Snapper Halt railway station was a station on the

Lynton and Barnstaple Railway The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) opened as an independent railway in May 1898. It was a single track, narrow gauge railway and was slightly over long running through the rugged and picturesque area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, ...

, a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

line that ran through

Exmoor Exmoor is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simonsbath ...

from Barnstaple to

Lynton Lynton is a town on the Exmoor coast in the North Devon district in the county of Devon, England, approximately north-east of Barnstaple and west of Minehead, and close to the confluence of the West Lyn and East Lyn rivers. Governance ...

and

Lynmouth Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the northern edge of Exmoor. The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn and East Lyn rivers, in a gorge below Lynton, which was the only place to expand to once Lynmouth became as bu ...

in North

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. The station served a rural area near the hamlet of Snapper.

History

The hamlet derives its name from the station, which in turn was named after the nearby Inn of the same name. The "Snapper" Inn had long become a private house by the time the railway arrived, and is now known by the name 'Glendale'. It is widely believed that the Inn and the hamlet derived its name from ''La Snappe'', which was first shown recorded here in 1256 and means boggy land, inferior pasture or winter pasture. The halt opened in 1903 at the request of the village of Goodleigh, and closed with the line on 29 September 1935. Trains stopped here by request, but never after dark. From 1923 until closure, the line was operated by the Southern Railway. After closure, one of the coaches - 6991 - was placed on a short length of track at Snapper halt, and used as a summer house. It was truncated in the 1950s and was eventually burned in the mid-1960s. Some remains of the metalwork was recovered in February 2011 and is waiting reinstatement on a heritage coach of the same layout. Another coach - 6993 - was left further along the track. In 1959 this was removed by the newly resurrected

Festiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long an ...

and has now run more miles as Buffet Car 14 in Wales than it ever did in Devon.

Present day

In December 2010, Exmoor Associates (EA) - a private company dedicated to securing L&B trackbed for eventual use by the revived railway - completed the purchase of Snapper Halt and of the original trackbed, including bridge 15 - a

cattle creep A cattle creep is a small, field-to-field access for farm animals, usually to allow passage beneath an obstacle such as a road, canal, or railway embankment. Those under roads or railways may be termed underpasses. As they are intended primar ...

- which is still in situ. The station building - a simple concrete shelter - still stands and was fitted with a new tiled roof by EA Volunteers in February 2011, replacing the rusted

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a ...

roof that had been in place for many years. At the same time as the roof was replaced, the platform and trackbed were cleared of undergrowth to improve access for maintenance and management.L&BR Trust News Item
''(retrieved 28 February 2011)''

Notes

Sources

* * * * * Former Lynton and Barnstaple Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1903 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1935 Disused railway stations in Devon {{SouthWestEngland-railstation-stub