Templecombe Station 40th anniversary of reopening marked

Templecombe is on the line from Exeter St Davids to London Waterloo

An event to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a railway station reopening has been held.

Templecombe Station in Somerset closed in the 1966 Beeching cuts, but locals fought to get the decision reversed.

An exhibition with memorabilia from the 1983 reopening is now on display at the station.

A member of the Blackmoor Vale Community Partnership said the reopening was down to "the hard graft and enthusiasm of the volunteers."

The main station opened in 1860 and served the different generations who grew up in village.

The Beeching cuts - named after Richard Beeching, the former chair of the British Railways Board - saw a series of major routes axed and service changes on the railways as part of the restructuring of the nationalised system.

Across Britain, 2,363 stations were closed through the cuts, including Templecombe.

The station was reopened in 1983 after a campaign by local residents

Ian Matthews said he was "devastated" to see the closure in 1966, adding: "I thought the end of the world was coming."

In 1982, one year before the station reopened, a Templecombe Station Working Committee was formed, with Mr Matthews part of the team.

Gerald Daniels was an area manager for the line in the 1980s.

When the secretary of the station working committee asked to have a special one-off journey on the line, running from Basingstoke to Paignton, Mr Daniels agreed and 270 passengers embarked on the £3 return journey.

Templecombe was closed as part of the Beeching cuts in 1966

He said the journey was "a good catalyst" for the reopening.

"We had faith, positivity and a can-do attitude, which doesn't always make itself public these days. Sure enough, it worked very well", he added.

Derek Beer, from the Blackmoor Vale Community Partnership said: "Local people banded together, they got the station open and now they're making a place that people are really proud to come to.

"It epitomises everything that community rail partnerships are about."

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