ALMOST 200 people joined Tavistock Heritage Trust on Saturday to commemorate the day when the town lost its railway.

On May 5, 1968, the last train left Tavistock North Station and the town was cut off from the national railway network. Fifty years later the day was marked with an opportunity for people to learn more about the history and possible future of the railway in Tavistock.

In the afternoon, a large group were treated to a guided walk led by local railway historian Stephen Fryer, which took in the remaining railway infrastructure and explored how the railway altered the fabric of the town itself. Blessed by glorious early-May sunshine, the walkers started in Bedford Square and then proceeded up Drake Road — a road only built to service the railway — to the old station building, which had been opened for the occasion thanks to the generosity of the current owner.

After taking advantage of a rare opportunity to look inside the old ticket office and platform, the walkers then crossed the viaduct to the railway cutting through the hillside to the north-west of the town, where Stephen recounted tales of the navvies who built the railway at the end of the 19th century.

In the evening, Stephen hosted a ‘journey from Plymouth to Okehampton’ with former railwayman and avid railway photographer Bernard Mills, who worked on the line in the years before it was closed. The engaging talk was richly illustrated with historical images of the railway, many taken by Bernard during his time on the railway.

Speaking afterwards, Bernard said: ‘Instead of marking 50 years since the senseless closure of this route, it would have been far more pleasurable to have marked its re-opening. When Dawlish collapsed in 2014, Mr Cameron came down with lots of promises and it has proved hot air. If the Government had acted then to reinstate the route via Okehampton, it would have been up and running by now – and at a fraction of the cost of HS2.’

Stephen said that he was delighted with the amount of people who attended the event: ‘I am very pleased with the level of interest in the railway — not a lot of people knew about the level of effect the railway had on the town. I hope people found it fascinating — we could do another guided walk if enough people should show interest.’

The next Tavistock Heritage Trust guided walk will be Tavistock Pubs and Breweries on Saturday, May 26. This guided walk will identify past pubs and breweries and discuss their place in Tavistock’s history. For more information go to the website www.heritageintavistock.org