Interesting Places

Until 1967 there was a railway line from what is now Feniton Station to Sidmouth. One of the lines axed by the ‘infamous’ Dr Beeching in his modernisation of the railways plans all traces of the railway itself have long since gone but the track bed remains and forms a walking and cycling route. The stretch of the line from where it emerges from Harpford Wood and runs west, and then north, towards Tipton St John I have called the Harpford Trailway to distinguish it for the purposes of surveying in the Sidmouth Nature project from the stretch that runs through the woodland as it is very different in nature. The route starts towards Harpford passing agricultural land on the right and a horse stables on the left. After passing under a bridge the area becomes more wooded for a while and has conifer plantation to the left but then it emerges into agricultural pasture for the remainder of the walk to Tipton. The vegetation is lush and quite typical of enriched soils with cock’s- foot, docks, ...