Well, let’s see.. There are some strange things in the history of Dartmouth and I will see if I can list some of them here :-
Dartmouth Railway Station.
Dartmouth station is probably the only railway station in the world that never had a train arrive at it.
When the railway came to Dartmouth around 1860, the plan was to bring it out of a tunnel at Greenway, then cross the river and drop gently to Dartmouth. As a result, early in the construction, the station building was built ready to accept the tracks as they were laid from Paignton. Unfortunately, the local ship owners and the Navy objected to the bridge across the river saying that there may not be sufficient room for the masts of their ships to pass underneath.
After many months of wrangling, the Navy won which left the railway in a bit of a quandary. They had a station but no way to access it.
Their decision was to bring the railway down on the Kingswear side of the river and build the station there, and link Kingswear station to Dartmouth station by ferry across the river.
This was completed and two ferry pontoons were built, one either side of the river.
Dartmouth station was, however, a fully working station. You could buy railway tickets to it from anywhere in the country and you could buy tickets from Dartmouth station to anywhere in the country, but ultimately it still remains as the only railway station that never had trains running into it.
The station building still exists, but is now the Station Restaurant. You can see the current restaurant in the live web cam feed from the Royal Castle Hotel on the About Dartmouth Page.
More to follow as I research further into the History of this wonderful town.
Graham