On the Withered Arm - a photo on Flickriver

            On the relatively rarely visited Barnstaple branch, the 1618 from Barnstaple to Exeter Central passes Cowley, shortly before joining the West of England mainline at Cowley Bridge Junction.

In the 19th century, the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) and it’s predecessors built an extensive network in Devon and Cornwall.   The railway’s network reached Devon via Exeter and then via the line pictured here before fanning out to reach towns such as Barnstaple, Okehampton, Ilfracombe, Padstow, Bude, Plymouth and Bodmin.   

The severe pruning of the railway in the 1960s following the Beeching Report transformed this previously busy artery into a backwater.   The extensive network was cut back such that by the early 1980s, of the former LSWR network west of Exeter, only Barnstaple still had a passenger service.

The name ‘The Withered Arm’ has been used to describe the former LSWR network in Devon and Cornwall for many years.   However, the name actually dates from LSWR days: it is the name of a short story written by Thomas Hardy in 1888.

Taken on: April 30, 1990

Sets appears in: • England in the 1990s

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