Station Name: PADSTOW[Source: Martin James]
old42.jpg)
With reference to two 1930s images taken at Dennis Hill, just south of Padstow, one makes mention of a footpath crossing the line close to an underbridge. The above view shows the crossing and the gate on the down side of line. Padstow is to the right, with Little Petherick Creek bridge and Wadebridge to the left. The Camel is behind the camera and the land beyond the gates is today Dennis Cove Campsite. The gate in the background bears a wooden plate with the name 'Riverside' (visible on the original image) and maps suggest this was a private house. The nearest gate bears a cast metal plate with the abrupt message 'Shut This Gate'. Why there was two gates is unclear but we can assume they simply marked property boundaries with the strip in between being common land. In comparison with when the line opened, the track ballast is now the more familiar crushed stone type and perhaps granite. Note the track is fitted with check rails at the crossing; this may seem pointless at a non-boarded crossing but would allow ballast to be raised to rail level without the nuisance of stones finding their way onto the railhead or damaging wheel flanges. No doubt this was a *Board of Trade requirement. Dennis Cove Campsite is today reached vehicularly via Dennis Lane or on foot via the Camel Trail, ie the old railway, while the footpath runs southwards alongside the river but to where it led in the 1930s, if different from today, is not known. *The Board of Trade was the government body which embraced the Railway Inspectorate and was, in respect of railways, the forerunner of the Ministry of Transport, today's Department for Transport. The Board's full original title was 'The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations' and was formally shortened, for obvious reasons, to 'Board of Trade' in 1861.
Photo from Malc McCarthy collection
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