PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Plymouth Millbay Station was located between Plymouth North Road and Devonport Albert Road Stations on the Great Western Railway main line. It was adjacent to Millbay Road. The site is now occupied by the Plymouth Pavilions. The Station was built by the South Devon Railway as the terminus of their main line from Totnes and opened on Monday April 2nd 1849. Goods facilities were provided from Tuesday May 1st 1849. Tickets were not checked at the main Station. Trains arriving from Totnes were required to halt at a ticket platform just before entering the main Station. This was in use from 1851 until 1896. Arrivals and departures at Plymouth
Station, August 1852.......... On Wednesday May 4th 1859 the Cornwall Railway was opened from Millbay Station to Truro and soon after, from Wednesday June 22nd 1859, the services to and from the South Devon & Tavistock Railway were added. In May 1874 the local press said: 'There is no greater libel on Plymouth than Plymouth Station as it at present stands. It is, however, reassuring to know that a speedy improvement is in contemplation. Before that takes place, for the sake of the Town, it is fervently to be hoped that the traveller will arrive when it is dark, or that he will be too tired to look around before he is whirled off.' On Wednesday May 17th 1876 a direct link between the South Devon Railway and the Cornwall Railway was opened, avoiding the need to run trains into Millbay. From Wednesday March 28th 1877 it was renamed Plymouth Millbay Station in consequence of the opening of North Road Station jointly by the Great Western and London & South Western Railways. Millbay Station had two main problems: the platforms were too short because the old broad-gauge trains were short; and the overall roof made the station dark and retained the smoke and steam under its canopy. In 1898 work started on installing a new roof supported by light steel-framed supports to afford shelter at the outer end of the new platforms and to the area served by the cabs and horse omnibuses. A whole new range of stone-built waiting rooms and public conveniences was erected on the arrivals platform. In 1908 the Great Western Railway took over the 50 local delivery horses and their stables near Millbay Station that had previously been operated by their carting agents. Read statistics relating to ticket sales at Millbay Station............ During the wartime bombing in April 1941 the goods shed adjacent to the Station was destroyed. As a result Millbay Station was closed to passengers from Wednesday April 23rd 1941 and the platform lines were used solely for loading goods traffic. Empty stock was still stabled in the sidings near the Station, however, but trains that were terminating at Plymouth now finished their journey at North Road Station. Incidentally, it was during one of these raids that the GWR lost 32 of their delivery horses when the stables in Station Road were destroyed by fire. Although the goods shed was rebuilt after the end of the War, Millbay never reopened for passenger traffic. A sad event that no member of the public turned out to witness was the closure of the old Great Western Railway's stables under the arches in Station Road. On Saturday September 8th 1951 a 12-years-old gelding by the name of "Punch" was the last of the then 5 remaining horses to go out on a delivery round. They were replaced the following week by motor vehicles. The foreman stableman for the last 18 years had been a Mr Warne, who became a goods checker at Millbay Station. From Tuesday September 29th 1959 Millbay Station's four platforms were removed and additional sidings were installed empty stock. Trains were formed here before proceeding up the incline to North Road to start their services. This function slowly replaced goods traffic. Plymouth Millbay Station was closed to goods traffic from Monday June 20th 1966. Three years later, on Monday October 6th 1969, the carriage sidings were closed and the traffic diverted to Laira. All the track was removed by Sunday December 14th 1969 and finally on Wednesday June 30th 1971 the remaining line from North Road to Millbay Docks was closed.
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