Bishops Nympton and Molland railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bishops Nympton and Molland railway station served a rural area of north Devon to the west of Dulverton and east of South Molton. The village of Molland, after which the station was initially named, was two miles to the north-east; Bishops Nympton, which was added to the station name in 1876, was three miles to the south-west.

The station was on the Devon and Somerset Railway that ran between Taunton and Barnstaple. The Devon and Somerset was operated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway and was taken over with the B&E by the Great Western Railway.

The section of the line between Wiveliscombe and Barnstaple opened on 1 November 1873. Bishops Nympton and Molland station was originally on a single track part of the line and had a single platform on the down side of the line (towards Barnstaple), where the main building was situated. A crossing loop was installed with a second platform in 1876. The station had a succession of signalboxes all on the down platform: first at the east end, then at the west, and finally at the east end of the platform again. There was also a goods yard to the west of the station, with a goods shed and cattle pens.

Goods traffic was withdrawn from Bishops Nympton and Molland in 1964 and the station closed to passenger traffic with the closure of the Devon and Somerset line on 3 October 1966. The station building and the goods shed have been converted into houses and the up platform remains within the station house's garden.