As with any ancient land Dartmoor has its own spirit who cares for the well being of his lands and usually any encounter with him forebodes bad luck. One such encounter was with a man who had recently moved down to the moor from Manchester. He had already made a …

This story was fully reported a March edition of The Times newspaper in 1819 and at the time it caused quiet a stir in the Dartmoor town of Okehampton. The story concerns at 30 year old woman called Mary Woodman who had been married for 8 years to her husband …

So, Ockington is once again a des-res place to live, full of neighbourly harmony and everyone were happy bunnies, come to that even the bunnies were chuffed. One slight problem, and that along with his cronies were sulking deep down in Lydford Gorge some eight miles down the road. Eventually …

Tranquillity reigned in the Miller’s household and the family were getting on famously with their new piskie neighbours. In fact, so much so that that the daughters were invited to the monthly piskie revels which were held in their grand underground hall. The girls would put on their best frocks …

Way back in the mists of time there was a small hamlet situated on the northern fringes of Dartmoor called Ockington, today the small scatter of houses has grown into the town of Okehampton. But back then the tiny hamlet was merely a small cluster of cotts and farmsteads. As …

Some folks will say the piskies are good and others that they are mischievous nuisances and I am saying nothing. But there was a piskie called ‘Leg Ends’ that both humans and little folk detested. The reason he was called ‘Leg Ends’ was because at the end of every leg …

Just outside Princetown once stood ‘The Ockerry‘ or Oakery as it is known today. It stands besides a bridge which spans the Blackabrook as depicted above. It was here that in the days or your great grandparents, great grand parents a poor old woman was making her way back to …

It was late evening when a lone labourer was trudging home across the moor under the silvery light of a full moon. It had been a hard day spent shovelling potatoes into the cavern-like cavities of the potatoes caves and all the man wanted was his supper. It was a …

About a mile south of Tavistock are the remains of an old copper mine known as Crowndale Mine, little is known about its origins but in 1799 the mine was resurrected and re-worked.  An old plan of the mine shows that in its heyday the mine had 18 shafts, the …

Here is a story from 1836 that illustrates the type of itinerants that were roaming the countryside and travelling with the various country fairs. This is a true story concerning the murder of Mr Jonathan May who on the 16th of July 1835 had travelled from his home at Sowton …