page_title: Barnstaple
section_title: Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Barnstaple / Transport / Railway
caption_attribution_description: English: On the Ilfracombe branchline on 04 May 1969. Taken near Barnstaple Town station at the site of the old quay station.
context_page_description: Barnstaple is the main town of North Devon, England and possibly the oldest borough in the United Kingdom. It is a former river port at the lowest crossing point of the River Taw, flowing into the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool. Great wealth ensued. The town centre still preserves a medieval character. Later the town imported Irish wool, but its harbour silted up and it developed other industries such as shipbuilding, foundries and sawmills. Its Victorian market survives, with a high glass and timber roof on iron columns. The parish of Barnstaple had a population of 24,033 at the 2011 census. The population of the built-up area was put 32,411 in 2018; Barnstaple Town Area, with satellite settlements such as Bishop's Tawton, Fremington and Landkey, had a population of 46,619 in 2020.
context_section_description: Barnstaple railway station is the terminus of a branch line from Exeter, known as the Tarka Line after the local connection with Tarka the Otter. The station is near the end of the Long Bridge but on the opposite bank of the River Taw to the town centre. The town used to have several other stations but these have all closed since the publication of the Reshaping of British Railways (the so-called Beeching Axe) report in the 1960s. The surviving station was opened on 1 August 1854 by the North Devon Railway (later the London and South Western Railway), although a service had operated from Fremington since 1848 for goods traffic only. The station became "Barnstaple Junction" on 20 July 1874 when the railway opened the branch line through to Ilfracombe, reverting to just plain "Barnstaple" again when this was closed on 5 October 1970. It is now a terminus and much reduced in size as part of the site is now used for the Barnstaple Western Bypass.
  The Ilfracombe branch line brought the railway across the river into the town centre. Barnstaple Quay was situated close by the Castle Mound. It was closed in 1898 and replaced by a nearby Barnstaple Town station at North Walk which was also the terminus of the narrow gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway until this closed in 1935. The narrow gauge line's main depot and operating centre was at nearby Pilton.
  A separate "Barnstaple" station, renamed Barnstaple (Victoria Road) in 1949, was opened to the east of the town in 1873 as the terminus of the Devon and Somerset Railway, eventually a part of the Great Western Railway. A junction was later provided to allow trains access to Barnstaple Junction and these ran through to Ilfracombe. It was closed in 1970.
caption: Ilfracombe Branchline in the late 1960s.
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