DEVON (North) AND EXETER AND CREDITON RAILWAY, a railway in Devon; from a junction with the Bristol and Exeter railway at Exeter, north-west by northward to Barnstaple, and south-westward thence to Bideford. The part of it to Crediton, 6 miles long, is the Exeter and Crediton, and was authorized in 1845; the part from Crediton to Flemington, 36½ miles long, is the North Devon proper, and was authorized in 1838, and revived in 1845; and the part from Fremington to Bideford, 6½ miles long, is the Bideford Extension, and was authorized in 1847, and revived in 1853. The gauge is broad.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))