Ashburton in Decay

[Steve Taylor]

Forget most track plans in books they are secondary research and are limited by the person's ability to draw and observe.

 

By far the best source of historical track layout and relationship track to buildings is OS maps at a particular date and (if you can get access to them) aerial photographs, many of which are available in local libraries and other sources.

try the board of trade records at Kew. Every signal scheme was inspected and records kept. The locations I've researched have yielded Board of Trade records including scale plans. The other source worth a hunt is the OS 1:500 engineers sheet (NRM), but for my money the fully detailed scheme plans take some beating in puting together a ground plan for a model.

[Coombe Barton]

Like many others must have done I came across Ashburton from the layout designs of Cyril Freezer. It had also closed several years before I became ‘railway aware’ rather than ‘toy trains aware’. My first non-toy layout was based on Kingswear, but was rather over complex for the pocket money funded stuff I could afford. Parents couldn’t understand why I didn’t just want to run trains, but give them a purpose. Kingswear because at the time Ashburton was just too darned small.

 

Roll forward years building small layouts which never got finished, and then parenthood and coming back in to the hobby just over a couple of years ago.

 

So I’m back to a signalled version of Ashburton. Why signalled? Well. Moretonhampstead was, so why not Ashburton. And in 4mm Moretonhampstead’s 25ft long, and Ashburton’s 11ft. My own adaptation is somewhat less.

 

Why Ashburton (or derivative)? I’ve discovered it’s a challenge to shunt. Which is good. Is it built yet? No.

 

So that defines my interest. Now let’s look at the subject SWMBO is involved with, vernacular buildings, their history, conservation, preservation and reuse. The interest in the vernacular has always been with her, along with churches, but her MA supervisor said “Everyone does churches” and so along the vernacular route she went. And it’s rubbed off on me. What we’ve discovered is that there are relatively few vernacular building experts – most people who ‘do’ buildings are concerned with something grander, cathedrals, churches, palaces, stately homes. Because that’s where the money is when it comes to preservation. The vernacular gets a bit forgotten. But then it’s more profitable for her because she can rise further in a smaller academic field.

 

Combining the vernacular and the railway is now down to me. I’ve decided that the complexity of Ashburton is as much as I can handle given the level of detail I want to incorporate. It’s taken me long enough to get even this far. Hence my interest in the site.

 

So in response to EWS’s post here’s my take.

 

Timeline and development

• 1842 approx – Ashburton gasworks in operation – regeneration report see http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:f6inICN1yEQJ:www.teignbridge.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx%3Fid%3D29391%26p%3D0+ashburton+gas+works&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk (googling will provide PDF – however it wouldn’t load for me
  
• 1848 – Ashburton, Newton and South Devon Junction railway authorised.
  
• 1851 – Ashburton, Newton and South Devon Junction railway abandoned before construction begun – finances not available.
  
• 1864 – Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway authorised
  
• 1865 – Extension to Ashburton authorised
  
• 1867 – Work at a standstill
  
• 1868 – extension in time granted, new contractor
  
• 1871 census – population Ashburton c.3000 – Totnes c.3700– Newton Abbot c. 12000
  
• (1871 sources Ashburton http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TOT_POP&u_id=10014700&c_id=10001043&add=N – Totnes http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TOT_POP&u_id=10145946&c_id=10001043&add=N – Newton Abbot http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TOT_POP&u_id=10537861&c_id=10001043&add=N )
  
• 1872 – Railway opened. Presumably at Ashburton this was to a spare bit of land around which other industries grew.
  
• 1886 map reference – 1886 1:2500 (old-maps.co.uk – then input coordinates 275690 and 69706 - should get Ashburton Station). This map shows development at the time, with not as many buildings as exist now – the umber works in particular
  
• 1892 Gauge conversion
  
• Turn of century – populations of Ashburton and Totnes in decline – Newton Abbot increasing. See above links.
  
• Early 20^th century. Ashburton and the branch was not going to survive from passenger revenue. Freight was, however, buoyant.
  
• Internal combustion engine time. This was something that could not have been foreseen – people wanted to get to Newton Abbot (see population, again) rather than Totnes. Freight still holding up, though.
  
• 1940s/50s – Cyril Freezer discovers Ashburton.
  
• 1958 - Closure to passengers
  
• 1962 – closure to goods
  
• Subsequently - Grade II listing of goods shed, but nothing else in the vicinity
  
• 2007 - Conservation Area appraisal - http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/livingin/li-consareas/li-initial-draft-character-appraisal/li-ashburton_appraisal - interestingly the station building with its overall roof and a couple of bounding buildings are within the conservation area but the Listed goods shed isn’t.
  
• Books I have – Kingdom, A.R. (1977) The Ashburton Branch (and the Totnes Quay Line). Oxford: Oxford Publishing Co. and Karau, P. (1978) Great Western Branch Line Termini Volume Two. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Co.
  

 

So why is it important? To me it’s the epitome of modelling. Maybe a romanticised view, but we’re only human. From a vernacular building history point of view it’s probably the most complete example of a Great Western Branch Line Terminus. With the exception of Tuckers, which has a brand new building, everything is there that was there a century ago. Whether anyone considers this valuable is a debate yet to happen, but superficially, all you’d have to do is remove the back of the garage, dig out the line, put up platforms and relay the track to get an operational station again. Try that elsewhere with any other terminus closed half a century ago and it’d be impossible.

 

But would the local community value it as a preservation area? It wasn’t built in the ‘fashionable’ end of town. It’s a bit of a backwater today. The cattle market closed not that long ago. If I were commissioning a redevelopment I’d consider the railway heritage, but I’m not in a position to do that.

 

Hope that these ramblings are of use.

[Coombe Barton]

And something more - I was looking at turnpikes and their dates and cale across this from the Morris and Co.'s Commercial Directory and Gazetteer. 1870

 

A new line of railway is now in course of construction from Totnes through Buckfastleigh to this place, which, doubtless, will give a great impetus to the trade of the town, and will also induce capitalists to build in this delightful neighbourhood.

 

And looking at the list of trades on the same document shows that the land of the railway was definitely NOT the commercial centre of the town in 1870!

[R A Watson]

The majority of the businesses are in North Street (which runs up the valley towards Dartmoor) East Street (the turnpike to Exeter) and West Street (the turnpike towards Plymouth) these three meet at the Bullring which is within easy walking distance of the station site, a matter of a few hundred yards.

 

The railway was built on the nearest agricultural land on the edge of the built up area as possible. The town was developed on the rising land on the Dartmoor side (north) of East and West Streets.

 

One other historical fact about Ashburton, which no one has mentioned, is that North Street was home to the last coal fired chip shop in Devon part of our Saturday routine was to drive there from B/leight to purchase supper then back to the station to eat same before dispersing to our homes at the end of the day.

 

P.s. Has anyone else on here slept in the Loco shed?

 

We did whilst restoring the water tank it saved a one hour drive each way on Saturday evening and Sunday Morning.

[RailWest]

"try the board of trade records at Kew. Every signal scheme was inspected and records kept..."

 

AFAIK generally signalling changes were only inspected where they affected lines carrying passenger trains.

 

The problem with Ashburton is that it never really had 'proper' interlocked signalling as we would know it. One 3-lever ground-frame, a couple of stop signals (one worked by its own hand-lever) and no FPLs !! There was a proposal circa-1914/16 to built a proper signal-box, but it never got done - mind you, the GWR got as far as casting the nameboard, which can be seen in the SDR's Museum!

[phil-b259]

..... and no FPLs !!

 

Are you sure? IIRC FPLs became a board of trade requirement for passenger lines in the same way that continious brakes and the use of the block system eventually became mandatory. Of course there is nothing to stop a FPL being worked from a ground frame and certain arangements combined the point movement and locking functions in a single lever

[Brinkly]

Lovely photos.

 

I don't feel that Ashburton is decaying too badly, the main thing is all the original buildings are still there, albeit being used for a completely different purpose. I drive past the twice a day and looking at the warehouses and mains station building it is in a reasonable state of repair.

 

Regards,

 

Nick

[Tim V]

OS plans are not a reliable guide to track layouts. That is because their use was for rating purposes, any other information was extra. Very good at recording boundaries.

 

Later (post metric) plans are better.

 

The surveyor merely recorded the track as a bye the bye. The only reliable source of track plans is the railway's own survey. And even that has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

[RailWest]

It is definitely the case that Ashburton did NOT have FPLs, this was always one of the 'quirks' of the place. So little change ever took place there that somehow they seem to have avoided ever having a BoT inspection.....

[R A Watson]

I have just turned out my copy of "Branch Line to Ashburton" in the Middleton Press, Mitchell & Smith, series ISBN 1 873793 95 2.

 

It shows Ashburton as I remember it it in early D V R days and as a bonus has lots of pictures which confirm that there were no FPLs there.