 the staff were withdrawn and the station designated 'Brampford Speke Halt'. As at Up Exe, the station building became a house and passengers used an iron shelter instead. Both this and the station master's house continue to be used as private houses. As of 2021-07-05, this was listed as on sale, and the original station can still be clearly distinguished.

Services

This example timetable shows the weekday passenger services in October 1920 (there was no service on Sundays).

References

Bibliography

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