The Railway
Its quite hard to believe that it was ever really there. Apart from the old station building and parts of the tracks foundations as evidence, it's all just a distant memory, yet the building of the railway was so important to the growth of our village.
Tipton was a relatively small farming hamlet before the arrival of the railway in 1874. With more accessibility and employment the village expanded with the London and South Western Railway linking Tipton with the larger world and even London! The branch line expanded the station further when it became a junction for Budleigh Salterton in 1897, with the signal box and the footbridge being added at this time. The track ran across the main street with large rolling gates that would be swung across to stop the road traffic. The Golden Lion was rebuilt to refresh and accomodate more travellers and Coombe Vale was built to house railway workers
The station would be busy with passenger and freight trains. Steam engines hauled the trains until 1963 when they were replaced by diesel units.
The train line gave villagers the chance to move around the southwest and beyond for work and leisure. The trains would bring holiday makers to the seaside resorts of Exmouth and Sidmouth. It would have taken men from the village to both world wars and brought evacuees from London. School children would use the train for getting to school, with the train stopping at Tipton and children continuing on the line would quickly jump off to buy their sweets from the village shop while the train was in the station.
Post, milk, flowers and other goods from the village would have been collected from the station and delivered around the country. Flowers from Burcombe flower farm, Wiggaton and other local growers would have been packed and sent up to Covent garden market for sale. Mr Baker would bring boxes of Tulips, Iris, Daffodil and tomatoes down on his horse and cart to load onto the trains..
Mr Rockey, worked on the Tipton Line, joining the railway in 1953 cleaning the engines. In 1955 he progressed to Fireman, stoking the engines fire, he remembers cooking their breakfast of eggs and bacon on his shovel over the fire! They would refill with water from the water tower, but he said that once they caught one of the embankments on fire which didn't go down well with the farmer whose field it spread too!
There was a furnished staionary carriage set back from the station on the coal siding, where people could come and spend their holidays, perfect for the train enthusiasts! In 1955 a week's stay would cost you £9.
Unfortunately the freight and then the passenger services were withdrawn in 1967 with many villagers taking the 'last train'. My parents took this journey and said that there were fog/fire crackers all up the track in celebration of this memorable last trip.
Can you imagine just how popular and scenic the train journey down the Otter Valley and into Harpford Woods would be today, such a tourist attraction.
And also how useful would it be to pop on the train for Sidmouth ....those were the days!
