Whitstone and Bridgerule railway station

Whitstone and Bridgerule
The old station in 2004
Location
Place	Whitstone and Bridgerule
Area	Torridge
Grid reference	SS269014
Operations
Pre-grouping	London and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway Western Region of British Railways
Platforms	2
History
1 November 1898	Opened
3 October 1966	Closed to passengers and goods
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

Okehampton to Bude Line
Bude Canal Wharf Bude Bude Canal Woolston Viaduct Whitstone and Bridgerule River Tamar Derriton Viaduct Holsworthy Holsworthy Viaduct Dunsland Cross North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway North Cornwall Railway Halwill Junction Ashbury Maddaford Moor Halt to Plymouth Meldon Viaduct Meldon Quarry Okehampton Dartmoor Railway

Whitstone and Bridgerule was a railway station on the Bude Branch that closed in 1966. The station was opened in 1898 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) when the line was extended from Holsworthy station to the new terminus of the line at Bude.

The station had been proposed for closure in the Beeching Report. The station sat inconveniently between the settlements of Bridgerule in Devon and Whitstone in Cornwall.

The LSWR's branch line from Okehampton to Bude took nineteen years and four Acts of Parliament. The original line had been authorised as far as Holsworthy where a station was opened on 20 January 1879. The Holsworthy and Bude Railway Act (c.ccii) was passed on 20 August 1883. However no works were commenced on the extension and the deadline for completion of the line by October 1891 was looking unlikely to be met. Since by the end of 1891 no progress had been made, a further bill was promoted seeking the abandonment of the line; the Act, the Holsworthy and Bude Rly. Abandonment Act (c.xx), was passed on 20 May 1892. This did not deter the residents of Stratton and Bude who, in 1894, successfully lobbied the LSWR to promote a second bill. The Act was passed on 6 July 1895 and authorised a somewhat different route than that set out in the first Act.

The line was single track, however a signal box with a passing loop was located here with sidings, a goods shed. The station had a ticket office and waiting room with a simple shelter on the second platform.

Passenger services were never very frequent. The pattern of services changed after the handover of the line to the Western Region of British Railways from 1 January 1963 when services became more local and the through-coaches to Waterloo were discontinued. Bude had a local shuttle service to and from Okehampton for the final months of its existence.