The Tamar Valley Branch Railway
From Plymouth to Calstock and Gunnislake in East Cornwall
After a brief circuit around Devonport Dockyard and under IK Brunel’s Royal Albert rail bridge, the line crosses a long, low viaduct to the peaceful farming countryside of the Bere peninsula, across to the Cornish bank of the River Tamar on the majestic Calstock viaduct and on to the end of the modern line at Gunnislake.
Landscapes to Inspire Artists
Protected to the south by the Tamar and Tavy rivers, this area has retained much of the original beauty that inspired JMW Turner’s painting Crossing the Brook in 1814; and nature has long since hidden the devastation brought by mining and industry later in the nineteenth century. Now, recently restored stone-built chimneys and other remnants of its industrial past merge with fields and woodlands to make a fascinating cultural and natural landscape.
In 1995 the Tamar Valley was declared one of Britain’s 40 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, recognizing not only the scenery of one of the last unspoilt drowned river valleys in England but also its wide range of wildlife habitats, home to a number of rare and endangered species.
World Heritage Site
In 2006 UNESCO inscribed the area as part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site, the 24th WHS to be declared in the UK. The inscription recognizes the area’s history of industrialisation and advances in mining and engineering technologies during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The branch railway line was completed in 1907 as part of a more extensive network. From Gunnislake services continued to Callington in north Cornwall, and from Bere Alston the line passed through Tavistock and on to London as an alternative to the south coast route. The lines beyond Gunnislake and Bere Alston were closed 40 years ago, but as a promising sign for the future, early in 2008 the Devon County Council approved a plan to rebuild the track from Bere Alston to Tavistock.
Tamar Valley Discovery Trail
Bere Ferrers is the first station on the line to connect with the Tamar Valley Discovery Trail, part of a network of footpaths, which runs 30 miles north from Plymouth to Launceston. Visitors commonly mix train rides and hikes between stations as an ideal way of exploring the area.
Originally a Saxon settlement, Calstock served as a river port and transhipment point during the industrial and mining boom 150 years ago. Now surrounded by commercial fruit orchards and nurseries, ferries still run regular river cruises from Plymouth. The elegant 12-arch viaduct, an early example of construction using pre-formed concrete, still dominates the town.
Great Houses of Cornwall
A mile downstream a footpath leads to Cotehele, one of the great Cornish houses now owned by the National Trust, with its well-restored river quay, watermill, estate workshops, terraced gardens and woodland walks. The main buildings and their furniture, tapestries and armour remain as they were when the house was completed early in the 16th century.
A restored Tamar sailing barge, the 57-foot Shamrock built in 1899, is moored alongside a branch of the National Maritime Museum that celebrates the past economic importance of this seemingly remote corner of Cornwall.
Heading upriver the Discovery Trail follows narrow lanes and a leafy, riverside bridleway to Gunnislake. This unassuming village owed its early growth to the single-carriage stone bridge that was the lowest road crossing of the Tamar until the modern suspension bridge was built at Saltash in 1964. In the mid-nineteenth century it became the improbable centre of the richest copper mining area in Europe, a history nicely recalled by the life-size sculpture of a miner on a bench beside the Buccaneer pub.
Cornwall Day Ranger
As with Cornwall’s four other branch railways the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership promotes the line and has helped to attract funds to restore and enhance local facilities. First Great Western’s Cornwall Day Ranger is good for off-peak train travel, at £10. The Tamar Valley Line Ranger, £5.40, allows unlimited travel on the line for a day. Ride Cornwall tickets combine train and bus travel. Sunday Rover tickets at £6 allow unlimited travel throughout the Dartmoor train and bus network.
Along with the many available leaflets about walks, businesses, accommodation and local artists and craftsmen, a copy of the Ordnance Survey’s Explorer Series map number 108 is an indispensable guide for walkers.
The Calstock viaduct and the ferry from Plymouth
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The bridleway beside the river near Gunnislake
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The chimney of the Okeltor copper and tin mine
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A family sailing boat cruises downriver
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Sculpture of a miner in Gunnislake
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