Celebrating 150 years of rail

This year sees the long-awaited full re-opening of Okehampton Station and the re-introduction of regular, daily all year round services to and from Exeter for the first time since 1972.

Services are due to begin by the end of 2021 and there will huge celebrations when they do.

Before that though, there will be more railway celebrations in Okehampton, as 2021 is the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the railway in the town.

The first public trains arrived on what was then the single line from Okehampton Road station (today’s Sampford Courtenay) on October 3rd, 1871.

October 3rd, 2021 is a Sunday and an extensive programme of celebrations is being organised for that day, and the Saturday, by a small working party of local people under the chairmanship of Cllr Dr Michael Ireland, Chair of OkeRail and long-time campaigner for the re-opening, with the plans being co-ordinated by Cllr Paul Vachon.

Cllr Dr Michael Ireland said: ‘Working with the Okehampton 150 team has shown me what can be achieved when we all work together to celebrate this important anniversary of the opening of the railway to the town. 2021 will be a transformative year for Okehampton and its rural hinterland with the reinstatement of seven day a week rail service to connect with the national network.’

The group is being assisted by Richard Burningham, manager of the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, a partnership between local authorities, the rail industry and the University of Plymouth, where it is based, which has long worked to promote the use of the two counties’ branch lines and to link the community and the railway.

Richard is a veteran of such celebrations with just two being the 150th anniversary of the railway arriving in Barnstaple in 2004 and 150 years of trains to Falmouth in 2013.

Okehampton was late to the railway. Barnstaple’s rail link had opened 17 years earlier and the railway had reached Exeter from the east in 1844, 27 years earlier. Local people enthusiastically celebrated the arrival of the railway but, interestingly, this all happened on August 29th and 30th, some five weeks before regular services began.

‘The Okehampton Line’ by John Nicholas and George Reeve describes what happened. A special train arrived at Okehampton station at 3pm on August 29th, to be met by the Mayor of Okehampton, a large crowd and three bands.

There was then an official civic reception in a marquee in a field in the town. This was attended by mayors from towns as distant as Exeter, Plymouth and Launceston and by the directors of the Devon & Cornwall Railway and the South Western Railway.

The next day, Fore Street in Okehampton was closed for a huge public dinner for 600 people. There were celebratory banners across the street and many businesses decorated to mark the occasion.

Unfortunately the Board of Trade Inspector hadn’t yet been able to visit the line and this had to happen, with any safety measures he identified undertaken, before regular public services could begin. He, a Colonel Yolland, visited on September 28th, identified some things that needed to be done but recommended the line’s opening be approved, subject to the actions being taken within a month.

So it was that the public service of six trains a day each way began the following week on October 3rd. There is no record of anything done to mark this occasion. It appears the trains just started.

Initially trains only ran between Okehampton and Yeoford Junction, where people would change to a train from North Devon to continue on to Exeter.

All this quickly changed. The railway extended to Lydford in 1874 and, using the GWR Launceston to Plymouth line, reached Plymouth two years later. In 1879, the single line was doubled and in 1890, just 19 years after the railway reached Okehampton, the independent route from Lydford to Plymouth via Tavistock and the Tamar Valley opened.

This route still exists between Bere Alston and Plymouth and many local people hope that the Okehampton re-opening will quickly be followed by a commitment to rebuild the five and a half miles from Tavistock to Bere Alston, and for Tavistock – Plymouth trains to be reintroduced.

Returning to the 150th celebrations, local schoolchildren will be involved, thanks to the Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust which runs schools in the town and wider hinterland. Children will write poems and design artwork, including special bunting.

Melissa Trudgill, community engagement manager for Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, said: ‘It is a real pleasure to work on town events with community groups and local councils, which create lasting links and partnerships between our schools and their community. We are really looking forward to this celebration weekend.’

There will be celebratory banners, including a ‘Triumphal Arch’ placed across Fore Street and a number of shops and businesses have agreed to display artwork in their windows.

In the run up to the 150th weekend, there will be a display of historical railway photographs in the Charter Hall.

On Saturday, October 2nd, the Charter Hall will host a Victorian tea party to which all are invited. Victorian dress will be encouraged. The plan is that this will look back to 1871 and indeed beyond that, to the Parliamentary debate which led to approving the building of the line in 1862. The tea party will start at 10am and run until 1pm.

The following day, Sunday, October 3rd, there are plans to broadly re-enact the station event of August 29th,1871, but with the vital difference that there won’t be a train. It will still be a first class celebration of an important event in Okehampton’s past and look ahead to the contribution the railway will again make soon to the town and district’s future.

Details of the 150th Anniversary celebrations are available at www.dartmoorline.com, the official project website for the reopening. This is packed with information, photos and videos about the work being undertaken to reopen Okehampton’s railway and is very regularly updated.

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