What ‘appened was, back in the halcyon days when Queen Victoria ruled the empire there lived a very prosperous family. Their home was a huge mansion on the edge of the northern moor. The husband of the house was a hard working businessman who lived with his wife, who we …

Whilst browsing through an old publication I came across this old Devonshire dialect poem called ‘The Road to Moreton’. This refers to one of the many roads and lanes that converge at Moretonhampstead and aptly describes the journey through the various seasons. I’m not to sure what it’s alluding to …

The Moorland It is dawn upon the Moorlands, and the shadows of the night Through the deep and silent valleys steal before the morning light ; Over yonder hill-top rises like a burning shield the sun Slowly wakes the grim old desert, and a new day has begun. All unseen …

Lydford Bridge or The Maniac’s ;Leap The night was dark, the rain fell fast, And cold and piercing was the blast, As at his utmost speed, A trav’ller came, who seem’d to stray, And now benighted, on his way, Urg’d on his panting steed At morn he left a moorland …

‘I ofte have heard of Lidford Law, How in the Morn they hang & draw, And sit in judgement after…’ To say that the above lines have become synonymous with the village of Lydford would be no exaggeration, they are taken from a poem entitled, ‘Lydford Journey’ and were written …

ON THE LYDFORD WATERFALL It is a shadowy crevice of the wood, Wild though not stern, and lonesome, but not rude; So green and fresh with mingling boughs around, And waving fret-work o’er the untrodden ground; The tall dark crag, its roughness worn away, Shines with the dashing Cataracts frothy …

LYDFORD BRIDGE STREAM of the mountain! never did the ray Of the high summer pierce the gloom profound Whence rise the startling and eternal sounds Of thy mad, tortur’d waters! Beautiful Are thy sister streams – most beautiful- And rill and river lift their sweet tones all Rejoicing; but for …

‘At Postbridge, in a rude cottage of granite blocks put together without mortar, and in the midst of a marsh. lived an old blind man, Jonas Coaker… When Mr Sheppard and I saw him he was aged eighty-three, and came downstairs for a few hours only in the day. He …

Everyone gets a day when they just want to take things easy, be out in the Dartmoor landscape enjoying all it has to offer without the hassle of slogging up hill and down dale. Alternatively you may be new to exploring Dartmoor and initially a bit nervous about venturing out …

John Lloyd Warden Page, here is another author whose works tend to lay in the shadow of the more famous early Dartmoor topographical writers. I say ‘works’ because he published two Dartmoor books in the 1890s, the first was ‘An Exploration of Dartmoor’ and the second was ‘The Rivers of …