Being a member of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway in the UK, you may be interested to learn that we have successfully purchased another station site comprising the former Bratton Fleming Station building and freight yard.
Opened in 1898, the original line was approximately 19? miles in length between the towns of Barnstaple and Lynton in the south-west of England. The original line had a track gauge of 1 foot 11½ inches and was closed in 1935.
Sixty-nine years after in 2004, the railway reopened as a steam heritage railway at Woody Bay station and a short length of track with an amended gauge of 600mm (1 foot 11? inches). Since then, we have purchased a fair amount of the original trackbed, together with two more stations, Chelfham and Snapper Halt, albeit that these are not yet connected to the railway and the latter station is owned by Exmoor Associates, a private independent non-profit company working alongside the L&BR for the purpose of procuring trackbed as and when it becomes available for purchase.
Our latest procurement is the site of the station and freight yard at Bratton Fleming. When the original railway closed in 1935 the station was sold and the station building found a new existence as a residential property. Over the ensuing years, several extensions were added to the original building as can be seen in the first image below. It will be several years before the heritage railway has extended the railway track to Bratton Fleming. Therefore rather than allowing the station building and freight site (
currently a large garden) to remain unoccupied, the plan is to allow a tenant to lease/rent the house (
in the same condition as it currently stands) and garden for an initial 3-year occupation period.
The station building as it stands today – the tiled roof covers the original building as seen in the image below
A computer colourised photograph showing Bratton Fleming Station, shortly after opening in 1898