Former Railway Station

Former Railway Station

This former railway station, now converted to residential use, was built in 1889 for the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway. It is said to have been designed by Galbraith and Church, the engineers for the line, with contractors Pethick and Sons of Plymouth. The granite was sourced from Pethwick's Swell Tor quarry, the bricks from Plymouth Brickworks at Gunnislake, and the ironwork from Messrs Mathews and Co at Tavistock Ironworks.

The building is constructed of Dartmoor granite with snail creep pointing and blue brick dressings, topped with a slate roof. It comprises a two-storey station-master's house with adjoining single-storey offices, positioned on the downside of the line.

The yard elevation features, from left to right: a set-back single bay with a tall brick stack and a 4 over 1 sash window, with a hipped roof and fretted ridge tiles; two bays of lavatories with a single 4 over 1 sash window and two paired 9 over 1 sashes, with a hipped dormer above containing a 6 plus 6 casement; the old booking office of three bays with a central entrance of part-glazed double doors flanked by single sashes, a flat canopy, a central dormer, and ridge chimneys; two paired windows and a projecting paired window with a dormer above; and the house itself with a square bay and four-light window above, a bargeboarded gable with pendant, a tall stack to the left, and a two-window wing with another stack, to which a lean-to greenhouse has been added.

The platform elevation displays very similar treatment with a panelled door and single and paired windows. The gabled part of the house has a three-light window on each floor. A cast iron and glass platform canopy is supported on six cast iron columns with decorative cast brackets.

The interiors have not been inspected but are reported to be very little altered. The surviving platform, 20 feet wide, is asphalted—the first recorded use of this material in the area. A loading gauge survives in situ. The north (up) platform buildings and the original footbridge have been removed; the canopy was transferred to the Launceston Steam Railway (private) and the footbridge to the Plymouth Valley Railway (private).

The Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway constructed the line from Lydford to Plymouth between 1887 and 1890, completing the London and South Western Railway's ambition to secure its own direct connection between Plymouth and Waterloo, although trains had run from Waterloo to Plymouth since 1876. Tavistock station opened on 2 June 1890. The company remained nominally independent of the London and South Western Railway until 1922. The station closed on 6 May 1968 and remained remarkably unaltered, having been occupied by the former station-master and subsequently his widow until 1999.