Barnstaple Town railway station

The first station named Barnstaple Town was originally opened as Barnstaple Quay in 1874, and became Barnstaple Town in 1886. It was located in Commercial Road and later formed part of the bus station.[1] The total cost of rebuilding the station in its later location was about £6000 (equivalent to £673,300 in 2019),[2] of which £2000 was contributed by the L&B.

Opened on 16 May 1898 to serve as the connection to the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B), a narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon, a distance by rail of almost 20 miles. Both lines were controlled by separate signal boxes.

Both lines came under Southern Railway ownership in 1923.[3] The L&B signal box was downgraded to a ground-frame and the LSWR signal box took over control of the narrow gauge line.

The L&B closed in 1935. The main line closed, along with the station, in October 1970.

During the 1980s and early 1990s the old LSWR signal box was operated as a small museum for the L&B and the station building was in use as a restaurant. The signal box is now (2007) empty but the station building is now used as a school.

In late 2015 a charity named Combe Rail was formed with the intention of establishing a heritage railway on the trackbed of the Ilfracombe-Barnstaple line as well as lobbying for a full reopening in the future.[4]

• 
  The station in 1969.
• 
  The LSWR Signal Box in 2006
  In Southern days, this box controlled the L&B through to Pilton.
  A small L&B museum occupied the box in the 1980s
• 
  The remaining platform in 2006

• Disused Stations site record