11 June 2016 - Tavistock Club Site, Moorshop, near Tavistock, Devon

Rain did fall through the night, but by morning it was more drizzly and misty than anything else. The weather forecast last night had suggested the afternoon would be marginally better than the morning, so acting upon that, we headed directly east for just seven or so miles to Princetown where the Dartmoor Prison is located. 

This is still a working prison, today with 535 prisoners enjoying the facilities, so the tourist is limited to the museum across the road from this rather forbidding penal establishment, but still rewarded with a wealth of history through the multitude of exhibits. 

The prison was built between 1806 and 1809 to house Prisoners of War who were otherwise being accommodated in offshore ships or "hulks”, prisoners taken in the conflict with Napoleon. After that came the war with the United States of America in 1813 and overcrowding became a problem as it had during the Napoleonic wars. The original buildings had been constructed to house around 1,000 prisoners per block, but soon there were many more. Somewhere I saw the figure of 12,000 having been locked up at one time. However after those conflicts through the early part of the 19^th century, the prison fell into disuse, until the export of convicts to the colonies came to an end and hanging became less popular. The need for lockups on the home front became more pressing and so in 1850 the Dartmoor Prison was once more brought into operation, and has been in use ever since. 

Dartmoor Prison has traditionally been the home of high security prisoners but it was downgraded to Category C in 2001.

Limestone Tors of the moor

We spent almost two and half hours in the museum, so interesting it was, and by the time we emerged it was lunchtime. We moved up the road a little and parked at the National Park Information Centre and ate our lunch before checking the centre out. There we found an exhibition of photos by a woman who has posted daily masterpieces on Instagram, drawing attention to the fact that Dartmoor is scenically beautiful no matter what the season. 

Films and interpretative panels explained the wonders of the park and at the desk we discussed many facets of the area, not least Chris’s memory of a white horse sculpture seen when he came with his family about fifty six years ago on a camping holiday. 

Discussion today, research by his siblings over the intervening years or a Google search later today, have turned up no resolution. The National Park chap suggested it might have been a temporary “masterpiece” by military personal near the site at the time. It does seem to be the only possible explanation for now.  He was however able to offer a suggestion for a wonderful scenic afternoon drive, and so we set off with a long list of waypoints to navigate our way across the moors.

And so we followed the following route, spelled out here, blow by blow, in case any reader should wish to follow the same advice: north east as far as Two Bridges, turning south  east onto the B3357 as far as Dartmeet, turning south on a very minor road to Hexworthy, on over the moor to Comberstome Tor where we stopped to photograph these limestone stacks, then down to the Venford Reservoir, then down through incredibly narrow roads to Holne and over the River Dart at Newbridge, then back onto the B3357 at Poundsgate, before heading north east again through the tiny village of Ponsworthy  on a narrow bridge accommodating vehicles no wider than 2.28 metres. Up through even narrower rural roads to the charming village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, then up on to the high moors again, stopping at the Haytor Rocks reaching to 454 metres ASL . From there the route back tracked through Widcombe-in-the-Moor, turning north early through a longer more isolated section of the moor, emerging on to the B3212, then turning south west again through Postbridge, to Two Bridges and on back to our camp. If you think that sounds very complicated, you would be right, and it took great attention by The Navigator to exactly follow the route, but follow it we did.

Sheep of the moor

We paused at the Venford Reservoir, a 13 hectare reservoir able to hold up to 198 million gallons of water, fed by a catchment area of 291 hectares. The dam, built of Dartmoor granite, of which there is much, was completed in 1907. Originally it was constructed to provide water for Paignton, which these days it can only do with contributions from other sources in the area.

The car park at Haytor Rocks was no less busy that those encountered along the road, many of which we stopped at. Here, as all over the moor, were dozens of ponies, and here Dartmoor Ponies rather than the assortment of equine mammals we found at the New Forest. Cattle and sheep, the latter a rather interesting breed, horned and shaggy rather than just woolly, were just as plentiful. We walked to the top of the hills and admired the interesting rock formations and attempted to interact with the wild ponies, avoiding the mares and their foals, of which there were many.

The bridges at Postbridge

We stopped again at Postbridge to admire the clapper bridge over the East Dart river, the largest and best example of these simple structures consisting of huge slabs of granite supported by pillars of the same material. These have been used by tin miners and farmers since mediaeval times, and are still solid enough to support the tourists like us who walk across. 

The Dartmoor National Park covers an area of 368 square miles and contains the largest area of open country in the south of England. The park was established in 1951. It is a park that warrants much more than half a day’s exploration and perhaps the days ahead will allow for that, however I am not holding my breath.

It seems we have rather stuffed up with our scheduling; this happens when you have to book ahead so far, working blind. Tomorrow we will head south west to Land’s End in a rather poor attempt to explore Cornwell. We should have booked our next camping spot in that direction rather than north and a little east. We are concerned that we will short change ourselves and not do the West Country justice with the time we have, or more importantly, trying to explore this part of the country from such a distance will prove rather foolish. The days ahead will prove this one way or the other.

 On a positive note, I can say that the weather remained with us all afternoon, and it was just five minutes before we arrived back at camp that a rain storm passed over. This was no longer of account to us although cannot have been welcome to all those walkers still out on the moors.