The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway seems to be forever in the news with its partial resurrection catching and holding the public imagination.

The line opened in 1898 and was short-lived having a working life of only 37 years with closure and rapid stripping in 1935 but the railway did maintain a stock of purpose designed luggage labels that are clearly based upon the designs of those produced by the LSWR with which it had a strong affiliation. The railway heading line on their labels uses exactly the same typeface as those of the LSWR at the time that the L. & B. R. opened.

This type of label is in exactly the same format as the LSWR's contemporary design. It features a local station, Blackmoor, which makes it a very rare survivor indeed.

This example to Bristol is included for two reasons even though it is the same basic design as that shown above. Its rubber stamped legend 'LYNTON & LYNMOUTH ' is of note but more importantly it states on a separate line that the intended route for the luggage is VIA G.W.R. LOOP which erfers to the line that once linked Barnstaple Junction to the GWR.

The final type illustrated here has the station of origin 'LYNTON' presented in exactly the same manner as would be found on contemporaneous LSWR labels. The paper colour is described in the RPS guide as pink but this example seems to me to be more like a rich brown.

There is a further type of label for which the author has been unable to locate an image. This is described as an excursion label in similar vein to that of the LSWR and is printed on orange paper.

This page was created 22 April 2008