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Dartmoor Characters

Garth the Tinner

High up the reaches of the Red Brook stands the ruin of a tinners hut known as Garth’s House. This small granite shelter was once his abode. One spring day he set of to his tin sett, on reaching the works he noticed what he initially thought to be a …

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Freebooter, The

Freebooter, The

Back in 1844 Eliza Bray related the tale of Nicholas Mason the freebooter and according to the Oxford Dictionary a freebooter was/is, ‘a piratical adventurer, a pirate; any person who goes about in search of plunder‘. From that description one would today simply call him a Labour Minister but things …

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Dartmoor’s Mooroaman.

Moorroaman1

I will make a bet than any Dartmoor lover has never once thought that just maybe they would love to live in the wilds of Dartmoor, away from everybody and spend their days tramping the moor – I know I have on many occasions. Clearly in this day and age …

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Francis Drake

Francis Drake

It is not surprising that with such a legendary figure as Sir Francis Drake there are many folk stories told about him. Although he did not live on Dartmoor there are quite a few traditions associated with him and the moor. As he was such an heroic figure it is …

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Fernworthy Vengence

Fernworthy Vengence

Many, many years ago, in fact it was so long ago this story nearly became lost in the pages of Dartmoor’s folklore, there was a small moorland farm. This farm had just been taken over by the last living moorman of his family. He was a young man with a …

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Fernworthy Immigrants

Fernworthy Immigrants

Some people today would consider Dartmoor as being a remote place, after all it is described as the ‘Last Wilderness’. But centuries ago it truly was a remote place with little hamlets and farmsteads scatter across its landscape. Due to its many natural resources such as tin, granite, peat etc …

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Essra the Bard

Essra the Bard

Back in the days of the Druid’s rule lived king Essrus who was a mighty chieftain of the Dumnonni tribe. His settlement was on the hillside of the lofty ‘Hill of Bards’, this was crowned by two granite masses known as the ‘Bardun tors’. Here it overlooked the ‘Wood of …

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Dolly Treble

Dolly Treble

Once upon a time in deepest, darkest Dartmoor lived a beautiful woman by the name of Dolly Trebble whose remarkable story now dwells in the realms of local legend. The very fact that Dolly Trebble earned her place in Dartmoor legend is mostly down to the author – Baring Gould …

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David Davies

David Davies

There is a well known saying, ‘a leopard can’t change its spots‘ and the story of David Davies otherwise known as ‘The Dartmoor Shepherd’ is an excellent endorsement of that adage. David Davies was what could only be described as an habitual criminal and was a resident of Dartmoor Prison. …

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Convict Curate

Convict Curate

Dartmoor is renown for its notorious Dartmoor Prison and it is not surprising that down the centuries such an inhospitable institution has had its fair share of escapes. One tale from the 1850’s illustrates the daring, ingenuity and the lengths that some of the prisoners will go through to escape …

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