Halwill Junction - Bude in 2012

[Gwiwer]

In May 2012, and in conjunction with visiting the UK to (among other things) show some of my Penhayle Bay modelling work at the RMweb Taunton member's day, I undertook an extensive photo-research trip along the former SR lines broadly west of Okehampton. I have divided the resulting images into three galleries of which the first is now ready for viewing. Halwill Junction - Bude covers the former SR branch line in as much detail as I could manage by accessing the line at almost every location available to the public.

My images are taken from public places and I have at no time sought access to private land nor those locations which are now private homes. The only exceptions I made were to venture onto the track bed at a few places where no impediment exists for the purpose of recording bridge structures and track-bed views and I have not strayed from the immediate location onto any other land nor crossed any fence.

This involved driving along tiny lanes, performing three-point turns in the smallest of muddy gateways and walking not inconsiderable lengths of the line which is now open in several places as a walking, cycling and horse-riding trail.

There are a few structures which are extensively covered and most are at least recorded for posterity in some way. I was not able to access Dunsland Cross station itself as that is in private hands and not visible from any public place. The station building appears to be standing and in good order but faces away from the approach road in a setting where any useable image was simply not possible to obtain.

Holsworthy station site has vanished completely beneath a supermarket and car park. I simply couldn't bring myself to take a photograph of the deli counter which sits where the platforms once did. That much you will have to imagine!

Halwill Junction and Bude stations have been replaced with new homes leaving only Whitstone & Bridgerule (itself a home these days) standing and able to be photographed.

This material is offered in the hope that it may prove valuable as an historic reference when compared with the numerous previously published photographic works covering the route and also as a source of information for those whose modelling interests lie in the area.

Those works illustrate (mostly) the stations but fail to take any note of the bridges, cuttings and embankments along the way which are of equal interest to the modeller. Insofar as it remains possible I have attempted to rectify this, not least because many of the station sites are not available for access or unrestricted photography.

Over the coming weeks I shall be preparing and posting similar topics covering the Okehampton - Padstow "main line" and the North Devon & Cornwall Junction Light Railway which ran for just 30 years or so between Halwill Junction and Torrington yet has far more station remains to show than does the Bude branch.

For those interested in making their own visit to the area there are regular buses more or less paralleling the former railway of which the X9 Exeter - Okehampton - Halwill Junction - Bude is the most useful. At the time of writing this is operated by First Devon & Cornwall but is due to be passed to Stagecoach in Devon in the immediate future. Walkers and cyclists may wish to take note that the following sections are open to them as part of National Cycle Route 3 and / or The Ruby Way trail which coincide for part of these lengths:-
1. Halwill Junction - Cookworthy Forest (about 2½ miles and much of the way towards Dunsland Cross)
2. Hollacombe - Rydon Lane (about 3 miles east to about 1 mile west of Holsworthy though with a short deviation around the east viaduct and former station site there but including crossing Derriton Viaduct) and
3. Helebridge (A39 main road) to Bude and on to the former wharf branch and narrow gauge beach line (about 1½ miles partially along and partially beside the former track bed but with no trace remaining of the standard gauge the railway).

The images are located at this link. All are Copyright © of myself and are offered for viewing and lawfully permitted fair use as research material - any infringement of my Copyright will result in action being taken. Any errors in captioning are my own. I have not attempted to present a historical profile of the line as that has already been well covered by others.

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z273/Gwiwer/Halwill%20Junction%20-%20Bude%202012/

Any comments or feedback would be welcomed.

[roundhouse]

Good to see the pub at Halwill Junction is still there. Its many years since I went passed but it was boarded up at the time.

 

Really useful update and photos you have done.

 

 

Look forward to your topics on the other lines.

 

 

Ian

[Taigatrommel]

My aunt used to live in one of the railway cottages in Holsworthy. I used to be fascinated by the station site, and was a little upset to discover it had been wiped away- but then, it had been unused for as long as I could remember. I recall the site having had the track space between the platforms filled in, and there still being a weighbridge. I think West Devon & North Cornwall Farmers had used it for something for a while before I was old enough to remember, or at least owned the site. I also remember getting a rollicking for walking across Derriton viaduct with my little sister- she had to snitch on us, didn't she?

 

I can also remember riding the Jennings bus from Exeter to Holsworthy, which used to have a calling point by the erstwhile Halwill Junction station- for many years, a pair of platforms remained, but nothing else looked obviously railway related. For some reason the bus would pull in off the main road there.

[cary hill]

Thanks for taking the time and making the effort to record the remaining evidence and artefacts of the line.

 

The photos showing the detail of the remaining bridges and viaducts are very useful.

[Gwiwer]

I can also remember riding the Jennings bus from Exeter to Holsworthy, which used to have a calling point by the erstwhile Halwill Junction station- for many years, a pair of platforms remained, but nothing else looked obviously railway related. For some reason the bus would pull in off the main road there.

 

WJO Jennings were a Bude-based coach operator for many years who bought the Lansdowne Road garage in the town from Southern National when that company - at one time the bus arm of the Southern Railway in the area - pulled out of what has always been "thin" territory. Jennings took over operation of what had become the rail-replacement route from Bude to Exeter as you mention and made the diversion into the station site at Halwill Junction as National had done since the trains ceased in order to offer something like a railway service.

 

Jennings sold out some years ago now to Hookways who only took on the coach work and not local bus services and who recently ceased trading themselves. The Lansdowne garage in Bude is now closed and appears somewhat derelict. The bus routes were not commercially viable in the post-deregualtion era and all have been contracted by Cornwall and / or Devon Councils. The Exeter run passed to Western National in a somewhat ironic turn of events. WN had been the GWR bus operating branch and as such were the arch-rivals of the SR people. However under Tilling Group control both operators became a part of the same group and eventually ran under the single name of Western National. That operator had seldom reached Bude before but now found they had a clutch of local (and very unremunerative) routes plus the trunk Exeter service which was duly numbered X9. First Group, successors to WN, operate it as such to this day but potentially not for very much longer as their operations in Bude have been sold (subject to contractual clearance) to Stagecoach.

 

WN abandoned the short diversion to Halwill Junction station and the X9 stops only on the main road through the village. The other local bus routes in and around Bude are now shared between Stagecoach, Western Greyhound (an independent unconnected with Western National) and a newcomer in the form of Jacketts Coaches. Both the latter two are run by former WN managers. Greyhound is run by Mark Howarth while Jacketts is run by its owner-driver delighting in the name of Trevelyan Jackett.