OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
Plus parts of the South Hams and West Devon
www.oldplymouth.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: May 22, 2018
Webpage updated: January 29, 2022

        

RAILWAYS IN OLD PLYMOUTH  |  LAUNCESTON BRANCH
BRANCH LINE, PLYMOUTH STATION (MILLBAY) TO LAUNCESTON STATION

MARY TAVY AND BLACKDOWN HALT

Marytavy Station (sic), at 16 miles 23 chains mile post mileage from Tavistock Junction, was opened by the Launceston and South Devon Railway Company on July 1st 1865.

Between 1876 and 1890 the Station was also used by the trains of the London and South Western Railway Company on their way from Lydford Station to Plymouth.  During that period Marytavy Signal Box was in use.

When Marytavy Signal Box was closed in 1894 the line through the Station was singled.

On May 1st 1907 the Station was renamed Marytavy and Blackdown Station.

According to the Great Western Railway Company's official "Traffic Dealt with at Stations and Depots", published circa 1936, in the calendar year 1903 Mary Tavy and Blackdown Halt issued 9,037 railway tickets, dealt with 29 parcels parcels and took in total income £707.  During the calendar year 1913 Mary Tavy and Blackdown Station issued 11,433 railway tickets, dealt with 38 parcels and took in receipts of £2,243.  A decade later, during the calendar year 1923, the results were: 9,098 railway tickets plus 30 season tickets issued, 57 parcels handled and but a reduced total income of £1,408.  Business dropped even further during the calendar year 1929, when Mary Tavy and Blackdown Station issued only 4,379 railway tickets plus 24 season tickets, handled only 36 parcels and managed a total income of only £491. 

The Station was closed to goods traffic and became an unstaffed Halt on and as from August 11th 1941.

On Weekdays and Sundays, 'where train service permits', commencing on May 1st 1953, the following cheap day return tickets, first and third class, were available from Mary Tavy and Blackdown Halt to: Devonport Albert Road, 7 shillings (s) 1st, 4 shillings (s) 9 pence (d) 3rd; Keyham, 7s 6d 1st, 5s 3rd; Plymouth North Road Station, 6s 9d 1st, 4s 6d 3rd; Saint Budeaux Ferry Road, 7s 9d 1st, 5s 3d 3rd; Saltash, 8s 1st, 5s 3d 3rd; and Tavistock South, 1s 5d 1st, 11d, 3rd.

Mary Tavy and Blackdown Halt was closed to passenger traffic on and as from December 31st 1962, when the Launceston Branch closed.