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 …

For me the mention of Black Grouse immediately conjures up the picture of a bottle of fairly drinkable whisky probably because I have never seen the avian type in the wild. However there was a time when the word most likely would have been associated with a covey of majestic …

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 …

There always have and still are land disputes between neighbouring communities and there have been several notable ones occurring on Dartmoor. Many of these involved various landowners, the Duchy of Cornwall or between rival parishes. Since prehistoric times on Dartmoor such ‘tribal lands’ have been delineated by various landscape features …

“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. …

When travelling along the B3357 from Tavistock to Princetown there are several car parks, the largest and most obvious being Pork Hill but probably the one with a hidden secret is that of the enchantingly named ‘Four Winds’, sadly no longer named on many OS maps. The ruined walls that …

  Pork Hill – when travelling on the B3357 from Tavistock to Princetown one will encounter this hill as it winds it way up from the lowest point at Moorshop (175 metres) to the summit just past the car park (330 metres). In all likelihood a lycra-clad cyclist will be …

  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 …