There are two old adages that are suited to this tale; “You never know what goes on behind closed doors,” and “Be very careful what you wish for.” So let’s go back some 170 years or so to a remote Dartmoor settlement high on the northern plateau. At that time …

“A stag and a hare hunt are the rude means employed by a village community for maintaining either its standards of morals or expressing its disapprobation of petticoat rule… The Stag Hunt takes place on the wedding-night of a man who has married a girl of light character or when …

Whooping Cough or purtussis, something today that can brings fear and trepidation into peoples hearts as it is an easily transmitted infectious disease. When outbreaks occur the condition can quickly spread amongst the local population and tends to a rise in cycles. In 2012 there were 9,711 cases reported in …

I was reading an article published by the famous Dartmoor folklorist Theo Brown some 47 years ago which I think typifies the beliefs and resources available to moor folk in days long gone by. It concerns medical treatment for both humans and animals administered by so-called ‘White’ or ‘Hedge Witches’ …

Ilsington village whose origins probably date back to Anglo Saxon times and so it would be fair to say it and the local area has known human occupation for many, many centuries. Prior to the Norman Conquest the settlement was owned by a man named Merleswein. Just outside the village …

In 1861 a tin miner named James Webb applied for a lease on two acres of unenclosed land on which to build a house but later changed his plans and asked if he could build a pub instead. Permission was granted and in 1863 he successfully applied to the Tavistock …

How often when one is browsing the internet does a stunning photograph of a Dartmoor landscape appear which either makes you think “I wish I’d taken that,” or “wow I must visit that place.”? I would suggest that happens quite often and the chances are that some of those photographs …

One of the most famous and perhaps lovable convicts who have had the pleasure of a spell in Dartmoor Prison has to be David Davies, aka Evans, also known as the Dartmoor Shepherd. For a series of petty crimes he served at total of some 50 years in various gaols …

Dartmoor is literally studded with memorials of one kind or another, each and every one has a different association with either a person, event, belief, a pet, etc. They can be found anywhere from the open moor to village greens and virtually every other location imaginable. Many have lost the …

At one time, not too long in the past cider was as common a beverage as Typhoo tea is today upon Dartmoor. Not only was it a popular drink in the pubs and inns but many farms had their cider orchards whose apples would make the families yearly supply. During …