100 British Bus Routes: Route 2
Exeter to Newton Abbot
23 June 2024
ABOVE: Stagecoach South West 15799 (WA61 KMM), a Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400, is seen on the Teignmouth Road, roughly half-way between Dawlish and Teignmouth, working a route 2 service towards Newton Abbot. All photographs in this article were taken on Thursday 2 May 2024.
Runs: Daily
Operator: Stagecoach South West
Weekday daytime frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Peak Vehicle Requirement: Eight buses
Off-peak journey time: 103-111 minutes
Estimated Route length: 27 miles
Operator: Stagecoach South West
Weekday daytime frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Peak Vehicle Requirement: Eight buses
Off-peak journey time: 103-111 minutes
Estimated Route length: 27 miles
Another morning on my Devon holiday, and I'm back at Exeter Bus Station, the gateway to ... well, most of Devon, it seems. After a personal 'incident' involving a bus to Buckfastleigh (nothing serious - just a bit annoying, and one for a future article), I'm boarding the number 2 service to Newton Abbot.
My hopes for this day are mixed. I've already had two setbacks - the one with the Buckfastleigh service, and the fact that it's teeming with rain. Again - this is 9am on Day Three and I've only had one dry day so far!
But you know me, dear Reader. I'm not going to let a little six-hour (and counting) continuous downpour stop me from getting about (I'm exaggerating - I've only been awake for a couple of hours so I don't know exactly when the continuous downpour began)... And I'm going to be in for a treat with this drive...
ABOVE: Stagecoach South West 15902 (WA13 GFJ), a Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400, stands at Exeter Bus Station, awaiting the start of another journey to Newton Abbot
As we make our way out of Exeter, it's not looking promising. There's a man on the phone saying that there has been "widespread" flooding across the region because of the heavy downpours overnight. He mentions a selection of places and routes (not ones that I am familiar with) that are currently blocked or otherwise affected by the weather. Are these going to impact me? (There's also a problem with the railway line to Paignton, incidentally.)
It's a straight-forward drive out from the City Centre to the South East through Heavitree - formerly the first significant village outside the city on the road to London, but now an indistinguishable suburb. A right turn points us in a more southerly direction, and the journey brings us to the Countess Wear Canal Swing and Bascule Bridges, which take the road across the Exeter Canal.
ABOVE: The Countess Wear Canal Swing and Bascule Bridges. I believe the Bascule Bridge is the one on the left, but I could be wrong!
Although it looks like one crossing, it is apparently two separate bridges. The modern swing bridge dates from 1936, being an early example of a steel plate riveted girder bridge. Its strength was tested using 10 steam rollers, weighing 120 tons in total. The bascule bridge (think drawbridge) was built in 1972, parallel to the swing bridge (information source: National Transport Trust).
We've been on main roads since leaving Exeter, but turn to something quieter to enter the village of Exminster, ironically starting down a road called Main Road. Wikipedia tells us that Exminster is an ancient village associated with a Saxon minster or religious community founded here in the eighth century, left by King Alfred the Great to his youngest son Aethelweard in his will of 889. Exminster Marshes, to the east of the village, are a major site for migratory and other birds.
ABOVE: Reddaway Drive, Exminster
It takes a few minutes to reach the heart of the village - nearly 4,400 people live here (2021 Census), so it's large as villages go.
ABOVE: Another Stagecoach South West Enviro400 calls by the Royal Oak in Exminster, which boasts an outdoor play area "with goats and a real tractor"!
Two-and-a-half miles south is Kenton. this village boasts a 14th-century red sandstone church, and an ancient Cornish Cross on its village green. The origins of the cross are unknown, but a local authority, George Pycroft (1819 - 1894), suggested in 1891 that it had ended up in Kenton in the 1880s after being "bought from a Cornish clergyman by the late Earl of Devon who gave him £5 for it" (source: Devon Heritage).
Less than a mile to the north-east is Powderham Castle, used extensively in the Oscar-nominated film "The Remains of the Day" (1993).
ABOVE: Kenton
We've been close to the western bank of the River Exe for a while, but we come right up to the water's edge at the village of Starcross, home to one of the UK's oldest sailing clubs. We're close to the mouth of the river (in fact, Exmouth town is only a mile-and-a-half away, on the opposite bank), and the river will soon spill out into the English Channel.
Here is one of the best examples of a railway line built on a sea wall. The South Devon Railway (SDR) started work on the line from Exeter to Plymouth, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, in time for the section through to Teignmouth in May 1846, and on to Newton Abbot in December the same year. The SDR was later absorbed into the Great Western Railway. Our route 2 bus will be loosely following the route of the railway for the rest of the journey.
ABOVE: Starcross railway station
Just down the road is the former Courtenay Arms public house, a Grade-II listed building that is being converted into flats. A bit of hasty reversing is needed when two buses meet right on the tight junction...
ABOVE: My Stagecoach South West bus (heading for Exeter) has had to make a hasty reverse down New Road in Starcross to enable fellow 15892 (WA13 GDV), a Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400, to get out of The Strand, at the Courtenay Arms Mews.
ABOVE: A quintessential scene of the English countryside, including a thatched cottage, on New Road in Starcross.
ABOVE: One more view from Starcross, looking across the River Exe towards Exmouth Marina
Soon, we come into Dawlish, which grew in the 18th Century from a fishing village into a popular seaside resort, although the earliest settlement at Dawlish was almost a mile away from the coast. The town is located at the outlet of a small river, Dawlish Water.
As part of the "English Riviera", along with Teignmouth and Torbay, Dawlish rarely has snow or frost, and grows outdoor subtropical plants such as palms, olives, bananas and lemons. It certainly looks very pretty in late Spring:
ABOVE: An early evening view of Dawlish as the bus passes Piermont Place in the Town Centre. Dawlish Water (the river) runs through the middle of the town.
Turn around from Piermont Place (as pictured above), and you're only a stone's throw from the seafront, which is dominated by the railway line. In fact, it seems to me that there are few places where you can get more upfront and personal with the trains than you can here...
ABOVE: The railway line runs right along the seafront in Dawlish. Here, a Class 802 Intercity Express Train speeds through the station (to the left out of shot) heading towards Exeter. The time of the photograph (10.03am) is consistent with this being the 0710 Penzance to London Paddington service, but I can't say for sure, especially as there was disruption on the Paignton route at the time. The blurry nature of the picture is due to the amount of rainwater on the upper deck front windscreen of the bus.
As we climb Teignmouth Hill, we get a last look back down into Dawlish Town Centre, where the location of the station right on the sea wall is very obvious indeed.
ABOVE: Dawlish station (centre) is very prominent in this view of the Town Centre from Teignmouth Hill.
Three miles further on is the town of Teignmouth, on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign. Wikipedia says that the town grew rapidly in size from the 1800s, from a fishing port associated with the Newfoundland cod industry to a fashionable resort of some note in Georgian times. There was further expansion after the opening of the SDR in 1846. The port still operates today.
Teignmouth has average daily sunshine totals of over seven hours in summer, although summer thunderstorms can occasionally deposit more than the month's mean rainfall in one day (and it look like today's the day)!
The main roads here bypass the town centre, so buses do a deep dive into its tight town centre streets to serve the key amenities.
ABOVE: Country Bus 333 (YJ65 ETL), an Optare Solo, stands in Wellington Street in Teignmouth Town Centre, awaiting departure on the last trip of the day (1750) on local route 80.
ABOVE: Teignmouth railway station, opened in 1846. The station was rebuilt in 1895, and the canopy and buildings from that rebuild still stand.
ABOVE: The sea front at Teignmouth. The pointed structure is an ice cream kiosk and the distinctive cream-coloured building behind appears to be a private residence. The top of St Michael's Church can be picked out behind.
ABOVE: Teignmouth Pier, built in 1865
We head inland now, with the Teign Estuary on our left. On the far side of the river stands the village of Shaldon, which morphs into the wonderfully-named village of Combeinteignhead.
ABOVE: An unidentified Enviro400 on route 2, photographed west of Teignmouth in inclement conditions.
Our terminus at Newton Abbot is almost in reach, but we have a detour to make first... We have ventured into Kingsteignton, but before heading broadly south to get to Newton Abbot, we're doing a quick run north around the residential streets of this suburb.
An annual Ram Roasting Fair takes place here on the Late Spring Bank Holiday Monday. A drought in the Middle Ages is said to have given rise to the Fair. According to legend there was insufficient water to baptise a child, so a ram was sacrificed to the gods of the local spring. Water sprang forth and a ram has been roasted at the Fair ever since (information from Wikipedia).
The rain had eased slightly but is now back in earnest!
ABOVE: I've included this rain-soaked image as it's the only one I have of Kingsteignton. It shows an attractive residential area - Longford Lane. Of course, it makes perfect sense to send buses through here, even though it's away from what is otherwise a reasonably direct route. Passing through is an ADL Enviro200 on route 7, the direct and far less interesting route between Newton Abbot and Exeter.
I'm not sure where Kingsteignton ends and Sandygate begins, but we call into the latter before looping round by 180 degrees and heading south through the former, passing a large industrial and retail estate before we reach Newton Abbot Racecourse, the most westerly racecourse in England.
And so into Newton Abbot itself, and again I'm not sure where Kingsteignton ends and Newton Abbot begins! This town of an estimated 26,500 people, grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the SDR locomotive works, which later became a major steam engine shed, retained to service British Railways diesel locomotives until 1981. It's now the Brunel Industrial Estate.
The actual terminus of route 2 is in Sherborne Road, in the heart of the town centre, between the shopping precinct and the multi-storey car park for the shopping precinct. It might not be the most picturesque part of the route, but it's a good reminder for motorists of the existence of buses!
ABOVE: Stagecoach South West 15927 (YN63 BWX), a Scania N230UD ADL Enviro400, stands in Sherborne Road, Newton Abbot, at the end of its long journey from Exeter on route 2. Behind it is Country Bus 334 (YJ65 ETO), an Optare Solo, on route 176 to Denbury, a village about three miles to the south west as the crow flies.
And that brings this really delightful ride to a conclusion. Route 2 is a great alternative to the scenic bit of the railway that it parallels. It doesn't get as close to the sea as the trains do, but the trains stay at sea level, whilst the buses can climb the surrounding hills for some amazing views - especially from the top deck.
And, if you're wondering how I managed to get such good pictures (in my opinion) when it was teeming down with rain, most of them were taken when I retraced my steps on route 2 the same evening, from Teignmouth all the way back to Exeter, by which time it was a beautiful sunny day. What I did in between these two trips will be the subject of a future article...