Original L&B Pocket Watch returns home

We are delighted to announce that the Trust has acquired an original Lynton and Barnstaple Railway pocket watch for our museum collection. This is a truly delightful human link to the original railway.

When the Railway opened, clocks for stations, and guards' watches, were supplied by Sly & Co of 89 High Street, Barnstaple. Our new watch proudly carries this name engraved on the mechanism. These watches seem to have been issued as part of the guard's equipment. The watches were individually numbered - ours is number 4. Amazingly it is in full working order.

There is an identical L&B watch in the National Railway Museum collection, and at least one more is known to exist in a private collection

There are no known photographs of official L&B watches in use, but the watch chains are prominent in many images from the period. Here we see Porter Guard Walkey at Lynton with the last train. Is it romantic wishful thinking to wonder if the watch in his wasitcoat pocket is the one in our collection?

The acquisition of this fantastic object was made possible by generous donations. The Trust is always interested in expanding its collection of objects to allow us to better tell the story of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway. The museum team can be contacted at [email protected]