ON SATURDAY, October 1, 1966, the 6.30pm down train from Okehampton rolled into Bude station carrying a headboard with the message ‘1898 — 1966 Okehampton to Bude. Last Day’, so, after 68 years of train services, Bude was cut off from the national network, since when efforts have, and are still being made, to reconnect the town, writes Christine Williams.

Meanwhile, thanks to the efforts of the Bude and Stratton town council’s heritage and culture committee a new exhibition room of railway memorabilia has been created in Bude Castle on the first floor near the café.

At a reception in the Willoughby Room on the evening of Wednesday, May 23, the castle manager Mark Berridge explained to guests how the committee had succeeded in securing a ‘Ready to Borrow’ grant from Arts Council England, enabling them to develop space in the castle as a temporary exhibition room, fit to allow them to borrow from national museums. New showcases were purchased and the room’s security increased. A programme of exhibitions, changing approximately every eighteen months, was now being planned, thereby enhancing the visitor experience and, it is hoped, increasing overall visitor numbers. After much discussion with councillors and the archive team it was decided that Bude’s much loved railway was the obvious choice for the first exhibition.

It recalls the forgotten stations between Bude and Okehampton and features a collection of railway memorabilia belonging to the late Claude Daniel, a former guard who worked at Bude station from 1953 to its close in 1966. Other items have been borrowed from the Arthur Westlake Museum at Okehampton station and a private collector. To make the exhibition more accessible, especially to the visually impaired, a ‘discovery pen’ has been introduced which has recordings of aspects of the exhibition.

Exhibits range from a poster declaring ‘The Railway Comes to Bude’ with a timetable and fares to a letter from MP John Pardoe confirming the closure of the line and tickets issued on the last day. On one wall are colourful posters advertising the delights of ‘Bracing Bude’. In one of the three showcases is a plate with a railway map to celebrate the arrival of trains as well as keys, uniform buttons, badges and old tickets. In another are lamps, a tapper bell and a station master’s bag. In a third is a BR book of the rules and regulations, which governed railway workers and an illustrated booklet to celebrate the opening of the line with an advert for the Granville Hotel. There is a model of Bude station and a video of a diesel unit making its way along the line to Okehampton. On display in the Willoughby room are the original plans for Bude station, the signal box, engine and goods sheds, and the tank house to supply water to the engines.

With many new exhibits never seen before, the new ‘Railway Room’ offers visitors plenty of opportunities for nostalgia and insight into days long past. Thanks were expressed to the archive volunteers for cataloguing the collection and especially to Janine King, Bude Castle development officer, for the many hours she has spent putting the exhibition together and organising the cabinets.