PROPOSALS to convert a Grade II listed barn into a not-for-profit cycle hub and café at Clearbrook near Yelverton have been submitted to the Dartmoor National Park Authority.

The barn is beside Yelverton Golf Club and close to Route 27, a National Cycle Route linking Plymouth to Ilfracombe on the north Devon coast.

It is also a stone’s throw from a car park which is already used by cyclists as a setting off point. Given local cyclists’ ambitions to bring more of this route off-road, including the stretch of the A386 across Roborough Down, the proposal is likely to be welcomed.

Called Tyrwhitt Wharf, the barn holds an interesting place in the history of the area, as it was a halfway point on the Princetown to Sutton Harbour tramway built by Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt.

It was here that breakfast was served to around a thousand people on the opening day of the tramway on September 16, 1823.

The application to the DNPA for Listed Building Consent (0519/21) is being made by Mr S Whitehead who says in papers submitted to the planning authority that there is support for the proposal from cyclists in the area.

The proposal would restore the building and give it a useful new life, the applicant has suggested. A statement submitted with the application read: ‘The applicant is looking for a well-suited location for a cycle hub and cafe with community services as part of its remit alongside Route 27.

‘Given the historic significance of the tramway and the route of which the cycle track uses in this area, this building is ideally suited. As discussed in his statement, the applicant and the cycling organisations he has consulted feel that his aims to promote cycling and make it more accessible could be carried out very well from here. This way a good example of a redundant traditional barn-like building with historical significance would be given a new use and desperately needed maintenance would be justified.’

Comments are invited by October 22 on the website dartmoor.gov.uk