Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Hopefully you would notice when you were viewing the property since the railway bisects the land in the sale [see the site plan in the brochure] with an occupation crossing [Cricketfield Lane?] giving access to the fields to the North of the Railway.

 

to be pedantic " the proposed railway", but as @35B says, you wouldn't necessarily expect the Estate Agents to point out the fact. This is for the solicitors.

Of course, if the railway was to purchase the property.......

 

This map - included in the sales brochure - clearly shows the railway land bisecting that included in the sale, so I'm sure any prospective buyer would enquire.

 

When you buy a house with land - you would expect to walk round the land to see exactly what you are buying also to check boundary fencing and to assess the quality of the fields which are currently laid out as Permanent Pasture. You would be asking about the strip of land which is not included in the sale and what agreement was in place to cross it. Obviously the fine detail would be sorted out by solicitors at the legal stage of the purchase.

 

Waitrose came a cropper doing that in Bracknell, back in the early 80s. Crossing 6ft which it turned out they didn't own cost a packet!

 

Haddon Hall may be brought by a commercial buyer as a wedding venue?.
Looking at the Google interactive map the railway already owns the trackbed, is this correct or am I misunderstanding the map?.

 

With apologies to DcB, but that was an amusing typo! Haddon Hall is in Derbyshire - the property currently on the market is Heddon Hall.
The L&B do have ambitious plans to extend the line but not quite as far as to Bakewell!
Thanks for prompting me to smile on this somewhat overcast morning!

Mike

 

Thanks for the spelling correction.
The other interactive route map does show the trackbed at Heddon Hall as red green which seems to indicate it has been brought by the railway?

 

Yes - all that section from Killington Lane to The Halt and Fairview is owned by the L&B Trust. I agree that the Hall would make an ideal wedding venue, especially with the added attraction of a railway next door!

 

Incidentally Heddon Hall [the one in Parracombe] is already licenced as a wedding venue see HERE.

 

At the time of the opening of the Railway Heddon Hall was the Rectory occupied by Rev J.F. Chanter, who as Chairman of the Parish Council was largely responsible for pressing the Company to provide a 'platform' at Parracombe in May 1899 (later called 'Parracombe Halt') where certain trains stopped. Chanter's brothers were the Railway's Solicitor and the Engineer. The L & B Directors had dropped the idea of a station since it had been advertised in the Prospectus in November 1895 in view of the nearness of Blackmoor and Wooda Bay Stations. One at Blackmoor was perceived as the junction for a possible branch Combe Martin and Wooda Bay because of the insistence of Col. Lake who wanted it for commercial reasons (and he owned the land from Ranscombe to a third of the way to Killington Lane) Maybe this decision was accentuated by a need to try to get the journey time down to nearer an hour but it seems odd when Parracombe was the second largest village on the line. (the largest was Bratton Fleming) Added to which the newly appointed General Manager from the L&SWR knew the Company needed to generate all possible sources of income, so it seems likely it was on his initiative that the platform (the hut came later) was built to stop, initially, on market days to Barnstaple. It is doubtful if a station was originally intended at Martinhoe as the village is small, until Col. Lake threatened to oppose the Bill in the Commons (6 months before the Prospectus), it having passed the Lords, unless he had a station there called Wooda Bay to serve his intended 'resort'. Wooda Bay is over two miles from Martinhoe Cross. (and a long way down) The possibility that Lake would pursue his announced intention of building a branch line to the Bay might explain why the station was built on such a large scale.

 

I would imagine that the idea of being able - in due course - to travel too/from one's wedding by a heritage steam train could prove quite a good marketing ploy - after all, people have done it by such things as steam-rollers or traction-engines etc.

 

It's a rare month goes by without a photo of "The Bride and Groom" in front of a suitably decorated loco. The Talyllyn seem to have been conspicuously attractive to this particular demographic over the years. Many lines go out of their way to attract younger members, but perhaps, in the case of the Talyllyn, the ball and chain wedding market has something to do with their policy of being notably welcoming to female volunteers, beyond the catering department? (Oooh .... contentious!)

 

Indeed....tho' the only way that I would be likely to get SWMBO to stay 'in front of a....loco' probably would be to chain her to the track

 

So the TR are looking at the other 55% of the potential talent pool?

 

Red is owned by the railway (Trust)

 

A bit like Emma Peel [Diana Rigg] in the Avengers! This was Stapleford Miniature Railway [10 1/4 inch gauge]

 

They've even got a blue plaque to mark the site! http://www.fsmr.org.uk/avengers.html

 

Re SWMBO - Not necessary to comply if you make sure you check that she works on the railway as I did. Seriously tho it was accidental - the railway part that is, not the marriage part. But it does involve occasional lack of sympathy.