Chelfham
Status: Owned by the L&B Railway CIC
Chelfham Station was purchased by the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway in 1999. The adjacent Chelfham Viaduct is owned and maintained by National Highways.
The station has been lovingly restored by a group of dedicated volunteers, and is now resplendent in its 1930s condition (albeit without track at present).
Visitor Access
The site is open to visitors most Wednesdays and Sundays from 10:00 to 16:00. A small amount of on-site parking, and limited visitor facilities, are available.
The station's postcode is EX31 4RP. The entrance to the station is ///patio.roosts.custodian (what3words)
History
During the initial survey of the Lynton and Barnstaple route it was obvious that the Stoke Rivers valley would have to be crossed at some point. In order to maintain the ruling gradient of 1 in 50 there was really little choice as to the location of the viaduct and its adjacent station.
The station site is on a ledge constructed from infill and by cutting back into the rock - the wooded glade we see today is as a result of the trees planted by the company to hide the scars of construction.
The station building itself is just two rooms - a Waiting Room and a Ticket Office which also contained the electric train tablet machine. Gentlemen were provided with a modest urinal but ladies would have to hold on until Bratton Fleming!
Some twenty minutes by train from Barnstaple Town it was the first passing place on the line and remained largely unaltered until closure of the railway in 1935.
Having had only two owners since the auction, in 1999 the site, including the trackbed, 8 acres of woodland, and the Station Master's house "Distant Point", was purchased in a joint venture between the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Estates Company and Distant Point Partnership - a time-share scheme organized by L&B Trust Members. Distant Point Partnership took ownership of the station master's house, and run this as a timeshare for their members. This is thought to have been the first time that a preservation group has used a time-share option to purchase a station.
In 2007 the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Estates Company was made a subsidiary of the L&B Trust and subsequently converted into the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway CIC. Chelfham Station site is asset locked to the L&BR Trust so cannot be sold outside of the organisation.
Restoration
Whilst generally intact, the original building had been extended over the original platform in the 1950s and 60s to provide two bedrooms and a bathroom. The booking office had been converted into a kitchen, and the waiting room door converted into a fireplace. The original gents toilets had been partially demolished and converted into a shed, and the whole site was significantly overgrown.
The site was used for storage and staff accomodation for many years, but restoration began in around 2012. The station has been restored towards its 1930s condition by a dedicated group of volunteers.
Restoration work has included:
- Site clearance
- Demolition of the extension and sheds
- Restoration of the station building
- Restoration of platforms
- Restoration of the signal box, restoration and installation of a lever frame, installation and commissioning of signals
- Recreation of concrete running in boards (station name boards)
The Chelfham volunteer team were awarded the Hendy & Pendle Trust Volunteers Award at the 2021 National Railway Heritage Awards ceremony.
Chelfham Viaduct
Trains leaving Chelfham station towards Barnstaple imediately ran onto the impressive Chelfham Viaduct (Bridge number 22). With eight arches, each spanning 24ft, and standing 70ft high and 132 yards long, Chelfham is the largest 2ft narrow gauge viaduct in the UK, and has always been a stand out feature of the railway.
The viaduct contains over a quarter of a million Marland bricks. Buildings built of these cream-coloured bricks from the ball clay works at Peters Marland near Torrington can be seen throughout the west of Exmoor. These were particularly popular during the 1880s building boom that took place in the coastal resorts. The brickwork facing covers a core of concrete made from beach sand. Salt from the sand leaches through the bricks and causes mottling on the surface.
The photograph to the left, taken by RC Copleston, shows the demolition train on its last journey over Chelfham viaduct on 27 April 1936
In 1943, the viaduct featured as a location in the film "The Flemish Farm", representing a Franco-Spanish border crossing, complete with sentry box and German Guards.
This Grade 2 listed structure was never sold off after clousure, and though the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, passed into the ownrship of British Railways, and eventually BRB Residuary. It is now owned and maintained by National Highway's Historical Railways Estates team. . s currently owned by the Highways Agency Historical Railways Estate.
The viaduct underwent significant restoration in 2000, including the re-instatement of parapet walls, and the installation of a waterproof membrane. The cost of the re-instatement of the parapet walls was funded by the L&B Railway Association. National Highways are planning further restoration work in 2025/26.
Chelfham Station Staff
The first stationmaster only lasted a month! His replacement was John James Baker who was to become the longest serving Stationmaster on the L&B. Originally the regular driver of the Jones Brothers horse drawn Lynton to Barnstaple coach (which ceased running the day the railway opened), he took up the post of stationmaster at Chelfham on 6th June 1898. The 1904 census shows him living there with his wife Emma and their three young children.
Mr Baker moved to the post of StationMaster at Bratton Fleming in September 1904, and remained there until his retirement on 30th September 1931. He still frequented Bratton Station after his retirement, and was last photographed there on the last day of operation and also at Blackmoor handing over the station books to the Porter in Charge on Sunday 29th September 1935.
Following Mr Baker's departure, Amelia Randell (wife of William Randell, the L&BR's Permanent Way Inspector) was appointed Porter in Charge. By 1913 Percy Moore was Porter In Charge. Early in 1914, Francis Harding, described as “a sturdy North Devon country lad”, attained national fame as the “boy stationmaster” when he was given sole charge of Chelfham Station at the age of only sixteen. He was still there in 1935 when the last train went though.
The Stationmaster's House - Distant Point
Just below Chelfham Station is the old Station Masters House, Distant Point.
An entry in the Company Minutes Book in 1898 states that the company wanted to build stationmaster’s accommodation here and at Bratton Fleming at a cost not exceeding £100 and although it has been written elsewhere that because the company was at this time in such severe financial difficulty no stationmaster’s houses were ever built - the reality is that at Chelfham they certainly did, as the architect's drawing held at the Devon Records Office are clearly marked with the name of the railway company.
Distant Point is owned by the Distant Point Partnership - an independent limited company set up to manage the time-share scheme.
