Wadebridge railway station
| Wadebridge | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
| Place | Wadebridge |
| Area | Cornwall |
| Coordinates | 50°30′54″N 4°50′04″W / 50.5151°N 4.8344°WCoordinates: 50°30′54″N 4°50′04″W / 50.5151°N 4.8344°W |
| Operations | |
| Pre-grouping |
Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway London and South Western Railway |
| Post-grouping |
Southern Railway Western Region of British Railways |
| Platforms | 3 |
| History | |
| 4 July 1834 | Opened |
| 3 September 1888 | Rebuilt |
| 30 January 1967 | Closed to passengers |
| 2 September 1978 | Closed to freight |
| Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom | |
| Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z |
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Wadebridge railway station was on the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway, in Cornwall, England, UK. It opened in 1834 to transport goods between the market town of Wadebridge, the limit of navigation on the River Camel, and inland farming and mining areas. The railway was built to take stone from local quarries such as the De Lank Quarries on Bodmin Moor towards the coast, as well as sand dredged from the River Camel and landed at the quays in Wadebridge inland to be used to improve the heavy local soil. The station is situated just upstream of Wadebridge bridge and almost next to the tidal River Camel; a fact that prompted the former Poet Laureate John Betjeman to write in his autobiography "On Wadebridge station what a breath of sea scented the Camel Valley! Cornish air, soft Cornish rains, and silence after steam".
The original station in Wadebridge was built on a triangle of land bounded by the River Camel, the Polmorla brook, and what is now The Platt. The single platform and engine shed were on the town side of the line, which continued across Molesworth Street to serve the quays immediately downstream of Wadebridge bridge. Towards Bodmin, the railway ran along the valley floor, leaving the town environs past Guineaport quay, and then hugging the south side of the Camel valley. This station remained in use until 3 September 1888 when the railway closed so that the track, still laid on the granite blocks used in its construction in 1834, could be relaid using the more usual transverse wooden sleepers.
On 1 June 1895 the Bodmin and Wadebridge was linked to the London and South Western Railway's North Cornwall Line which stretched away through the sparsely populated countryside of North Cornwall to Launceston and Okehampton, diverging from the Bodmin line at Wadebridge Junction at a point 48 chains east of Wadebridge station near the confluence of the River Allen and River Camel. At this time a new station was built slightly nearer to Bodmin, separated from the central portion of Wadebridge town by the Polmorla brook. The single long platform contained the buildings that still exist: a one-storey station building incorporating a ticket office and waiting rooms, and a tall goods shed which was near enough to the rather squat station building to dominate it in height. In addition, a signal box was built immediately beyond the end of the platform.
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