Obviously, after the Beeching cuts the British rail network has thinned considerably, but before the cuts what was the 'coverage' per se like? I assume most towns would have had one or two railway stations, but for smaller villages was it likely that there would have been a station within ten miles (excluding Scotland)? Looking at old OS maps, it seems to be the case, with Dartmoor being maybe the greatest expanse outside of the northern counties without a railway line, however I'm not too sure.
Also, is there any BR pre-Beeching map of the entire railway network anywhere? I thought the Handbook of Stations might have had one but it seems not.