It had a short siding serving cattle pens that were busy during the monthly a livestock auctions that were held adjacent to the station.

[9] The BRB's 1963 The Reshaping of British Railways report included Kings Nympton on the list of stations proposed to be closed, along with the whole of the line.

[17] These included work to prevent flooding at Kings Nympton,[17] and a recommendation that the track be moved back and the platform widened.

[citation needed] The station was closed for two weeks between 26 October and 8 November 2019 whilst works were carried out elsewhere on the Tarka Line,[18] in preparation for the extensive December 2019 timetable changes.

The Class 143s and 153s were withdrawn and replaced with Class 158 Express Sprinters; at the request of the Tarka Rail Association, an additional northbound train from Kings Nympton was provided on Fridays; and direct services to Exmouth were withdrawn, with all southbound trains now terminating at St James Park.

In October 2012, a car driver crashed into an embankment close to Kings Nympton, causing a train to have to stop.

[21] In September 2020, northbound trains were suspended through Kings Nympton, terminating one stop to the south at Eggesford, after a person was spotted "in the water"—presumably the River Taw, which runs close to the station.

[22] Kings Nympton is located in the civil parish of Chulmleigh at Fortescue Cross, a small cluster of houses and the junction between the A377 and the B3226 roads.

Of the thirteen Tarka Line stations, it is the fifth-least used, busier than Newton St Cyres, Lapford, Portsmouth Arms and Chapelton.

The Department for Transport considers Kings Nympton a "small unstaffed" station as it has fewer than 100,000 journeys per annum, category F2.

Only a limited number of trains (four each way on Sundays but more on other days) between Barnstaple and Exeter Central call at Kings Nympton and this is only on request to the conductor or by signalling the driver as it approaches.

[41] In 1983, American author Paul Theroux described the station name Kings Nympton—along with those of Eggesford and Yeoford—as a "Bertie Wooster touch" that contributed to the Tarka Line's "comic feel".

More broadly, he described the branch line as a whole as "motionless and silent", characterised by "long low hills and withered villages", and stated that the interest of railway enthusiasts therein was "worse than indecent and their joy-riding a mild form of necrophilia.

"[42] After complimenting other Tarka Line stations, Britain from the Rails: A Window Gazer's Guide says "whereas Kings Nympton is, frankly, in the middle of nowhere."

It also refers to its name as "the ultimate cheek in station misnaming", and notes that "South Molton Road" was even more misleading, characterising it as "a hopeless attempt to trick people heading for that village, nine miles away on a rival line!