Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway

The Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore Railway (B, WH & A, R) was a railway running in northwest Devon, England. It is unusual in that although it was built as a standard gauge 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) line, it was not joined to the rest of the British railway network, despite the London and South Western Railway having a station at Bideford East-the-Water, just on the other side of the river Torridge from the main town. The line was wholly situated on the peninsula made up of Westward Ho!, Northam and Appledore with extensive sand dunes by the Torridge and Taw estuary. The line opened in stages between 1901 and 1908, but closed in 1917, having been requisitioned by the War Office. Re-opening the line after World War I was considered, but dismissed as a viable option. The B.WH!&A.R. was the only railway company in the British Isles to have an exclamation mark in its company title.

Charles Kingsley wrote the novel Westward Ho!, which led to a tourist boom on the peninsula, followed by the construction of a new town called Westward Ho!. This is the only case of the publication of a novel that led to the construction of a town and then a railway to serve it. The museum at Bideford station on the Bideford and Instow Railway has a display covering the B,WH!&A,R.

A scheme for building this railway was suggested as early as 1860 with a bridge across the Torridge and stations at Northam, Appledore, Clovelly, Hartland and Bude. In 1866 a start was actually made on a line to run to Appledore with a branch to Westward Ho!, however soon after a full 'first sod cutting ceremony' by the Earl of Iddesleigh, the contractors went bankrupt and the project was abandoned. A project to create a 10 ¹⁄₂ miles (16.9 km) branch from Abbotsham Road Station to Clovelly had been put forward by Messrs. Molesworth and Taylor.

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