Historic Dartmoor

One of our crosses is missing – well it’s not actually missing it was just shunted some 45 kilometres around Devon from Bow to Murchington then to Down St. Mary. As always, whilst researching Murchington I was looking on the old 1906 OS 25 inch map when I spotted a …

And did those feet in ancient times – walk upon the ancient Datuidoc Stone, and therein begins the story of this early relic which today resides inside St. John’s Church at Lustleigh. As can be seen below, today the Datuidoc Stone is securely fixed to the west end wall of …

“A river, near, runs bright and clear, Which turns the mill around: And there, the corn both night and morn, Is by the miller ground.” Samuel Wrayford on Fingle Mill. Since the mid 1800s tourists have flocked to the picturesque area of the famous Fingle Bridge and Fingle Mill on …

It was a fine day when three pilots left R.A.F. Benson in Oxfordshire on the 4th of July 1939 in their Fairey Battle Mark 1 aircraft (serial number – K9391). They were on what was deemed at the time to be a straightforward training mission flying from Benson to Roborough …

As with any weapon it was vital that those using them needed regular practice exercises to ensure they were ‘battle ready’. In 1873 the military began artillery training on Dartmoor and in 1875 North Dartmoor became a licensed as a permanent training area with the Okehampton Camp being built in …

“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. …

  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 …

  “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 …