O

ld Tavistock Railway Station is no ordinary stop: for one thing there aren’t any trains. Instead, the Grade-II-listed station has been converted into three self-catering cottages with chandeliers, designer fabrics and roll-top baths. Bit of a change from a draughty waiting room and toilets that pong.

Luckily, however, the owners, Jenny Rogers and husband Colin, have kept a lot of the other original features. Like the ticket window and fireplace in the Ticketing Hall, which have been cleverly incorporated into the sitting room. Meanwhile, the breakfast room has double doors that open out onto your own private part of the platform – where annoying Tannoy announcements have been replaced by birdsong from the nearby trees.

All the cottages here are named after their former functions, so if there’s a queue for the Ticketing Hall, perhaps the Porter’s Office or Refreshment Hall will be free?

Whichever one you go for, the view from out the front is pretty spectacular – looking right out over Tavistock town and across to Bodmin Moor. Take a five- minute walk down the hill to Tavistock and you’ve got antiques shops, markets and a Medieval abbey to explore. Train spotters, however, might be disappointed.