Thursday , March 28 2024
Home / Flora And Fauna (page 6)

Flora And Fauna

Red Kites

Red Kites

“The Rev. M. A. Mathew writes, that he has proof of the Kite having nested quite recently in Devonshire, but even at the beginning of the century it was a rare bird in the South of the County…I have a vague recollection of the species having (in my school-boy days, …

Read More »

Rabbits

Rabbits

For centuries the rabbit has been a common feature on Dartmoor insomuch as there were numerous warrens where they were bred for their meat and skins. At first rabbit meat was a luxury only available to the nobility and was far beyond the reach of the average person. But by …

Read More »

Primroses

Walk down any Dartmoor lane in May and you will see clusters of primroses adorning the hedgerows and fields. There is one certain field just outside Newton Abbot that for a couple of weeks turns literally yellow from the masses of primroses and it can be seen from miles away. …

Read More »

Poultry

Poultry

At one time nearly every farm and cott on Dartmoor kept hens, albeit a couple or a couple hundred, where their eggs and meat put food on the table and in some cases coin in the purse. About 40 years ago the normal Sunday roast was either beef or lamb …

Read More »

Potatoes

Potatoes

Nobody is sure when and how the potato arrived in this country, some say it was Sir Francis Drake, some say it was Walter Raleigh, others say it was Tom Hawkins and some say it was none of them. The earliest record of the potato is in 1597 when a …

Read More »

Ponies

Ponies

No Dartmoor website would be complete without a page on the famous Dartmoor Pony. Go into any souvenir shop and you will see Dartmoor Ponies in every shape and guise, they will be on postcards, keyrings, plates, mugs, tea towels and everything else where it is possible to put a …

Read More »

Piranha

Piranha

On the northern flank of Okement Hill a small trickle of water rises out from the peat, this is the East Okement river whose journey will take it through 5 miles of some beautiful moorland scenery. Once the river reaches Okehampton it unites with its sister, the West Okement and …

Read More »

Pigs

Pigs

“he that hath sheep, swine and bees, sleep he, wake, he, may thrive“. “This little piggy went to market and this little piggy stayed at home …”, and it wasn’t that long ago that most homes kept a pig to provide a source of much needed winter meat. Dartmoor was …

Read More »

Pigeons

Pigeons

For many centuries domestic pigeons were kept in specially built houses variously known as dovecotes, pigeon houses, columbaria and culver houses (from the Anglo Saxon culver = pigeon). They were primarily kept for their meat but pigeon blood was, according to Pliny, meant to cure bloodshot eyes and the dried …

Read More »

Penny Royal

Penny Royal

A local woodsman’s wife once commented to the vicar of Holne during a discussion about beverages that her mother used to drink ‘organs tea’. The explanation was; “when tea was sixpence an ounce and coffee three pence an ounce mother used to drink organs tea.” Another woman from Ashburton noted …

Read More »