There always have and still are land disputes between neighbouring communities and there have been several notable ones occurring on Dartmoor. Many of these involved various landowners, the Duchy of Cornwall or between rival parishes. Since prehistoric times on Dartmoor such ‘tribal lands’ have been delineated by various landscape features …

“As we are again on the Moor we may as well descend upon Gidleigh by way of Creaber Pound; not the old structure, which has long since disappeared in newtake walls, but a piece of enclosed common at the foot of the Moor, through which strangely enough, the road passes. …

When travelling along the B3357 from Tavistock to Princetown there are several car parks, the largest and most obvious being Pork Hill but probably the one with a hidden secret is that of the enchantingly named ‘Four Winds’, sadly no longer named on many OS maps. The ruined walls that …

  Pork Hill – when travelling on the B3357 from Tavistock to Princetown one will encounter this hill as it winds it way up from the lowest point at Moorshop (175 metres) to the summit just past the car park (330 metres). In all likelihood a lycra-clad cyclist will be …

  It’s always said that you never appreciate the things that are in front of you and having once lived just outside Chagford the Market House, AKA ‘The Pepperpot’ is a fine example. Until I came across a newspaper report of 1862 I never realised the building held so much …

I recently came across a short article in the Mansfield Reporter dated the 24th of January 1919 which began: “A valuable radium discovery – radium is £400,00 an ounce – has been made in a remarkable way at Hapstead on the fringe of Dartmoor.”  It then went on to say; …

There are numerous reports of daring escapes from Dartmoor Prison over the centuries that appeared in newspaper reports and related books. Some were successful others failed miserably but the majority of these are told from the point of view of the captors and not the escaped convict. But in 1891 …

  “On the Saturday before Christmas a great cattle market is held here; and on the Saturday after Christmas, is a great holiday-fair, called a ‘Giglet,’ or ‘Giglet Market’; that is, a wife market; at which the most rustic swain, if weary of his bachelorship, is privileged with self-introduction to any …

  “In order to obtain an idea of the whereabouts of things in general, and the hills and valleys of Dartmoor in particular, we shall ascend Brent Hill, where granite once more gives place to trap. It rises to an elevation of 1,027 feet above the sea-level. It is a …

  Over the centuries fairs have always been an important facet of Dartmoor life, most have been consigned to its memory box but a few still exist today in one form or another. Probably the two most celebrated ones are Widecombe Fair and Tavistock’s Goosey Fair. However, there was another …