AFRENZY of closures began in the wake of Dr Richard Beeching’s The Reshaping of British Railways report in March 1963, but a number of routes clung on for considerably longer.
Given the sheer volume of Beechingrelated cuts, proposals and subsequent changes, attempts to categorise the lines involved can be subject to a certain degree of interpretation, but based on Section 1 of the document, our list ranks, in chronological order, the last dozen for which closure to passengers would mean the end of the line.
1 Ilfracombe-Barnstaple Closed October 1970
Ilfracombe gained its railway in 1874 in the shape of a 14-mile line working northwards from Barnstaple.
The Barnstaple & Ilfracombe Railway (a subsidiary of the London & South Western Railway) had steep gradients and much of it required cuttings and embankments.
Other engineering features included a curved 17-span iron bridge over the River Taw at Barnstaple, a swing bridge at Pottington and a 69-yard tunnel, itself on a gradient, as trains descended towards Ilfracombe. There were intermediate stations at Barnstaple Quay (later Barnstaple Town), Wrafton, Braunton and Mortehoe & Woolacombe.
Holiday traffic reached its peak in the 1930s, but demand for travel was much lighter outside the summer months and the increasing popularity of road travel hastened its decline.
Closure was authorised by the minister of transport subject to additional bus services being introduced and the final trains ran on October 3, 1970, the last leaving Ilfracombe at 19.55.
The North Devon Railway Company (NDRC) entered into negotiations with British Rail with the aim of purchasing the line before it was dismantled. Unfortunately, its share issue failed to realise the sum required and, by this time, BR had reportedly increased its valuation of the line from £410,000 to £750,000.
Combe Rail, established as a registered charity in 2015, is campaigning for a light rail line to be built between the current Barnstaple station (northern terminus of the Tarka Line) and Braunton.
An application was made to further the case through the Department for Transport’s ‘Restoring Your Railway Fund’, but the DfT judged that, despite merit, financial assistance would have to be sought from other sources.
2 East Lincolnshire routes Closed October 1970
The railway had already contracted from parts of East Lincolnshire by the time that Beeching recommended closure of the bulk of the network serving the area.
Two public inquiries were held by the Transport Users’ Consultative Committee to examine the proposals. As a result of the first meeting on September 15/16, 1964, which involved heated debate, BR was asked to reconsider.