A couple of the scout’s recent rides have started and, or, finished at what today is called Tiverton Parkway.
Sampford Peverell was one of the six stations between Taunton and Exeter where the line was quadrupled. Platform loops were installed here in 1932 as part of the Great Western Railway’s (the real G.W.R., not the fake brand) improvement works funded by interest free government loans under the Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act, 1929.
With the exception of Tiverton Junction, most of the work between Taunton and Exeter was undone just over thirty years later. Sampford Peverell closed in 1964 and reopened as Tiverton Parkway in 1986, with a catchment extending to the tip of the peninsula.
It has to be said that Network Rail’s upgrading ambitions are somewhat less than those held at Christow.
At right is a memo addressed to Mr. Ellis at the former Sampford Peverell. It is a reminder of how much more once went on at country stations.