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Woody Bay, within the Exmoor National Park, is a station on the former Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, a famously scenic narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon. The station was situated inland, about 2km from Woody Bay itself. It opened with the line (as Wooda Bay until the name was changed in 1901) on 7 March 1898, and closed with it after service on 29 September 1935. From 1923 until closure, the line was operated by the Southern Railway.

Woody Bay station was built in part to serve the expected development of a resort at Woody Bay, a mile or so to the north. A pier was built in the bay, although little further development took place, and the pier was destroyed by heavy seas before any trade could be established with passing steamers, and the development was abandoned when the promotor went into liquidation in 1900, and although a route was surveyed for a branch line to the bay, it was never constructed.

Several trees have grown in the intervening years, but these two photos, taken over a hundred years apart, are still recognisably from the same location. The carriage shed built into the cutting beyond the station is a temporary structure erected in 2003. As the line is extended over coming years towards Lynton, Woody Bay station will return to being an interim stop along the line, the shed will move to the next railhead, the inspection pit inside will be filled in, and the trackbed will return to much the same condition it was in when the line closed.

Perchance it "is not dead but sleepeth" - Inspiring the L&B Project

As described by JW Dorling, writing in The Railway Magazine a month after the event, on Monday 30 September 1935, the day after the railway closed, Barnstaple Town stationmaster Harold Ford and Porter Guard Walkey laid a wreath of bronze crysanthemums on the Barnstaple Town Station stop block. Sent by Paymaster Captain Thomas Alfred Woolf, R.N. (Retd.), of Woody Bay.

The wreath bore a black-edged postcard, hand-written on both sides:

TO BARNSTAPLE & LYNTON RAILWAY WITH REGRET & SORROW FROM A CONSTANT USER AND ADMIRER

Perchance it "is not dead but sleepeth"

Captain Woolf died on 12 May 1937, aged 55 and is buried in Martinhoe Churchyard. Each September, at the Woody Bay Steam Gala, a wreath of bronze crysanthemums is carried on the pilot loco, and afterwards, laid on the Captain's grave in remembrance, and as thanks for his inspirational words.

The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Association was founded in 1979, intending to restore the line to its former glory, serving tourists and the local community alike, making the Captain's prophesy a reality.

Headed by the Association (now the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust), a number of groups, and over 1500 volunteers, run The L&B Project, researching, restoring, rebuilding and operating the railway, from its base at Woody Bay station.

Woody Bay station is at: grid reference SS68254641

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Killington Lane		Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (2004-)		Terminus

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Parracombe Halt		Lynton & Barnstaple Railway (1898-1935)		Caffyns Halt