Dunsland Cross railway station

Dunsland Cross
Dunsland Cross
	Site of the station in 1995
General information
Location	Dunsland Cross, Torridge ; England
Grid reference	SS4054502778
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Pre-grouping	London and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway ; Western Region of British Railways
Key dates
20 January 1879	Opened
3 October 1966	Closed to passengers and goods

Last updated April 08, 2022

Okehampton
to Bude Line

Legend

Bude

Bude Canal Wharf

Bude Canal

Woolston Viaduct

Whitstone and Bridgerule

River Tamar

Derriton Viaduct

Holsworthy

Holsworthy Viaduct

Dunsland Cross

North Devon and Cornwall

Junction Light Railway

North Cornwall Railway

Ashbury

to Plymouth

Dartmoor Line

Dunsland Cross was a railway station on the Bude Branch that closed in 1966. Dunsland Cross station in the parish of Holsworthy was 6 miles East of the village, now town of Holsworthy. The station was opened in 1879 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) when Holsworthy station was the terminus of the line, some years before the route to serve the coastal town of Bude was finally opened in 1898.

History

The LSWR's branch line from Okehampton to Bude took nineteen years and four Acts of Parliament. The original line had been authorised as far as Holsworthy where a station was opened on 20 January 1879.^[2] The Holsworthy and Bude Railway Act (c.ccii) was passed on 20 August 1883. However no works were commenced on the extension and the deadline for completion of the line by October 1891 was looking unlikely to be met, resulting in the LSWR asking for an extra year to complete the works. Nevertheless, since by the end of 1891 no progress had been made, a further bill was promoted seeking the abandonment of the line; the Act, the Holsworthy and Bude Rly. Abandonment Act (c.xx), was passed on 20 May 1892. This did not deter the residents of Stratton and Bude who, in 1894, successfully lobbied the LSWR to promote a second bill. The Act was passed on 6 July 1895 and authorised a somewhat different route than that set out in the first Act.^[2]

The Station

The line was single track; however, a signal box with a passing loop was located here with sidings, a cattle pen and a goods shed. Several railway workers cottages were built here and these are now private dwellings (2012). The station had a ticket office and waiting room with a simple shelter on the second platform.^[3] The station name board also informed passengers that this was the station for Shebbear College.

Services

Passenger services were never very frequent. The pattern of services changed after the handover of the line to the Western Region of British Railways from 1 January 1963 when services became more local and the through-coaches to Waterloo were discontinued.^[4] Bude had a local shuttle service to and from Okehampton for the final months of its existence.^[4]

The Station today

The station itself is a private dwelling and as stated the railway cottages survive. The hamlet has been named Dunsland Cross Station.

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Halwill Junction		British Rail Western Region Bude Branch		Holsworthy

Related Research Articles

The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Starting as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in Hampshire and Berkshire, including Portsmouth and Reading. In the grouping of railways in 1923 the LSWR amalgamated with other railways to create the Southern Railway.

The Dartmoor line is a 15+1⁄2-mile (24.9 km) railway line in Devon, England. From Crediton, the line runs alongside the Tarka Line to the site of the former Coleford Junction where it diverges west to Okehampton. Previously a heritage line, it is owned by Network Rail.

Exeter St Davids is the principal railway station serving the city of Exeter in Devon, England. It is 193 miles 72 chains from the zero point at London Paddington on the line through Bristol which continues to Plymouth and Penzance. It is also served by an alternative route to London Waterloo via Salisbury and branch lines to Exmouth, Barnstaple, and Okehampton. It is currently managed by Great Western Railway and is served by trains operated by Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and CrossCountry.

The Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway (PD&SWJR) was an English railway company. It constructed a main line railway between Lydford and Devonport, in Devon, England, enabling the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) to reach Plymouth more conveniently than before.

The Exeter and Crediton Railway was a 7 ft broad gauge railway that linked Exeter and Crediton, Devon, England. It was 5¼ miles (8½ km) long.

The North Devon Railway was a railway company which operated a line from Cowley Bridge Junction, near Exeter, to Bideford in Devon, England, later becoming part of the London and South Western Railway's system. Originally planned as a broad gauge feeder to the Bristol & Exeter Railway, it became part of a battle between the broad gauge group and the standard gauge railway interests. In this context, standard gauge lines were often described as narrow gauge.

The North Cornwall Railway was a railway line running from Halwill in Devon to Padstow in Cornwall via Launceston, Camelford and Wadebridge, a distance of 49 miles 67 chains. Opened in the last decade of the nineteenth century, it was part of a drive by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) to develop holiday traffic to Cornwall. The LSWR had opened a line connecting Exeter with Holsworthy in 1879, and by encouraging the North Cornwall Railway it planned to create railway access to previously inaccessible parts of the northern coastal area.

The Okehampton–Bude line was a railway line built to serve Holsworthy in Devon, and Bude on the Cornish coast near the Devon border in England. The line branched from the main line at Meldon Junction to the west of Okehampton on the northern edge of Dartmoor. The line opened in 1879 to Holsworthy and in 1898 to Bude. It is now closed.

The Exeter to Plymouth railway of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) was the westernmost part of a route competing with that of the Great Western Railway (GWR) and its 'associated companies' from London and Exeter to Plymouth in Devon, England. Whereas the GWR route from Exeter followed the coast to Newton Abbot and then went around the southern edge of Dartmoor, the LSWR route followed the northern and western margins of Dartmoor, passing through the towns of Crediton, Okehampton, and Tavistock.

This article describes the history and operation of the railway routes west of Salisbury built by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) and allied companies, which ultimately became part of the Southern Railway in the United Kingdom. Salisbury forms a natural boundary between the Southern Railway core routes in the counties surrounding London, and the long route connecting with the Devon and Cornwall lines.

Avon Lodge was a private untimetabled railway station in the county of Hampshire, opened on 3 November 1862 by the Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway. Becoming part of the London and South Western Railway, it was taken into the Southern Railway in the grouping of 1923 and closed on 30 September 1935.

Halwill Junction Railway Station was a railway station in Halwill Junction, near the villages of Halwill and Beaworthy in Devon, England. It opened in 1879 and formed an important junction between the now-closed Bude Branch and North Cornwall line. It closed in 1966 along with the lines which it served, a casualty of the Beeching Report.

The Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway was a railway company to link Christchurch and Bournemouth, England, to the London and South Western Railway's Southampton and Dorchester line at Ringwood. The RC&BR opened in 1862 from Christchurch to Ringwood, and was extended to Bournemouth in 1870, sharing in the growing popularity of the town. However the route was circuitous, and the London and South Western Railway opened a shorter route between Brockenhurst and Christchurch via Sway in 1888, making the Ringwood to Christchurch section a branch line.

Bude railway station was the western terminus of the Bude Branch. It was opened in 1898 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) to serve the coastal town of Bude and closed in 1966 after having been proposed for closure in the Beeching Report.

Holsworthy was a railway station in Devon, England, on the now-closed railway line from Okehampton to Bude. It opened in 1879 to serve the market town of Holsworthy and closed in 1966, a victim of the Beeching Axe.

North Tawton railway station was a railway station serving the town of North Tawton in Devon, England. North Tawton lies on the River Taw.

The Turnchapel Branch was a London and South Western Railway (LSWR) single track branch railway line in Devon, England, that ran from Plymouth Friary station to Turnchapel. It crossed the River Plym and opened up the east side of the river to rail connections. The short line opened in 1892 and 1897 (throughout). It closed in 1951 to passengers, and in 1961 completely.

Bridestowe railway station served the 2 miles or so distant village of Bridestowe in West Devon, England, located outside Okehampton on the edge of Dartmoor.

Maddaford Moor Halt was a railway station on the Bude Branch that closed in 1966. The halt was located where the line passed under the A3079, at a hamlet now known as Thorndon Cross, four miles west of Okehampton. Maddaford Moor Halt was opened in 1926 by the Southern Railway (SR) many years after the line to serve the coastal town of Bude was opened in 1898.

Whitstone and Bridgerule was a railway station on the Bude Branch that closed in 1966. The station was opened in 1898 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) when the line was extended from Holsworthy station to the new terminus of the line at Bude.

References

Notes

1 2 Butt 1995, p. 86
1 2 Southern E-Group, "Bude"
↑ Old Maps Archived 30 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved : 2012-10-17
1 2 Pryer, Page 31

Sources

Butt, R (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1.

Pryer, G.A.; Bowring, G.J. (1980). An Historical Survey of Selected Southern Stations: Volume One. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Company. ISBN 0-86093-016-5.

External links

Dunsland Cross station in 1966

Coordinates: 50°48′09″N4°15′51″W / 50.8025°N 4.2642°W / 50.8025; -4.2642

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[b-1] 1 2 Butt 1995, p. 86

[semg1-2] 1 2 Southern E-Group, "Bude"

[3] Old Maps Archived 30 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved : 2012-10-17

[p-4] 1 2 Pryer, Page 31

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]