Snapper Halt railway station was a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

on the

Lynton and Barnstaple Railway The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) was a single track (rail), single track, narrow gauge railway. It opened in May 1898 and ran for slightly more than through the area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, England. Although it opened afte ...

, a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

line that ran through

Exmoor Exmoor () is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simons ...

from

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

to Lynton and

Lynmouth Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the northern edge of Exmoor. The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn River, West Lyn and East Lyn River, East Lyn rivers, in a gorge directly below the neighbouring town of Lynton, w ...

in North

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 ...

, England. The station served a rural area near the hamlet of Snapper.

History

The hamlet derives its name from the station, which in turn was named after the nearby Inn of the same name. The "Snapper" Inn had long become a private house by the time the railway arrived, and is now known by the name 'Glendale'. It is widely believed that the Inn and the hamlet derived its name from ''La Snappe'', which was first shown recorded here in 1256 and means boggy land, inferior pasture or winter pasture. The halt opened in 1903 at the request of the village of Goodleigh, and closed with the line after the last train on 29 September 1935. Trains stopped here by request, but never after dark. From 1923 until closure, the line was operated by the Southern Railway. After closure, one of the coaches - 6991 - was placed on a short length of track at Snapper halt, and used as a summer house. It was truncated in the 1950s and was eventually burned in the mid-1960s. Some remains of the metalwork was recovered in February 2011 and is waiting reinstatement on a heritage coach of the same layout. Another coach - 6993 - was left further along the track. In 1959 this was removed by the newly resurrected

Festiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway () is a heritage railway based on Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia#Snowdonia National Park, Snowdonia National Park. The ...

and has now run more miles as Buffet Car 14 in Wales than it ever did in Devon.

Present day

In December 2010, Exmoor Associates (EA) - a private company dedicated to securing L&B trackbed for eventual use by the revived railway - completed the purchase of Snapper Halt and of the original trackbed, including bridge 15 - a cattle creep - which is still in situ. The station building - a simple concrete shelter - still stands and was fitted with a new tiled roof by EA Volunteers in February 2011, replacing the rusted

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

roof that had been in place for many years. At the same time as the roof was replaced, the platform and trackbed were cleared of undergrowth to improve access for maintenance and management.L&BR Trust News Item
''(retrieved 28 February 2011)''

Notes

Sources

* * * * * Former Lynton and Barnstaple Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1903 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1935 Disused railway stations in Devon {{SouthWestEngland-railstation-stub