Description

SX 48 74 TAVISTOCK

78/0/10015 Former Railway Station

II

Former Railway station, now house, together with the platform and loading gauge. Built in 1889 for the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway and said to have been designed by Galbraith and Church who were the engineers for the line; contractors Pethick and Sons of Plymouth The granite came from Pethwick's Swell Tor quarry, the bricks from the Plymouth Brickworks at Gunnislake and the ironwork from Messrs Mathews and Co at Travistock Ironworks.
Dartmoor granite with snail creep pointing and blue brick dressings, slate roof, cast iron and glass platform canopy. The building, which was on the downside of the line, consists of a two storey station-master's house with adjoining single storey offices. The elevation to the yard has the house on the right. From the left, a set back single bay with tall brick stack and 4 over 1 sash window, the roof is hipped to the left and has fretted ridge tiles. Then two bays of lavatories with a single window as before and two paired 9 over 1 sashes. Hipped dormer above with 6 + 6 casement. Next comes the old booking office of three bays with a central entrance with part glazed double doors flanked by single sashes as before, flat canopy, central dormer as before, ridge chimneys. Then two paired windows and a projecting paired window with another dormer over. The house comes next with a square bay and a four light window above, bargeboarded gable with pendant, tall stack to left, two window wing with another stack, added lean-to greenhouse.
The platform elevation has very similar treatment with panelled door and single and paired windows. The gabled part of the house has a three light window on either floor. Platform canopy on six cast iron columns with decorative cast brackets.
Interiors not inspected but said to be very little altered. The platform, which survives in part, is 20' wide and is asphalted, the first recorded use of this material in the area. A loading gauge survives in situ. The north (up) platform buildings and the footbridge have been removed; the canopy to the Launceston Steam Railway (private) and the footbridge to the Plymouth Valley Railway (private).
The Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway built the line from Lydford to Plymouth between 1887 and 1890 and it completed the London and South Western Railway's ambition to have its own direct connection between Plymouth and Waterloo; although trains had been running from Waterloo to Plymouth since 1876. The line was engineered by Galbraith and Church and Tavistock station was opened on 2 June 1890. The company remained nominally independent of the London and South Western Railway until 1922. The station was closed 6 May 1968 and has remained remarkably unaltered because it has been lived in by the former station-master and then his widow until 1999.
References: Information from West Devon Borough Council.
R.A.Williams, The London and South Western Railway, 1973, Vol II, pps 257-59.
M.Hawkins, LSWR West Country Line Then and Now, David and Charles, 1993, pps 129-30. The Engineer, 13 June 1890, p 476 for an illustration of the station.

Listing NGR: SX4811974645

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Tavistock North railway station at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7689133

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  For the Record
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  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)