Catalogue description Minehead Railway Company

This railway was first proposed as the Watchet and Minehead Railway but the former part of the name was dropped when the company was incorporated in the Minehead Railway Act 1865. These authorising powers were allowed to lapse and therefore practically the same promoters were forced to re-incorporate the company by the Minehead Act 1871.

The authorised line ran from a junction with the West Somerset Railway at Watchet (in the parish of St Decumans) to Minehead, it was eight miles and one furlong in length and opened on 16 July 1874. It was leased, from opening, to the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company, the Great Western Railway (GWR) carried on the leasing arrangement until the Minehead Railway Company was absorbed by the GWR under the powers of the Great Western Railway (Additional Powers) Act 1897.

The Minehead Railway was closed by British Railways on 4th January 1971 and was reopened as a private railway by the West Somerset Railway Company Ltd on 28th March 1976. (NB This West Somerset Railway Company should not be confused with the West Somerset Railway mentioned in the above paragraph.)