Knocking on Devon's Door
12 May 2024
ABOVE: Dartline Coaches 1224 (MX61 BBZ), a Wright StreetLite WF, passes through High Street, Dulverton, at the end of a journey from Tiverton. All photos in this article were taken on Tuesday 30 April 2024, except where stated.
Train strikes have forced a late change of plan. I had been due to head “up north” for the Early May Bank Holiday weekend, but the strikes put an end to that idea. So a swift bit of last-minute re-planning has set me off in a completely different direction... to Devon.
But first, I need to get there. You know me by now, dear reader. You know I’m not just going to get a train straight to Exeter (where I’m staying) if I can find something more bus-orientated to cover part of the journey!
So here I am outside Taunton Station, in Somerset, waiting for the number 25 to Dulverton. I was only in Taunton (the town rather than the station) a month ago, looking at Buses of Somerset route 28 to Minehead (Butlin's); I didn’t expect to be back here so quickly.
The area outside the station has been redeveloped since I was last trying to catch a bus here (in 2019). There’s now a proper waiting area, which must be helpful when the hoards descend on Butlin’s changeover days. There’s only one bus stop, as is confirmed by the poster showing bus stopping information, but there are two flags for it, which doesn’t quite make sense. The flags are close together, so I decide to wait between them, on the basis that I should be able to get to wherever my bus decides to stop when it comes.
ABOVE: Two bus stop flags can be found outside the southern entrance of Taunton Railway station, even though it is officially one stop. The "buses of Somerset" flag in the foreground is accompanied by a standard flag a bus length or so behind it. The middle of the three posters confirms that there is only one stop here, with the other one, S2, being on the other side of the railway line. The poster does not reflect the recent launch of the new X28 service.
Today is not a Butlin's changeover day, though, so there’s complete calm for the two of us who are waiting here for buses. Even the station itself is a haven of calm, apart from when a Great Western Railway train, commemorating last year’s Coronation, passes through.
ABOVE: With Coronation commemorations, 802 103, the Flying Carolean, is a class 802 Hitachi bi-mode Intercity Express Train. It is awaiting departure at Taunton station with the 0815 Penzance to London Paddington service (1142 from here).
There are four services a day on route 25 that go through to Dulverton (plus a couple of short working bifurcations to Langley Corner, near Wiveliscombe. (Curiously there is also an additional early morning departure from Dulverton, at 0650, that makes for a fifth service in that direction only.)
I'm heading to Dulverton because... Well because I can for a start, and because there is a good connection into a service to Tiverton. There is a direct bus from Taunton to Tiverton, the X22, but this looks more interesting. The main issue is that, if the connection doesn't appear, I'm at risk of being stuck in Dulverton for several hours.
The other issue is that the morning sunshine that has carried me from London to Taunton has now given way to heavy rain, which continues for the rest of this journey. I attempt some photos in transit, but most of them turn out to be unusable.
The first bus through Taunton station is the new X28 to Minehead Butlin’s. I wrote about this in my route 28 article - it's an Express service that cuts out some of the fiddly bits that the 28 serves, and therefore links to Butlin’s faster. The penalty for this new service is that the main 28 has been reduced from a 30-minute headway to a less-convenient 45-minute headway. Still, doesn’t matter unless you are heading for somewhere insignificant like Bishops Lydeard, where the West Somerset Railway begins, the town of Watchet, or Minehead Town Centre, three major traffic objectives that the X28 bypasses!
ABOVE: First Buses of Somerset 67704 (SN60 EAF) is an ADL/TransBus Enviro300. It is passing Taunton station on route X28 to Butlin's Minehead.
There are only a handful of passengers already on the X28, and no takers here.
A couple of minutes later the 25 and an 'ordinary' 28 arrive together, and share the queue. So the only passenger for the Minehead route could not use the new Express version - interesting...
The 25, a Buses of Somerset service has arrived at 1157, five minutes later than scheduled, with two passengers already on board and a 'spare' driver who is presumably route learning. Today we have a Wright StreetLite DF with not-quite adequate legroom (although, with three passengers in total, I can stretch out a bit).
The 28 dives under the low bridge at Taunton station, but I have seen double-deckers on the 25 so I know that we will be taking an alternative route out of town, even though we're starting in the same general direction. Sure enough, we head out to the west, staying south of the railway line to serve an industrial area of town. After we cross the railway, half-a-mile west of Taunton station, we serve important residential areas to the north of the town - albeit without finding any customers on this occasion.
We call into the village of Cotford St Luke. The experienced driver reports that this area gets "completely jammed" at school times. The other two passengers leave here - they are school age, incidentally, not senior citizens as might often be expected on this kind of middle-of-the-day country service. I am the only passenger for the rest of the way.
And the rest of the way is very countrified. One point I don't appreciate until after the event is that, although both origin and destination are in Somerset, this bus does nip into Devon en route. We cross the border between the villages of Waterrow and Petton and stay in Devon for the best part of eight miles.
The only intermediate town on the route is that of Bampton (Devon). Bampton has over 70 listed buildings, including the Grade-I listed church of St Michael and All Angels. The English Civil War reached Bampton in 1645, when Royalists from Tiverton Castle burnt the town, such that few buildings earlier than the 17th century now survive. There are some hanging baskets on some pretty tight roads in this town, mainly at first floor height; the drivers acknowledge that the double-decker buses sometimes used on this route may have hastened the demise of some of the said baskets...
We cross back into Somerset, somewhere near the village of Exebridge. This lies at the confluence of the Barle and Exe rivers, and the bridge over the River Exe gives the name to the village as well as marking the boundary between Devon and Somerset. So, after around, say, 20 minutes in Devon, I have left again!
We reach Dulverton a few minutes behind schedule, at around 1315. It's felt like it ought to have been a lovely route, although through the rain-soaked windows it's been hard to be sure! I may be the only person in, but the return journey leaves a few minutes later with several passengers.
ABOVE: First Buses of Somerset 47535 (MK63 XAM), a Wright StreetLite DF, passes through High Street, Dulverton, on its return journey to Taunton.
The town of Dulverton lies in the deep, wooded valley of the River Barle, at an ancient route convergence and river crossing. The river and the Barle Valley are both designated as biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Dulverton is a popular tourist destination for exploring the Exmoor National Park, and is home to the Headquarters of the Exmoor National Park Authority.
For me, a quick wander round uncovers a pretty town, starting with the Church of All Saints, a 19th century church on the foundations of a much older building. The tower survives from the 15th Century, and a church was recorded on the site by 1155, when it was squired by the Augustinians of Taunton Priory.
ABOVE: The church of All Saints, Dulverton.
There are two road routes through the town, and the point at which they diverge is very tight - especially for larger vehicles...
ABOVE: The Dulverton Pharmacy marks the dividing line between the two main routes through the town, with Fore Street to the left and High Street, where the 25 and 398 go, on the right.
ABOVE: Spin round from the Pharmacy for a hint of Exmoor.
There's a puzzle for me at the bus stop. Alongside the clear and tidy times for the 25 and my next bus, the 398, there are rather tattier timetables for route 198 to/from Minehead (including school service 467). I find myself wondering whether these routes exist, as I've not uncovered any sign of them hitherto, especially at the Minehead end, which seems to be a very difficult place to get out of by bus, unless you use the 28 or X28. I've since checked and these services do still run (the 198 sounds interesting as well)! We could do with a new copy of the timetable in the stop here, though.
ABOVE: The tatty timetable for routes 198 & 467, in the High Street stop in Dulverton. Half of the lower panel has been covered up by the 398 panel.
I'm now heading for Tiverton on the 398 service, operated by Dartline Coaches, a new operator for me. The bus is due out at 1359 and if, for any reason, it doesn't show, I am going to be stuck here for a couple of hours.
I don't need to worry. The incoming service passes through a few minutes before (terminus is at the far end of the town). Although the arrival of an incoming service does not always guarantee that it will come out again (see ARG Travel in Neilston for example), this one turns up exactly on time.
This is a Wright StreetLite WF - quite an unusual vehicle for my travels. I don't know how many WFs have been built compared to DFs, but I have no record of having travelled on one personally in the last four years, and I don't see very many around. (If you're wondering what the difference is, the WF version is more of a midibus with the "wheel forward" of the front door, whilst the DF version - far more plentiful and more of a full-size bus - is "door forward" of the wheel.)
There's already one passenger on board, and one more joins alongside me. A few minutes out from Dulverton, we pass a building that looks like a railway station, and indeed it is / was. Dulverton station wasn't actually in Dulverton, but two miles south in the village of Brushford, with a bus link provided to the town. The line, which ran from Taunton to Barnstaple, closed in 1966.
We broadly follow the same route back towards Bampton as I came in on on the 25, but we deviate onto a very narrow road that is marked as an "alternate route for light cars". I'm not sure what distinguishes a "light car" from a heavier one, but I'm pretty certain that we're at the bulkier end of the spectrum here!
The use of this road means that we're able to access Bampton (I'm back in Devon now) by a slightly more direct route than the 25 follows, using the High Street which has a height restriction of 11' 6" due to "building overhang headroom". But never mind the headroom, has anyone measured the width?!
ABOVE: The very narrow High Street in Bampton, which my 398 was just able to squeeze down. Thank goodness we didn't meet any vehicles coming the other way!
It's raining again so photography opportunities are limited. It's pretty countryside, though.
We reach Tiverton bus station right on time, at 1435. I'm now going to push straight on to Exeter. Although there are a number of routes from here, the most straight-forward appears to be the 55. (I want "straight-forward" at this point - my hotel room will be available at 1500 and I want to get rid of the case I have been dragging around all day and get out again!)
There are a number of people hanging around, and some are moaning about a 'missing' bus service. Not mine, I hope...
A single-decker pulls in, labelled "355 Exeter", and four or five passengers shuffle forward to an exclamation of "at last"! I decide to take this, a modern ADL Enviro200 MMC from Stagecoach South West, as it's the only Exeter-bound bus in evidence.
It turns out that I am on the 1425 departure on this irregular service (eight trips from Tiverton to Exeter each day and seven back). It's 1442 as we pull out with about six passengers on board. I'm the last one to board and I have to find a seat quickly, as we're reversing off the stand as soon as I have boarded and paid.
The 355 follows a very similar route to the (half-hourly) 55 that I was after, but with a couple of deviations to serve villages that the 55 does not. Works for me - I get to see more of the area!
We come to a rather lovely-looking pub, the Fisherman's Cot in Bickleigh, adjacent to the single-file Bickleigh Bridge across the River Exe:
ABOVE: The Fisherman's Cot, photographed on Saturday 4 May 2024.
(Looks like I have missed the Devon Railway Centre, somewhere round here, which looks interesting - maybe next time...)
We take a 2.5 mile double-run to the village of Thorverton, which is almost centrally-located in a rhomboid between Exeter (south), Tiverton (north), Cullompton (north-east) and Crediton (south-west). The deviation is worth doing, as a passenger alights here and we gain a new one in their place.
ABOVE: Just south of the village of Stoke Canon, buses cross the River Culm at Stoke Hill. This view was photographed on Saturday 4 May 2024.
We arrive into Exeter bus station at 1535, about eight minutes late. This has never been a busy journey, despite the time of day. I think I'm the only one who has come all the way through from Tiverton. People clearly prefer the more direct service, even if, in this case, it wasn't visible when this one was ready to go. (A good sign of the reliability of buses here? People are confident to wait.)
ABOVE: My arrival into Exeter was courtesy of this Stagecoach South West ADL Enviro200 MMC, 37442 (SN16 OSP), seen standing in Exeter bus station.
So I have made it to Exeter - my first tentative steps into Devon. Time now to start researching in earnest how the buses function in these parts. I'll share my reflections, of course, in the weeks to come...
ABOVE: A view of Exeter bus station shows nine buses in place, all belonging to Stagecoach South West. On the left is 10693 (SN66 VVD), an ADL Enviro400 MMC on route 55 to Tiverton. Next to that is my bus from Tiverton, 37442 (SN16 OSP), as pictured above. Then 15893 (WA13 GDX) and 15800 (WA61 KZL), which are both Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400s, and, on route 1A to Cullompton, 10694 (SN66 VVE), another ADL Enviro400 MMC. Further on we have an Enviro200 MMC on route 44 to Honiton, an Enviro400 on route 57 to Exmouth, what looks like an Enviro300, and an Enviro200 on local route A to finish the line.
The approximate route of this journey has been as follows:
