Alighting at Yeoford today, it’s hard to conceive that “Yeoford Junction” was once
a railway station of some significance, whose booking office even as late as 1928
was still issuing close to 13,000 tickets a year. Built a stone’s throw from the
confluence of the rivers Troney and Yeo, the latter stream passes directly beneath
the platforms.
In earlier times the station featured, across from the existing platform, a central
island platform with a refreshments room catering to the needs of passengers transferring
between the North Devon line and the track which still provides access to Okehampton’s
Meldon Quarry and which, until 50 years ago, extended to Tavistock, Plymouth, and
the remote villages of west Devon and north Cornwall. (The actual point at which
these tracks diverge lies a mile further down the line by the hamlet of Penstone,
once the location of the “Coleford Junction” signal box.)
Evidence of steps leading up to the road bridge from Yeoford’s platforms can still
be seen on the east side of the bridge parapet. Cattle pens, numerous sidings and
a five-tonne crane once testified to the station’s importance.