OFF THE SHELF
The Legendary Lynton & Barnstaple Railway: The Human Story
By Tony Nicholson (softback, Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust, 60pp, £9.95 plus £3 postage from www.lynton-rail.co.uk or from Woody Bay station).
INTEREST in the L&B is booming again, especially as the railway can now offer a complete original train, just like the market-leading Welsh narrow gauge lines, as highlighted in our feature on pages 74-77.
Over the years, many books have served to promote the legend that is the L&B, and this one was first published in 2010. It differs from many of the rest in that it does not set out to be another straight version of the original line’s history, but looks at the lives of people who were involved by it.
So we have characters like benefactor publisher George Newnes, the pivotal figure in the foundation of the line; Benjamin Greene Lake, who provided the land for Woody Bay station; driver Harry Fennell, who made national headlines in 1921 by‘forgetting’his
