Harpford Trailway

Walk through the countryside of East Devon and you are walking through layers of history. Every footpath, sunken lane, and overgrown track tells a story, hinting at a forgotten past embedded deep within the landscape. The former Sidmouth Railway is a perfect example. What was once a bustling artery of the industrial age, carrying passengers and goods to the coast, has long since fallen silent. In its place, nature has performed a quiet miracle, reclaiming the abandoned corridor and transforming it into a secret green highway for wildlife, winding its way through the fields and woods near Tipton St John.

The Sidmouth Railway was a single-track branch line built with one primary purpose: to connect the popular resort town of Sidmouth to the main line network. It opened to the public on July 6, 1874, serving the communities of the Sid Valley for nearly a century. As motor transport grew, its use declined, and the line fully closed by May 8, 1967. The village of Tipton St John was home to a key station on the route, serving as an important junction where the line forked towards Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton.

While the iron tracks were lifted decades ago, the railway’s ghost lives on. Its carefully engineered route remains a distinct feature carved into the landscape—a clear line of cuttings and embankments that trace its path from Feniton (once known as Sidmouth Junction), through Ottery St Mary and Tipton St John, on its final leg to Sidmouth. Some physical remnants of this steam-powered past still exist. Most notably, the old station building at Tipton St John survives today, having been converted into a private residence—a quiet monument to a busier time.

Across the country, abandoned railway lines have a second life. They are transformed into uniquely valuable wildlife corridors, and the old Sidmouth line is no exception. Its route now hosts a mosaic of different habitats, side by side. The structure of a railway, with its steep embankments and sheltered cuttings, creates a variety of environmental conditions that support an incredible diversity of plant life. In fact, trees were often encouraged on embankments during the railway's operational years to help stabilize the slopes, giving the woodland a head start.

Over the decades, three primary habitat types have developed along the former line:

• Grassland: Where the sun beats down on the old trackbed, the stony ballast has given way to a riot of colour. These open, sunny stretches now host wildflower-rich grasslands that hum with life on a summer's day. Ecologists often classify these as false oat-grass communities, known as Arrhenatheretum, which are known to commonly colonize former railway land.

• Scrub: Bramble (Rubus fruticosus) is a typical early colonizer of disused ground. While often overlooked, these dense thickets of scrub are an invaluable resource for wildlife, providing excellent food in the form of blackberries and safe shelter for birds and small mammals.

Woodland: Given enough time, nature will always move towards woodland. In the half-century since its closure, sections of the line have seen secondary woodland naturally develop. Here in East Devon, this is typically a mix of native broadleaf trees, but may also feature conifers, much like the mix of broadleaf trees and Douglas fir found in other local woodlands like Core Hill Wood.

These newly formed habitats have been colonized by a wonderful array of plants and animals. The well-drained, sunny conditions of the old ballast are perfect for certain species, none more so than the iconic flower of the railways.

Chamerion angustifolium (Rosebay Willowherb) is clearly the 'railway species' par excellence.

Other plants that thrive in these conditions include the delicate winter annuals Common Whitlowgrass (Erophila verna) and Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), which are able to complete their entire life cycle before the summer heat arrives.

This rich tapestry of plant life provides the foundation for a thriving animal community, particularly insects and other invertebrates. In the sunny grasslands, the Common Carder Bee can be seen buzzing among the flowers, gathering nectar. If you turn over a rotting log in the shadier, wooded sections, you are likely to disturb the resident woodlice and millipedes—nature’s essential clean-up crew—scuttling for cover in the damp earth.

The story of the old Sidmouth Railway is a powerful reminder of nature’s resilience. An industrial artery, once defined by the shriek of steam whistles and the clatter of iron on iron, has been utterly transformed. The only timetables that matter here now are the seasonal rhythms of blooming flowers and migrating birds. This corridor has been repurposed not by planners or engineers, but by the quiet, persistent work of seeds, roots, and the countless creatures that now call it home. It stands as a testament to the wildness that lies just beneath the surface of our managed landscapes.