Cornwood railway station was a former railway station located in the village of

Cornwood Cornwood is a village and civil parish in the South Hams in Devon, England. The parish has a population of 988. The village is part of the electoral ward called ''Cornwood'' and Sparkwell. The ward population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2 ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

on the South Devon Main Line between

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

and

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

. It was constructed a few years after the opening of the stretch of line. The station was built at Cornwood by George Hennet. It was opened in 1852 and operated by him on behalf of the South Devon Railway until January 1857 when the railway company took over. Until 1864 it was known as "Cornwood Road". An

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

building on the north side of the single track housed a booking office and waiting room on the ground floor, with accommodation above for the station master. It was situated in a cutting in the between Blatchford and Slade viaducts. The line was doubled from Hemerdon to Cornwood on 16 May 1893 and a

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

was opened at the east end of the station. The double line was extended to Blatchford viaduct on 19 November 1893. This doubling required the construction of a new platform for westbound (down) trains. The station closed for passenger trains on 2 March 1959. A loop line was provided to the east of the platform for up trains which was closed on 26 February 1962; the signal box was kept in use until 26 February 1963. The London bound platform and station building can still be seen from passing trains.

References

Bibliography

* Gregory, Roy. ''The South Devon Railway''. Oakwood Press, 1982. * Jenkins, Stanley C. & Loader, Martin. ''The Great Western Railway Volume Two Bristol to Plymouth''. Amberley Publishing, 2014. * MacDermot, Edward Terence. ''History of the Great Western Railway, Volume 2''. I. Allan, 1964. {{end box Disused railway stations in Devon Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1852 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1959 1852 establishments in England