FEATURE
Celebrating 150 years of rail It’s a red-letter weekend for Okehampton Station in Victorian era
This year sees the long-awaited full re-opening of Okehampton Station and the re-introduction of regular, daily all year round services to and from Exeter for the first time since 1972. Services are due to begin by the end of 2021 and there will huge celebrations when they do.
The group is being assisted by Richard Burningham, manager of the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership, a partnership between local authorities, the rail industry and the University of Plymouth, where it is based, which has long worked to promote the use of the two counties’ branch lines and to link the community and the railway.
Before that though, there will be more railway celebrations in Okehampton, as 2021 is the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the railway in the town.
Richard is a veteran of such celebrations with just two being the 150th anniversary of the railway arriving in Barnstaple in 2004 and 150 years of trains to Falmouth in 2013.
The first public trains arrived on what was then the single line from Okehampton Road station (today’s Sampford Courtenay) on October 3rd, 1871.
Okehampton was late to the railway. Barnstaple’s rail link had opened 17 years earlier and the railway had reached Exeter from the east in 1844, 27 years earlier. Local people enthusiastically celebrated the arrival of the railway but, interestingly, this all happened on August 29th and 30th, some five weeks before regular services began.
October 3rd, 2021 is a Sunday and an extensive programme of celebrations is being organised for that day, and the Saturday, by a small working party of local people under the chairmanship of Cllr Dr Michael Ireland, Chair of OkeRail and long-time campaigner for the re-opening, with the plans being co-ordinated by Cllr Paul Vachon. Cllr Dr Michael Ireland said: ‘Working with the Okehampton 150 team has shown me what can be achieved when we all work together to celebrate this important anniversary of the opening of the railway to the town. 2021 will be a transformative year for Okehampton and its rural hinterland with the reinstatement of seven day a week rail service to connect with the national network.’
‘The Okehampton Line’ by John Nicholas and George Reeve describes what happened. A special train arrived at Okehampton station at 3pm on August 29th, to be met by the Mayor of Okehampton, a large crowd and three bands. There was then an official civic reception in a marquee in a field in the town. This was attended by mayors from towns as distant as Exeter, Plymouth and Launceston and by the directors of the Devon & Cornwall Railway and the South Western Railway.
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