Here’s a tale with something for everyone, it has murder, highway robbery, a manhunt, a love interest and it all happened on and around Blackdown. But first to set the scene, Blackdown consists of about four square kilometres of moorland, with the old main road from Exeter to Plymouth hugging …

This story appears in a book of 1910: “I dunno if you chaps ever met my Pal, Billy Stidstone. You oughter! You’d cotton to him straight away. ‘E’s a raal good soort is Billy! ‘E’s what the papers call a Filanderpist: ‘E’s all for givin’ of ‘is things away, for …

At Moretonhampstead in the early 1800’s there lived a family called Bidder which comprised of William the father, Elizabeth the mother and three sons, William, John, and George. The family trade was that of stone masons and when George, the youngest son was born in 1806 it looked as if …

When looking at the literature of Dartmoor there probably was no greater character as the author Olive Parr who wrote under the pen name of Beatrice Chase. Possibly the word ‘character’ is a bit kind, eccentric would be polite and egotist nearer the truth. There is no doubt that the …

Wistman’s Wood There’s eeriness in Wistman’s Wood, Where stealthy shadows slowly creep About the boles of moaning trees. There’s terror where the foaming stream Streaks all the gorge with ghostly light, And creaking willows toss their arms Naked and lean against the flood. There’s mourning on the bleak hillside, And …

THE WINDY POST. Lonely there, betwixt moor and sky, Where great grey clouds go drifting by, And the peewit utters her plaintive cry, The windy post stands silently. A little old cross on the windy heather, Roughly hewn out of granite gray, Fretted and worn by the wind and the …

Tom Pearce. Tom Pearce, lend me your grey mare, All along, down along, out along lee, For I want for to go to Widdecombe Fair, Wi’ Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawk, old uncle Tom Cobley and all, old Uncle Tom Cobley and all. …

The incident which the following lines describe occurred in the winter of 1820 and involves two farm apprentice boys who became lost in a snow-storm whilst travelling across Dartmoor. It is very similar to the story of the Brad Stones and may well refer to the same lads. Ye who …

Author – Ken Ringwood ISBN 978-1-84102-361-8 Publishers- University of Plymouth Press Price – £15 To write any book is definitely a labour of love, often with little reward especially if it’s on the subject of Dartmoor and here is a book that has taken several years to compile. It is …

Dartmoor has over the centuries inspired numerous poets, authors and artists but there is one particular artist that was not only inspired by the landscape but by the livestock who grazed upon it. Anybody who is familiar with the music of Gordon Lightfoot will probably know his song, “The Pony …