by Colin Burbidge

The plans for the Exeter, Teign Valley & Chagford Railway project were well known and there was some enthusiasm for it at an early stage. From 1883 there was a Bill of some sort before Parliament for the planned railway, and it had numerous readings and numerous adjournments.

 In December 1887, the then Town Clerk of Exeter, Bartholomew Gidley published in the “Western Times” the following call to arms, in part he wrote:

“The opportunity offered is one not likely to recur; The cost of the railway will be somewhere about £240,000, and the offer of the contractors is to make the line (18 miles) and accept payment as to £30,000 only in cash and the rest in shares and debentures of the Company. Can we hesitate! Surely it is worthwhile for every one of us who is concerned to lend a helping hand, I am myself prepared to subscribe for £500 worth of shares on the contract being signed and I entreat my fellow citizens not to let the chance go by.”

 In Chagford on September 11th, 1894 Mr. Colville Hayter- Hames presided over a crowded and successful meeting, to support the planned railway. The “Western Times” was on hand to report the evening in their issue of 13th September.

Mr. Hayter-Hames forecast “that no place in Devon was more attractive than Chagford, and if it had rail communications with the outer world it would soon become a second Malvern”.

Mr. Lidstone, Engineer for Dickson’s the Contractors was of the opinion that:
“The probability was that the Chagford branch would be opened up before the Exeter side of the line owning to the tunnelling required there. It was important that they should have easy communications with Exeter and this line would bring them within 17 miles of it, whereas now they had to travel 35 miles to it”.

 A motion was passed in support of the Railway scheme, and Mr. J. Ponsford in supporting,

remarked “A good many years ago I put £100 into a scheme for cutting a railway to Chagford and lost it. Now I am going to put more money into this scheme, and I have no fear of losing it”.

Mr. Aggett mentioned a report that the South Western railway company would work the Chagford branch.

 Mr. Hurrell, (solicitor for the Exeter, Teign Valley & Chagford Railway) replied:

“He did not know what Company would work the line. The Great Western Railway were not going to work it, and it was open to any company to offer to do so”.

 The Great Western Railway company were in fact the cause of several problems for the current scheme, its directors, and contractors.

 To be continued…….