'Devon is ready for the official start of the tourist season'

The rail line has been shut for 14 months and had support from Government and members of the public to keep going - raising £293,000. A charity beard shave event, to raise further funds for the railway is planned for tomorrow (more details below).

It comes as the Devon Association of Tourist Attractions says its members are in 'rude health and ready to go again' for the truncated 2021 season.

All of Devon’s indoor attractions will be able to re-open for the first time and those attractions who were already partially open can fully re-open their indoor facilities too.

Indoor soft-play areas, rides within buildings, exhibitions, and museums, plus anything else housed indoors will be re-opening. And the lifting of indoor hospitality restrictions also means that attractions will be able to re-open their cafes and restaurant areas, and not be restricted to only offering takeaway and outdoor dining service. A great bonus for sure to visitors and businesses alike.

Devon’s Top Attractions have all been doing lots of work to prepare their sites, as well as recruiting and training staff. Behind closed doors, the attractions have also been very productive in making many improvements and changes to their operating procedures and processes following.

In some cases, attractions have remodelled the whole delivery of their ‘day out experience’ in readiness for this long-awaited key date.

Having celebrated its 50th Golden anniversary in 2019, the South Devon Railway is the oldest heritage railway in the West Country.

It was the only closed line that the infamous railway ‘axe-wielding’ Dr Beeching ever re-opened in 1969, but operated then by the Dart Valley Railway.

Now in its 30th year of operations since 1991, the South Devon Railway line has been run as a charitable trust.

It now usually carries some 100,000 passengers a year over the pretty seven-mile former Great Western Railway route from Totnes to Buckfastleigh.

Last March, at the start of the first lockdown, the rail line's Dick Wood promised that he would not shave his face again until steam passenger trains returned to the line thinking it might only be a few months before normality returned.

It was made initially to help raise public awareness of the railway’s emergency ‘SOS’ appeal for donations in the absence of any revenue, and so he only expected it to last until the Summer.

Mid-morning on Tuesday 18th May Dick Wood’s beard, and maybe his hair, will all be shaved off at a special ceremony on the platform of the SDR’s Buckfastleigh station, alongside a waiting steam train - but also to the musical accompaniment of a traditional ‘sea shanty’ called ‘Beardman’ using suitable lyrics sung by local Mid Devon community choir ‘Voiceworx’.

For more about the Beardman event - and to donate - click here

For more about the Devon Association of Tourist Attractions click here

For more about South Devon railway click here

For more about the Voiceworx choir click here

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