By Professor William Powrie
Last week, on Tuesday 8 September, I cycled from Ilfracombe to Bude. From Ilfracombe to Watergate, just beyond Torrington, my route followed the Tarka Trail, which is mostly on the former railway lines from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe and from Barnstaple to Meeth (and eventually to Padstow and Bude via Halwill Junction, as part of what became rather unkindly known as the Southern Railway’s “withered arm”). Barnstaple to Ilfracombe was closed in 1979; Barnstaple to Meeth was closed to passengers in 1965 but remained open for clay traffic until 1982. This is a great example of re-purposing infrastructure; the Tarka Trail is an immensely popular active travel corridor. However, cycling the route is also very poignant, as one cannot but wonder at the sheer human effort involved in building these railways, and whether they would serve a useful function as railways now.
Significant elements of the railway infrastructure have been swept away, especially in the towns, but the amount that remains is still considerable.
Ilfracombe station is gone, its site now occupied by a biotechnology company. After Ilfracombe, the route passes through a tunnel [1] alongside the Slade reservoirs as it rises at a gradient of 1 in 36 – steep for a railway – to the former Mortehoe & Woolacombe station. Then at Willingcote, the route leaves the railway and continues by quiet roads to Braunton. There is little evidence of the railway at Braunton; most of the buildings have been demolished and the trackbed built on or repurposed. The route rejoins the old railway line just after Braunton.
At Barnstaple, the railway bridge over the River Taw is no more and the cycle path crosses via the A361 road bridge. Between Barnstaple and Watergate, station buildings remain at Fremington [2], Bideford [8] and Great Torrington [11]; a signal box at Instow [7]; tunnels at Instow [6] and Landcross [10]; and an impressive iron viaduct [9] between Torrington and Watergate.
The next day, I cycled from Bude via via the coast to Wadebridge; then into Padstow on the Camel Trail, another active travel route on a former railway line. The main station building at Wadebridge is now the Betjeman Centre; between Wadebridge and Padstow there are sections of steep-sided rock cutting [4] and the iconic 3-span Pratt truss bridge over Little Petherick Creek [5]. The main station building at Padstow [3] houses Padstow Town Council offices.
It is sad that these old railway lines closed, but wonderful that they are available for use as active travel routes for walkers, wheelers and cyclists.
Details of the rides and the routes, these can be found at https://lnkd.in/en3WZnwp (Ilfracombe to Bude) and https://lnkd.in/ekde6gqZ (Bude to Padstow). There is a fascinating cine film by C G Paddock of a train journey from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe in 1970, filmed on one of the last summer Saturdays on which the line was in operation, at https://lnkd.in/eV2A94um.
