Not sure of the final / current outcome at Bratton Fleming, but here is Blackmoor Gate

We are pleased to announce that agreement has been reached for the L & B Blackmoor Company PLC (L&BBCo.) to purchase the Old Station House Inn at Blackmoor Gate.

The purchase includes the pub and its restaurant, the adjoining house as well as adjacent land (purchased by the L & B Trust) to accommodate the construction of the future L & B station at this site. The purchase will be completed on 17th April, 2023.

So sad this is gone ... would be so wonderful to have it back

I admire the vision of those in charge of the L&B but i was always for an extension towards Parracombe once the trackbed was purchased in 2009 and some prominent figures such as the FR's Paul Lewin have voiced the same opinion. The actual running line is less than a mile at present and hasn't moved an inch in either direction since 2005.

The L&B Trust is delighted to announce that it is the new owner of 'The Halt' at Parracombe. More importantly, not only does the L&B own another station - but perhaps more significantly, for the first time in our history - as we own all the trackbed from Woody Bay Station to and including Parracombe Halt - we have joined up two of the L&B's long-closed stations.

As part of the deal, the Trust also purchased the infilled Rowley Cross Cutting - extending our ownership of L&B trackbed all the way from Holwell Wood to Rowley Cross.

These two sections of railway are an important and vital part of extending our land holdings both towards rebuilding and reopening but also towards the length of line we need to unlock the TWAO application. A very good start to the year and a great cause for optimism for the future!

I think supporters of the NYMR, Wensleydale, West Somerset and Swanage may challenge that, but it certainly looks worth taking a ride to enable me to form an opinion!

Perhaps it wins on a view per mile basis!

To my mind it still offers some of the best views from a heritage railway.

Tempted, but sticking with UK where I know about the jurisdiction.  Not too worried about getting a bus stop at the station ... but worried about actually getting any buses to call there.

Some of my pix from Facebook ... and with confirmation from one of those core rail folks who is an advocate of better public transport even outside the working week.  Bit of a long way, though

The Old Station is located on Pier Road, close to its junction with Albert Road. It is situated overlooking the Thames, within a short distance to North Woolwich Pier for use of Woolwich Ferry. North Woolwich is currently undergoing vast regeneration to include a brand new residential development directly opposite the Old Station, as well as a number of mixed use developments nearby.

The Old Station was previously part of the North London Line and before that, the Great Eastern Railway. It was turned into the North Woolwich Old Station Museum in the 1980s and featured a reconstructed 1920s ticket office, plus locomotives, carriages, models and railway memorabilia.

Well the good news from Exmoor Associates and Friends of Bratton Fleming Station is that THEY have now put in an offer for the station:

Bratton Fleming Purchase
POSTED JULY 21, 2020
A quick update …. we met with the agent and vendors on Friday (17 July) and it looks like our offer to buy has been accepted. We are keeping everything crossed.

Indeed. I note that the vendor now has a high-interest property.  Any prospective purchaser will quickly become aware of the very large number of people wanting the house and land they are selling to be available at a future date to a re-opened railway, and that will not be positive on the price offer, I would not have thought - rather like buying a property with planning blight.  Should a prospective purchaser not be aware very quickly in the interest (s)he will be very likely to change his/her decision to offer once (s)he finds out.

It seems that an agreement has been reached with the vendors to get funds together by the end of the month. There also seem (according to their Facebook page) to have been some substantial donations. It's getting interesting now.

The Landmark Trust take on buildings that are in danger of falling down. I don't think anyone's suggesting that that's likely to happen here; it's all about securing the building and trackbed for the L&B.

Can I ask a few things?

[...]

Can some one give me an exact location of where the house is.

I wonder if anyone has approached the Landmark Trust?

I wonder if anyone has approached the Landmark Trust?   https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/about-us/  and asked the $64,000 about how they would feel to covenant to allow a railway to come through?

Can I ask a few things? the house is being sold for approx £350,000 so 700 persons at £500 each would suffice.

I think what we should get, is maybe a chance to stay at the location, maybe one night only to those who contributed to the fund ...

The Landmark Trust is a charity that rescues important buildings that would otherwise be lost.
We take on historic places in danger and carefully and sensitively restore them. By making them available for holidays, we make sure they can be enjoyed by all, both today and for future generations. We have in our care over 200 buildings in Britain, several in Italy and France and one in Belgium.

Though they range from the sober to the spectacular, all our buildings are rich in history and atmosphere. They include picturesque pavilions and medieval long-houses, artillery forts and Gothick follies, clan chiefs’ castles and cotton weavers’ cottages, the homes of great writers and the creations of great architects, from Browning to Boswell, from Pugin to Palladio.

Update on Bratton Fleming Station Fund. We urgently need more £500 slots filled now that the station is yet again back on the market. There is a fillable-PDF form to allow you to do everything online. Fill in the form and email it to the address on the form, and do a BACS bank transfer of your £500 (or multiples thereof!!). The fillable form is in the Files section of this group.
Alternatively, visit pout JustGiving site to donate smaller amounts: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/brattonfleming

...I think that trumps listing in terms of protection.

The fact that Meldon Viaduct has not been demolished for safety reasons suggests that it has a certain level of structural integrity. Any structure that hasn't fallen down can be repaired; whether that repair makes economic sense is another matter.

There is no Meldon Viaduct. The idea of a viaduct or a bridge is just a human construct, just a label that we give to a collection of pieces that are arranged in a certain way. If you change the things that the overall object is made of then as long as the human mind can conceive of it as the same thing then that is as close as you can get to being the same thing.

Presumably this story, from May 2019, relates to a different incident:

You have to feel for the bus driver, who might have been able to swerve to avoid the cyclist if the bus had been on a normal road.

Sadly, a cyclist dies on the Cambridgeshire misguided busway after making a similar misjudgement. The Bristol one is likely to get a lot busier now, with the airport reopening. The smaller supplementary local service that also uses the carbon saving airport route seems to have reopened with a limited 3 bus per hour service, 0600 to 1900 weekdays only.

Cambridge cyclist died in head-on crash after clipping the kerb that separated him from guided busway

Victim’s brother calls for more separation between buses and path

An inquest has heard that Cambridge cyclist Steve Moir died in a head-on crash with a bus when he clipped the kerb separating him from a guided busway while overtaking pedestrians. Ruling the death accidental, coroner Simon Milburn heard the driver "could not avoid" him.

Cyclists have recently got into the habit of using the guideway, perhaps to socially distance themselves from the pedestrians who tend to fill the cycle path. The other day I saw a cyclist who was evidently shocked to meet a bus coming the other way. If it wasn't for the fact that the buses have to slow down to a crawl to use the guideway, he might not have been able to pull his bicycle out of the way in time...

...Plus it's not seeing anything like as much use as was envisaged...

Ashton Swingbridge in Bristol is a riveted steel structure which had no maintenance for at least 50 years. If you'd asked me a couple of years ago whether it could be repaired I would have guessed not; you could put your fist through the rust holes in the plate girders. It is now fully restored and carries a MetroBus route and cycle path...

The examples quoted so far are all masonry, whereas Meldon on is made from iron (or steel?).  I can think of another non-masonry one (Barmouth) but not an iron one.

All viaducts are beyond repair until someone decides to use them again. The one at Pill went from crumbling ruin to right as rain for £100,000 if memory serves, when the Portbury Dock line was opened.

I would like to think the line to Okehampton is safe from any adverse development or loss of infrastructure in the short to medium term due to the political will to both restore passengers services on the existing line (feasible) and to rebuild the missing link (medium to long term at best).

Its interesting to look around the heritage railway websites and see which are attracted strong financial support fo their reopening appeals and those that sadly aren't.

It's an interesting question: what would happen if a major heritage line folded?

Often a real tragedy of rail closures is that the trackbeds - the routes - are sold off piecemeal and thus lost for other uses. Nowadays it seems unlikely that this would happen if a line, be it heritage or otherwise, ceased to operate.

Who knows what the future holds? Could a failed heritage line re-invent itself as a profitable railbike adventure?

As to the L&B: it has, as you say, been a slow process. They are playing a long game. I really, really hope they win in the end!

It's an interesting question: what would happen if a major heritage line folded?

Often a real tragedy of rail closures is that the trackbeds - the routes - are sold off piecemeal and thus lost for other uses. Nowadays it seems unlikely that this would happen if a line, be it heritage or otherwise, ceased to operate.

But back to the topic, I worry about funding for the first extension, a lot has happened in the near decade since the Welsh Highland was completed and a lot has happened since March. If, as we must all fear, a major heritage line folds in the near future it will send shockwaves through the sector and call into question new investment.

I admire the vision of those in charge of the L&B but i was always for an extension towards Parracombe once the trackbed was purchased in 2009 and some prominent figures such as the FR's Paul Lewin have voiced the same opinion. The actual running line is less than a mile at present and hasn't moved an inch in either direction since 2005.

I don't think it's at all hard to know how far ahead to safeguard: the whole route needs to be in safe hands! The point of Exmoor Associates is to secure the route. If they do their job well, there should be little cost associated with this; they may in fact to be able to run at a profit.

One the other hand, just imagine if some Grobbite were to acquire Bratton Fleming... that could potentially delay the project for years and add a lot to the cost.

It is so hard to know how far ahead to safeguard - who would have expected the Bluebell to reach all the way to East Grinstead, or the West Welsh Highland to reach all the way to Caernarvon.  Who knows when / if the line from Lynton will reach Barnstaple itself - or even suggest it extends over a re-instated standard gauge route to the Tarka Line on its way from Exeter to Bideford.

Exit to correct "West" to "Welsh"

Don't you mean Welsh Highland, Grahame. You've got your countries meddled 

I am very conscious that as a dweller of a building made of the most fragile grade of horticultural glass I am in absolutely no position to start casting nasturtiums, but... my point in posting this was to draw attention to the opportunity for members to help the L&B buy a particularly useful bit of trackbed!

I fancy the idea of retiring to a cottage in the countryside - to an old station that's perhaps disused...

I am very conscious that as a dweller of a building made of the most fragile grade of horticultural glass I am in absolutely no position to start casting nasturtiums, but... my point in posting this was to draw attention to the opportunity for members to help the L&B buy a particularly useful bit of trackbed!

Bratton Fleming Station, on the route of the Lynton and Barnstaple railway, was put on the market in March 2020. Exmoor Associates, who seek to buy land on the trackbed of the L&B to enable it to extend, were unable to come up with the purchase price in time and a sale was agreed to a third party.

That sale has now fallen through, and the property is back on the market. Exmoor Associates have launched a JustGiving page to allow people to make donations. I have chucked a few quid in their direction using this method, and wish them the very best!

If you'd like to support them, the details are here: http://www.exmoor-associates.co.uk/2020/06/justgiving-now-for-bf-station/



If you are a bit more flush than me, you could also consider their share offer, whereby supporters can purchase £500 shares in the property. Details of that offer are here: http://www.exmoor-associates.co.uk/2020/06/bf-station-for-sale-again/

I am very conscious that as a dweller of a building made of the most fragile grade of horticultural glass I am in absolutely no position to start casting nasturtiums, but...

As your personal Brittany rail properties agent, i can draw your attention to the following 3 opportunities...

[snip]

The choice is yours 

I fancy the idea of retiring to a cottage in the countryside - to an old station that's perhaps disused but has trains passing by occasionally, or is open and used by a smattering of passengers.

Bratton Fleming, Barnstaple
Offers in excess of £325,000 | 2 bedrooms | 0.63 acres

A charming detached conversion of a former Victorian station in tranquil rural location

It's great news, but they still need to apply for a TWAO.

Considering the significance of the approval, it's perhaps a little surprising that the L&B website has not made a song and dance about it. In fact, the news seems not to have reached there at all yet.

Members area has been updated

Also the L&B Yahoo group is an up to date forum for all things L&BR

Have to say the fundraising task ahead is massive, and very reliant on Lottery Heritage funding.

That was the whole point of narrow gauge - It allows tighter curves to allow the line to cling to contours reducing the need for costly earthworks and structures. 

Considering the significance of the approval, it's perhaps a little surprising that the L&B website has not made a song and dance about it. In fact, the news seems not to have reached there at all yet.

Considering the significance of the approval, it's perhaps a little surprising that the L&B website has not made a song and dance about it. In fact, the news seems not to have reached there at all yet.

....have been approved:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/first-phase-multi-million-pound-1306343

Edit to add: Apologies, but I couldn't seem to be able to copy the article text here

...a place where (and I paraphrase slightly, but not much) fuel was put in locomotives' water tanks...

Within striking distance of both the coast and the moor is Court Place Farm, home for the past 15 years of art dealer David Grob and his wife, Louise, the beguiling face of the Gold Blend coffee advertisements in the 1990s.

Although their work takes them to London and America, it is in the small moorland village of Parracombe that they have made their home with their children - 12-year-old William, Ella, seven, and Arthur, three.

Court Place Farm is set in a hamlet called Churchtown, whose name is taken from the 12th-century St Petrock's church. There are no longer regular services there, but it is open and the owners of Court Place Farm have the right to use it.

In a roundabout way - almost out of a scene from a Ronald Duncan play - the Grobs were married there three years ago, followed up the aisle with its box pews by their three children and fox terrier. It was the first wedding in the church for a century.

Many of their friends followed them to north Devon - among them artist Damien Hirst and his wife, designer Maia Norman, Simon and Alice Browne (he was the chef at the deeply fashionable London Green Street Club in the 1990s) and literary agent Sarah Lutyens.

"We feel we were almost pioneer arrivals here," says David Grob, 50, as we sit in the walled winter garden of Court Place Farm, "although Louise's mother had a house in the village, so we were not complete strangers."

When they found what was to become their home, it was really two farm-worker's cottages with a thatched roof and a bigger house in which relations of Lorna Doone writer RD Blackmore had lived.

A carved inscription outside marks the residency of John and Elizabeth Blackmore in 1787, and they are buried in the churchyard.

The old Lynton railway used to run outside and its cutting may still be seen in the folds of lush, rolling grass beyond the lawns. This may also have meant that the farm had railway connections and enthusiasts have dropped in at the house over the years.

Looking at old maps, Parracombe is never shown as a having a halt, let alone a station, just Parracombe Siding. Woody bay is shown as a station (though not at Woody Bay, obviously). Finding a map with the route on it does show just how remarkably wiggly it was.

Finding a map with the route on it does show just how remarkably wiggly it was.

The L&B rises and falls several times along its length. Starting at 15 feet (4.6 m) above sea level, The first 3 3⁄4 miles (6.0 km), through Barnstaple, and along the Yeo Valley stays relatively level. Collard Bridge marks the start of an 8-mile (13 km) climb, mainly at one in fifty, to Blackmoor Gate. A shallower down-gradient follows, of about 2 miles (3.2 km), towards Parracombe Bank, and the start of another climb, of about 2 1⁄2 miles (4 km), to Woody Bay — at 1,000 feet (305 m), the highest railway station in southern England. The line then falls, again mostly at one in fifty (2%) - to Lynton & Lynmouth station, still 700 feet (213 m) above the sea, and hidden by the landscape from the town of Lynton. The minimum radius on curves was 5-chain (100 m).

It was closed because it goes up such a steep incline that it’s dangerous.

It runs within a few yards of a very famous church – St Petrocs, which people come from all over the world to visit.

The NDJ is Mrs FT, N!'s chip-wrapper of choice, but we are not there this week so didn't see it. Thank you, CfN!

The true situation could be conveyed with a simple one-word edit in the article. Before the words "Mrs Louise Grob" delete the word "including" and replace with the word "namely".

I shall find the outline application, and express my full support. I think it would be an asset to the area for a number of reasons, and not just to me (and my small business interest in North Devon).

Multi-million pound plans to extend a historic North Devon are being recommended for approval – despite running within feet of the house in which Lorna Doone was written.

The application is the first of three further phases which are planned to complete the full reinstatement of the railway from Lynton to Barnstaple and is set to have £10m a year of benefits to the economy.

The first phase would see the reinstatement of 4.5 miles of track which would lead from the end of the existing line at Killington Lane to the north of Parracombe, to Blackmoor Gate, and under the A399 and then outside the Exmoor National Park towards Wistlandpound Reservoir.

A report to planners advises that this phase is the pivotal phase and will establish the railway’s centre of operations at Blackmoor Gate and provide the platform for the completion of the next two phases – the extension from Woody Bay to Lynton and from Wistlandpound to Barnstaple.

But residents are protesting against the plans and say that the line will run with a few yards of the house in which Lorna Doone was written by R.D.Blackmore.

The house where Lorna Doone was written is now lived in by their Louise Grob, and her dad Douglas May said: “There has been tremendous ill will and upset but I have a horrible feeling it’s a fait accompli.”

Mrs Lee, who lived in Parracombe for many years, said: “Everyone is up in arms and no one is listening.”

Mr May said: “It was closed because it goes up such a steep incline that it’s dangerous. There have been tremendous protests and it goes through such beautiful countryside.

“It runs within a few yards of a very famous church – St Petrocs, which people come from all over the world to visit.

“It also is going to be within five or 10ft of the house where Lorna Doone was written by R.D.Blackmore.”

But the planners are asked to back five separate planning applications when they meet on Tuesday at Lynton Town Hall.

An economic impact statement submitted with the application says that the proposals are expected to increase passenger numbers to 70,000 a year and will have a direct economic benefit of £10million per year over the next 10 years.

The report adds that the net economic benefits, when the account of construction cost is added, is approximately £62million and that it will create at least 24 full time jobs.

The original Lynton to Barnstaple railway was opened in 1898 and was built as a narrow gauge railway, but closed in 1935. The current railway reopened in 2004 and operates from Woody Bay Station.

The extension plans advise that the railway would continue to operate for 12 months of the year, and would provide rolling stock that would comprise twelve carriages that would provide capacity for 70,000 passengers a year.

Recommending approval, the report says: “The proposal is not considered to bring insurmountable environmental impacts and while there are some objections to the proposal, there is support, and the various technical experts that have been consulted are satisfied that the proposals are acceptable.

“Officers have concluded that in terms of impact on the landscape and heritage assest there will be minor harm and that other impacts including ecology, flood risk and highway safety are acceptable.

“Officers consider that the proposal will increase recreational opportunities in the National Park and will provide opportunities for increasing the understanding and enjoyment of the national beauty, wildlife, and cultural heritage of the National Park – both through the experience of travelling on the train itself and the opportunities for viewing and better understanding and appreciating the National Park from it.