Barnstaple play at Park School. In 1975, Barnstaple was the home of Norman Scott, the male model who was blackmailing local MP and Liberal Party Leader Jeremy Thorpe over an alleged sexual relationship between the two of them. According to the investigative journalists Simon Freeman and Barry Penrose, Thorpe’s colleague David Holmes phoned an accomplice, ex-airline pilot Andrew Newton, with instructions to intimidate Scott, whom he would meet at a hotel in Barnstaple. But it was a bad line, and Newton spent time hanging around Dunstable in Bedfordshire. Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is the main town of North Devon, England
Barnstaple Victoria Road railway station was converted to standard gauge in 1881. A line was opened on 1 June 1887 from the D&SR station to the London and South Western Railway's Barnstaple Junction railway station, enabling trains from London and Taunton reverse at Barnstaple then continue on to . On 1 July 1905 a chord was opened between the two lines (thus forming a triangular junction) which enabled direct running from the Taunton line into Barnstaple Junction. This new line was mainly used on summer Saturdays; at other times through trains on the Ilfracombe line continued to reverse at the station. From 1 January 1948