Tag Archives: Dartmoor

What follows is the account of a 16 mile walk taken in the October of 1887. Today parts of this trail would be impossible as it would mean strolling beneath the Meldon Reservoir and therefore unique in its content. Nevertheless it is a fascinating account of the sights and experiences …

The arrival of the railway to Lustleigh heralded a new dawn for the little village and one that would eventually put the place well and truly of the tourist map. People began making their ‘pilgrimage to the picturesque ‘Lustleigh Cleave’ to enjoy its beauty and tranquillity. Initially it was quite …

“Squire Forth he purchased Cator Court, And hath remodelled all the place, With building of such splendid sort , Which all the neighbourhood doth grace.” Jonas Coaker – The Dartmoor Poet Firstly it is always interesting to find the etymology of the place-name one is writing about – in this …

  Over the centuries numerous adventurers had set up companies to exploit Dartmoor’s natural resources, none more so than its ‘Black Gold’ – namely the huge peat deposits on the northern moor.  Some of these enterprises aimed at selling dry peat, others converting it into peat charcoal, peat litter, peat …

“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” – Genesis 6:17 On the 17th of July 1890 I would have imagined that that the above biblical prophecy …

Here is another nostalgic account of a man’s pilgrimage to Holne and the nearby Dart Valley taken sometime in the late 1880s. As with all such accounts of the period he experienced many things which would not be possible today. What makes this reading more interesting are the various ideas …

“The parish church of Holne is situated in the centre of the village, and is perfectly plain and unpretending in its structure of early English date. Dr. Oliver in his list of the Devonshire churches makes it dedicated to St. Mary. It comprises of a chancel, nave, north and south …

In the June of 1884 a party of women from Tavistock treated themselves to a day trip on Dartmoor. Amazingly enough this was to be the first time some of them had been up on the Moor despite living just a few miles away. “We were told that this year …

Dartmoor is infamous for it’s quaking bogs and impenetrable mists and fogs but not that long ago there was another peril – dust – or to use the Devonshire vernacular ‘pillum’. This was the scourge of many a town and village street, especially during the hot and windy summertime. The …

When travelling along the road from Lydford to Brentor you will be on what at onetime was an old turnpike road belonging to what was the Tavistock Trust who oversaw the road from Tavistock over Dartmoor. About 350 metres beyond the second turning for North Brentor you will pass a …