Looking at an old OS map the industrial building alongside the Ilfracombe down side headshunt was an abattoir. It was indeed a huge climb at 1 in 36 right off the platform end at Ilfracombe, leaving the sidings well below (despite this the station was really in the outskirts and well above the town centre), and in steam days a Southern banker, commonly an M7 0-4-4T, was outstationed from Barnstaple to assist outward trains. The through GW/WR trains to Taunton, under running powers, were not allowed use of this loco [typical!], right to the end of steam in BR days, and Taunton shed had to send a 43xx all the way to Ilfracombe on summer Saturdays to assist their multiple departures up to the top of the bank at Morthoe. I never got there in steam days, but did a few trips in dmus in the last years, where the 3-car sets would grind up at full throttle to the top.
There were several points along the Bristol Channel coast which used to import coal from South Wales. The notably shorter distance compared to the rail route through the Severn Tunnel meant this could be quite efficient. Among the harbours that had facilities for small coal ships from Wales (very visible across the water) were Barnstaple, Ilfracombe, Watchet, Bridgwater and Burnham. The coal was for both household and gasworks, and quite possibly early and simplistic electricity generating stations as well, and was commonly brought from harbour (or station) by horse and cart. A few of the early coastal electric power "stations" actually supplied current at DC, Dunster was certainly one, and everyone needed special electrical appliances and lighting for this.
Anyone who has read "Stalky & Co" by Rudyard Kipling, about Kipling's time around 1880 at a major boarding school in nearby Westward Ho!, North Devon, will recall the multiple references of how the boys played with the pretty much unguarded gas supply in the small town, which was typical of the installations of the time, being only run by one man (who the boys called "Cokey").