Barnstaple centre was at nearby . The station building still exists, and can be viewed on-line from a webcam mounted on Barnstaple Civic Centre. A separate "Barnstaple" station, renamed Barnstaple (Victoria Road) in 1949, was opened to the east of the town in 1873 as the terminus of the Devon and Somerset Railway, eventually a part of the Great Western Railway. A junction was later provided to allow trains access to Barnstaple Junction and these ran through to Ilfracombe. It was closed in 1970. There are a selection of well-regarded primary and secondary state schools and a tertiary college in Barnstaple.
Barnstaple Somerset style; the Roman Catholic church of the Immaculate Conception, said to have been built to designs supplied by Pugin, in Romanesque Revival style; the late 19th-century church of St John the Baptist in the Newport area of the town and a Baptist chapel of 1870 which includes a lecture hall and classrooms. Cricket is played at Barnstaple and Pilton. Barnstaple Town F.C. have been based at Mill Road since 1904 and play in the Western Football League. Rugby union is played at Barnstaple Rugby Football Club whose first team play in South West Premier, which is a fifth tier