Woody Bay Station, lever hut and stable

Woody Bay Station, lever hut and stable

Woody Bay Station was built in 1898 for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, possibly designed by Robert (Bob) Jones. The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway was taken over by the Southern Railway in 1923, and the line closed in 1935. The station reopened as a heritage railway station in 2004.

The main station building is constructed of random local stone brought to courses, with red-brick dressings to the ground-floor windows, terracotta tile-hanging, and a terracotta tile roof. Timber casements and doors complete the materials palette. The building is two-storeys, designed in the 'Nuremburg style', with a rectangular plan and shallow projecting bays to the north-east and south-east. A small extension to the west contains 19th-century gentlemen's urinals, and to the east is a 20th-century extension which connects to a 21st-century tea-room extension on the south-east side (not included in the listing).

The principal platform elevation faces north. The upper storey has a hipped roof of terracotta tile with terracotta ridge finials and plain ridge tiles; the eaves are brought down on the east and west sides. The roof is flanked by two chimney stacks faced with hung terracotta tiles and with terracotta pots. Below each chimney is a timber ventilation louvre under a pitched roof. The north and south elevations are faced with terracotta tile-hanging, each with a paired timber casement. The lower storey has a pitched roof in terracotta tile with deep eaves on the north side forming a canopy over the entrance and partially over the platform.

The principal (north) elevation has a single entrance door and double-doors in the centre, flanked by three-light timber casements with slim mullions. The bay containing the left-hand window projects slightly forward. All doors are framed and panelled with glazing to the upper half. Door panelling, architraves and casement windows on the north elevation have a neat chamfer detail, and some historic glass survives.

The rear (south) elevation has double-doors identical to and opposite those on the north side, with a three-light timber casement to the left, a single high-level casement to the left again, and a single casement to the right. The right-hand bay projects slightly forward and contains a three-light timber casement; the roof to this bay is steeply pitched with deep eaves. To the right is a single-storey flat-roofed extension with a 20th-century casement window, connected to a 21st-century link to the single-storey 21st-century tea-room (not included in the listing).

Attached to the west elevation and set back from the principal elevation is a small flat-roofed building containing the gentlemen's urinals; concrete-block privacy-screen walls on its west side are a later addition.

Interior

The main space on the ground floor, accessed through double-doors from the north and south, is the former ticket-office. In the south-east corner is a 21st-century shop counter, above which is framing to the staircase. To the west of the ticket office is the former ladies' waiting-room with a small room to the south. To the east is the former stationmaster's office, which retains a moulded timber dado rail with anaglypta wallpaper below and a fireplace with a late-19th-century decorative cast-iron surround in the north-west corner. To the south of the office is a small lobby with a cupboard to the south, and to the west the former parlour. The parlour has a dado rail with wallpaper below, a moulded timber picture rail, and on the west wall an oak fire surround with chamfer detailing; a 19th-century cast-iron range survives. To the left of the fireplace is a tall planked door to the staircase. The stair is straight and steep with a single turn at the top. At the west end of the first floor is a storeroom, next to which (above the former ticket office) is an office, formerly a bedroom, which retains a fireplace with a late-19th-century decorative cast-iron surround on the east wall. Joinery survives, including matchboard panelling to the staircase, framed and chamfered-panel doors on the ground floor and simple framed and panelled doors to the first-floor rooms. Finishes are 21st-century unless stated.

On the west side of the building, accessed externally, are late-19th-century gentlemen's urinals with a quarry-tile floor and slate-slab urinal screens on cast-iron brackets. A timber WC cubicle opposite is a 20th-century addition, and the cast-iron cisterns were acquired as part of the station's restoration.

On the east side of the building, accessed internally through a small lobby is a modern kitchen within the late-19th-century flat-roofed extension, which leads to the 21st-century tea-room extension (not included in the listing).

Subsidiary features

On the platform to the north-east of the station building is a late-19th-century signalling hut of timber construction with a corrugated sheet-metal roof, fixed four-pane timber casements and planked double doors to the platform. Its lever frame is excluded from the listing. By the platform entrance to the south-west is a small building, concrete rendered with a monopitch roof and planked stable door. Both this building and the signalling hut feature in early-20th-century photographs. The former has been restored and retained in its historic position after the station's closure; the latter is thought to have been a stable.