“The Moors, at this season of the year, offer peculiar attractions to the tourist, and it is solely with the desire that I may show those who do not at present know of their capabilities as healthful and interesting places that I venture to put a few of my observations …

  A vital part of any harvest on Dartmoor was storing the crop until it was needed for processing or feed and bedding. Due to the small size of many farmsteads it was not possible in the barns and linhays so the answer was to build ‘ricks’. Numerous crops would …

If you look on a modern Ordnance Survey map at grid reference SX 7708 8925 you will see the enigmatic and singular name of “Peregrine”. Was this once or still is the haunt of the Peregrine falcon? Now look at the Ordnance Survey map from 1964 below and the mystery …

William Weldon Symington owned a factory at Bowden Steam Mills in Market Harborough where they manufactured pea flour, tinned groats and barley and packet of Scotch oatmeal. In 1870 he purchased Skaigh woods which became known as the Rockside Estate and included an eighty eight acre pheasantry and rabbit warren. …

  The Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis), also known as the ‘Bog Onion’ is Dartmoor’s largest fern and indeed the largest European fern – hence its name. This fern can grow anything between two and four metres high. During the summer months the fronds are a dark green and comprise of …

There is nothing better for Dartmoor nostalgia than to read words and imagine descriptions and voices from the dim and distant past. Here are a few insights in the life of a ‘youth’ written in 1890 and it’s also a great recommendation for the healing powers of the fresh and …

It is amazing the advances in archaeological technology have made all of which help to discover and research artefacts from times gone by. But who would have though nearly one hundred years ago some archaeologists employed the powers of Dartmoor’s piskies to lead them to amazing relics. How did that …

Over the centuries numerous ‘adventurers’ have tried to get rich quick  with various schemes and notions on Dartmoor. Looking back on most of them one can’t help being grateful that they never came to fruition. An excellent example was the scheme of Mr. H. J. Halford which had it gone …

Over time there have been numerous perilous occupations on Dartmoor – miners, farm labourers, quarrymen, and not to mention lime burners. Dartmoor was and is a primary area for agriculture of which arable farming has been an important aspect. One of the most important conditions for ensuring agricultural crops will …

  “Through the hamlet of Cornwood they drove, past a graceful cross that lifted beneath an oak; and then onward by hill and dale and farmstead, by water-meadows and streamlets, through woods and pastures, their road extended – so lonely that it was grass-grown in places. The lanes – survivals …