This is the first time I have started with Part 2 of a series. That's because this series is about the route taken by the former "South Devon and Tavistock Railway" which is now mainly something you walk or cycle. The start of the route is a heritage railway, the "Plym Valley Railway", that you can see below, and I haven't been on that yet and you cannot walk along it for obvious reasons, so catching that train is on my to do list, and hopefully, will be Part 1. So Part 2 starts here, where the rail line stops. The route travels north to Tavistock and I have walked two sections so far.
The "Plym Valley Railway" is a 1.9 km heritage line which first ran in 2001. The original line first opened in 1859 and closed to passenger traffic in 1962.
This is the Plym Bridge station. The platform at Plym Bridge opened on 1 May 1906 to bring tourists to the picturesque area of the Plym valley. It was on the east side of the line. Originally built from timber, it was replaced by a shorter concrete platform in 1949. After the line closed, the concrete platform was moved to St Ives railway station so the Plym Valley Railway built a new one on the same foundations which opened on 30 December 2012. Wikipedia
It is an interesting route, cut through a landscape scattered with the remnants of much earlier industrial activity. The industrial activity was normally the precursor to building a railway, with passenger traffic a bonus. In fact this railway continued with freight traffic long after it closed to passengers. The industry mainly took the form of quarrying and mining. The line was eventually extended into Cornwall to Launceston and also had branch lines built off it including one from Yelverton to Princetown on Dartmoor, parts of which can also now be walked.
Railways like this were usually built to last, their designers having no idea how fast the modern world was going to change, and how quickly their efforts would be deemed redundant.
Illustrated London News - Saturday 16 July 1859
OPENING OF THE SOUTH DEVON AND TAVISTOCK RAILWAY
With the exception of the opening of the Cornwall line, no event has occurred for many years past of more importance to the trade and commerce of Plymouth and Devonport, whilst to the residents in Tavistock and its vicinity the facilities of communication which will now be open to them cannot fail greatly to advance the material prosperity of such as are engaged in business pursuits, and to bring within easy reach of persons of leisure and fortune many fresh sources of pleasure. Under these circumstances, there were not a few of the inhabitants at the Plymouth end of the lino who were willing to make holiday, and, whole of the people of Tavistock seemed to participate in this feeling, it appears to have been tacitly resolved that all who wore on pleasure bent should make that agreeable little town the scene of general festivity. And most assuredly everything was done which could be done at Tavistock to give éclat to an event which will evermore make the 21st of June one of the brightest red-letter days in its annals. The first train from Plymouth for Tavistock started about nine o’clock, and conveyed those holders of tickets who could not be accommodated in the train which was to bear the directors and other of the more distinguished visitors..........
.......The second train left a few minutes before two o’clock, and consisted of ten carriages, containing about 350 persons; the time occupied in the journey was thirty-seven minutes, the distance by rail being sixteen miles and a half. No line of a railway in the country of double the length is so rich in its attractive features. Its point of junction with the South Devon Railway is about three miles from Plymouth, whence it traverses the beautiful vale of the Plym, and—alternately winding along the sides of the hills, and by the friendly aid of an occasional viaduct leaping, at a bound, across deep valleys and murmuring rivulets—many an attractive woodland scene, diversified with trees of every growth, was presented to the eye as the train pursued its hurried course, whilst here and there were seen a village church perched upon a distant hill, or, sheltered by a clump of trees, an humble cottage, with its smoke-wreath dispersing and losing itself as it gained the summit of the glen, all contributing to form a succession of pictures not easily be forgotten. At every point along the line where there was sign of human habitation the train was received with glad welcome, old and young turning out in holiday attire to do honour to the occasion.........
This particular stretch of the route actually has three designations as the Plym Valley Trail, the Drakes Trail and the National Cycle Network Route 27. The Plym Valley Trail is this section running through Plym Valley Woods and is a spectacular landscape visible in part at tree canopy level as you cross it's viaducts a hundred feet in the air. The Drake's Trail is a walking and cycle route all of the way to Tavistock that incorporates this Plym Valley Trail and the National Cycle Route 27 incorporates both to head north from Tavistock to Ilfracombe on the north Devon coast enabling a coast to coast 80 mile crossing of England's south west peninsula.
....Soon the train had reached the interior of the station at Tavistock, where hundreds of the inhabitants of the town, including many ladies, had assembled, and gave an enthusiastic welcome to the directors and other visitors, the band of the Warwick Militia playing the National Anthem......
The Illustrated London News
The Cann, or the River Plym Viaduct, below. At every viaduct we see, you will notice the remains of older viaducts running alongside. The first line that was built used stone piers for the viaducts, which were topped with wooden structures. These wooden upper sections were replaced at later dates as they deteriorated. The earlier stone structures are gradually being overtaken by greenery.
Way down below is the remaining evidence from the Cann Quarry workings.
Royal Devonport Telegraph, and Plymouth Chronicle - Saturday 29 December 1832
We walked along this route for about two miles during which time we smelled mint which got stronger. This morphed into a sweet fruity smell like children's sweets. How strange. Then on the way back fruity sweet smells followed by mint again. I resolved to look at a map when I got home and sleuth those smells. In this Google Maps view below, there is the Plym Valley Trail, winding through the trees on the right, and the Cann Viaduct, while surprise surprise, what have we got, just out of view, but upwind of us, on the other side of the woods, but the world famous creator of mint chewing gum and Juicy Fruits, Mars Wrigley. Mystery solved.
The chewing of gum is not a universally popular pastime or habit. In my old school, Bishop Cottons' of Bangalore in India, it was a major infringement of the school rules to be caught chewing gum. It was something very rarely seen, because the one experience I had as a witness, was a boy in my class being caught chewing, whereupon the teacher held out a wooden ruler, onto which you were expected to place your wad of gum. The teacher then turned over both the gum and the ruler on to the top of your head and rubbed it well in. The next day and for a few weeks the transgressor was then expected to wander around school with a small bald patch on their head. Hence why chewing gum was rarely seen.
Plymouth Extra - Thursday 06 December 1990
Pay packet surprises
STAFF at Wrigley’s Plymouth factory were surprised to find half a stick of chewing gum in their pay packets this week. It was all to do with a new television commercial advertising Wrigley’s Spearmint on TSW. Lucky holders of matching half sticks each won a Christmas hamper.
This is a cutting through natural bedrock where nature has now created the perfect fernery with natural spring water trickling down and ferns and mosses above a crystal clear pool.
In the woods are alternating patches of bluebells and wild garlic both flowering and competing at the same moment.
Some of the bridges, like this one, that cross the line were just access bridges, not main roads.
There are remains of various structures along the route. Some were used for workers and track maintenance.
The Riverford Viaduct at Bickleigh Vale, 350 feet long and five spans of 66 feet each about 100 feet high.
Bickleigh Viaduct, 490 feet long and 130 feet high.
The next section we walked was in reverse from Clearbrook, and ended here, that will be part 3. The Part 3 post will be written in reverse though, to start at this point and end at Clearbrook where it started. I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't, it should do when we get there. This is an ongoing project. The idea is that all of the posts in this series flow north from Plymouth to Tavistock, even if we walked south to do them.
Comments