EFFORTS to expand the restored section of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway at Woody Bay are now being focussed on a shorter extension to a location just north of Parracombe.
It follows the expiry of Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust’s (L&BRT) planning permission to rebuild the line between its present Killington Lane terminus and Blackmoor (RM Headline News, April 2023).
Now a planning application to Exmoor National Park Authority is being prepared which L&BRT hopes will be submitted later this year. If approved, this would enable construction of a half-mile extension to its current Woody Bay to Killington Lane running line onwards to a terminus at Cricket Field Lane on the edge of Parracombe. Meanwhile, a working party on January 20/21 cleared a significant volume of overgrown trees and vegetation from the trackbed boundaries along this section and undertook spot fencing repairs.
During previous planning consultations Parracombe residents expressed concern over the use of Parracombe Churchtown Halt as a temporary run-round facility, not least expressing unease that such a facility could become permanent, bringing noise and smoke nuisance to nearby dwellings. There were also concerns over additional traffic using Churchtown Lane and the proximity of the site to Parracombe school and listed buildings.
Locating a terminus at Cricket Field Lane aims to address these issues. It is outside the Parracombe conservation zone and is more than 150 metres from the nearest dwelling, Heddon Hall, and 400 metres from Churchtown Bridge. The proposed run-round loop and platform would be within the original L&B cutting to the south of Parracombe Lane Bridge, thus being largely hidden from sight. Cricket Field Lane itself is a narrow unsurfaced track, not connected to the A39 road and inaccessible to cars. The new terminus would operate in the same manner as Killington Lane
