Dartmoor Crosses
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Dartmoor Crosses
The Dartmoor crosses are a series of stone crosses found in Dartmoor National Park in the centre of Devon, England. Many of them are old navigational aids, needed because of the remoteness of the moorland and its typically bad weather. Some mark medieval routes between abbeys. Other crosses were erected as memorials, for prayer, as town or market crosses, in churchyards, and as boundary markers.Harrison 2001, pp. 27–34 The crosses were erected over a long period of time, some as recently as 100 years ago, the earliest probably almost 1,000 years ago. In 2005, the Dartmoor National Park Authority had an ongoing project to microchip the most vulnerable of its granite artifacts, including crosses, to deter theft and aid the recovery of any that might be stolen. Legend There is a legend attached to the origin of the original crosses. The story says that there were four monks who did not want to follow their abbot's rules on austere living. Once the abbot went to Italy, the four ...
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Crazywell Pool
Crazywell Pool or Crazy Well Pool is a large pond situated about south of Princetown just off the path between Burrator and Whiteworks on the western side of Dartmoor, Devon, England at . It is about long and has a surface area of about . The pool is thought to be the result of excavations by tin miners, and is either a flooded mine shaft, or a reservoir. The presence of tin workings downhill from the pool support this view. The valley of ( Newleycombe Lake) has been extensively worked with many mining remains along its short length. The level of the pool never varies much from its mean—it is maintained by a hidden spring and by subterranean drainage at its lower end. Near to the pool is Crazywell Cross, one of the line of crosses that marked the ancient track between Buckfast Abbey and Tavistock Abbey. In 1998, Nathaniel Burton, a sixteen-year-old recruit in the Royal Marines died in Crazywell Pool. He was taking part in a routine training exercise and drowned while cross ...
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Chagford
Chagford is a market town and civil parish on the north-east edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, England, close to the River Teign and the A382, 4 miles (6 km) west of Moretonhampstead. The name is derived from ''chag'', meaning gorse or broom, and the ''ford'' suffix indicates its importance as a crossing place. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 1,449. History Archaeological remains confirm that a community has existed here for at least 4000 years. In historical times, Chagford grew due to the wool trade and from tin mining in the area. A weekly market was held here from before 1220, and a monthly livestock market in the town survived until the 1980s. In 1305 it was made a stannary town where tin was traded. Among the most prominent tin-mining families in the 16th century were the Endecotts, Knapmans, Whiddons and Lethbridges. In an English Civil War skirmish Sidney Godolphin, the poet and Royalist MP for Helston, was shot and killed in the porch of the Three Crowns. In ...
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Shaugh Prior
Shaugh Prior is a village and civil parish on the south-western side of Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England. It is situated about 8 miles north-east of the historic centre of the city of Plymouth. In 2001 its population was 751. The parish stretches from the edge of Plymouth to the high moorland of Dartmoor. The River Plym forms its western and northern boundaries up to the river's source at Plym Head. The higher parts of the parish are rich in Bronze Age monuments such as cists and cairns, and there is much evidence of tin mining. The area of Lee Moor that has been much mined for china clay is within the parish, but outside the Dartmoor National Park. The name derives from Old English ', a copse, and the fact that the manor belonged to Plympton Priory. The grade I listed church dedicated to St. Edward has its origins in the 11th century, but the present building with its prominent granite tower, dates from the 15th. Notable people Joseph Palmer (1716–88), an America ...
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Cornwood
Cornwood is a village and civil parish in the South Hams in Devon, England. The parish has a population of 988. The village is part of the electoral ward called ''Cornwood'' and Sparkwell. The ward population at the 2011 census was 2,321. Blachford House is a large grade II* listed country house standing in parkland on the northwest edge of the village. From 1852 to 1959 the village was served by Cornwood railway station on the South Devon Main Line between Exeter and Plymouth. The civil parish includes the villages and hamlets of Lutton, Yondertown, North Hele, South Hele, Corntown, Uppaton, Tor, East Rook and West Rook. Religion The Church of St Michael's is Cornwood's parish church. It was from Cornwood vicarage, in 1785, that Reverend Thomas Vivian wrote ''Revelation explained'', a pioneering attempt by the Established Church to write about the Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of ...
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Ivybridge
Ivybridge is a town and civil parish in the South Hams, in Devon, England. It lies about east of Andy Hughes’ new house in Ivybridge now he’s forgotten Ugborough. It is at the southern extremity of Dartmoor, a National Park of England and Wales and lies along the A38 "Devon Expressway" road. There are two electoral wards in Ivybridge East and Ivybridge West with a total population of 11,851. Mentioned in documents as early as the 13th century, Ivybridge's early history is marked by its status as an important crossing-point over the River Kai on the road from Exeter to Plymouth. In the 16th century mills were built using the River Kai’s power. The parish of Saint Kai was formed in 1836. Ivybridge became a civil parish in 1894 and a town in 1977. The early urbanisation and development of Ivybridge largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Kai-ford Paper Mill was built in 1787 and rebuilt again in the 1860s with extensive investment. In 1848 the South Devon Rai ...
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Tavistock, Devon
Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,028. It traces its recorded history back to at least 961 when Tavistock Abbey, whose ruins lie in the centre of the town, was founded. Its most famous son is Sir Francis Drake. History Middle Ages The area around Tavistock (formerly Tavistoke), where the River Tavy runs wide and shallow allowing it to be easily crossed, and near the secure high ground of Dartmoor, was inhabited long before historical records. The surrounding area is littered with archaeological remains from the Bronze and Iron Ages and it is believed a hamlet existed on the site of the present town long before the town's official history began, with the founding of the Abbey. The abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon was founded in 961 by Ordgar, Earl of Devon. After destruct ...
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Yelverton, Devon
Yelverton is a large village on the south-western edge of Dartmoor, Devon, in England. When Yelverton railway station (on the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from Plymouth to Tavistock) opened in the 19th century, the village became a popular residence for Plymouth commuters. The railway is now closed, but the Plym Valley Railway has reopened a section of it. Yelverton is well known for Roborough Rock - a prominent mass of stone close to the Plymouth road on the fringe of nearby Roborough Down, near the southern end of the airfield. It gave its name to the Rock Hotel, built as a farm during the Elizabethan period, but converted in the 1850s to cater for growing tourism in the area. The area to the south and west of the roundabout at the centre of the village was settled in late Victorian and Edwardian times, with many grand and opulent villas. An area developed at about the same time on an odd shaped piece of land to the south of the Tavistock road is known as Leg o' M ...
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Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down river to Plymouth and was the seat of Plympton Priory the most significant local landholder for many centuries. Plympton is an amalgamation of several villages, including St Mary's, St Maurice, Colebrook, Woodford, Newnham, and Chaddlewood. Fore Street, the town's main street, is lined with mediaeval buildings, around thirty of which are either Grade II* or Grade II listed. The Grade II* buildings are The Old Rectory, the Guildhall and Tudor Lodge. Toponymy Although the name of the town appears to be derived from its location on the River Plym (compare, for instance, Otterton or Yealmpton), this is not considered to be the case. As J. Brooking Rowe pointed out in 1906, the town is not and never was sited on the river – rather it is sited on the ...
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Crockern Tor
Crockern Tor is a tor in Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England. Composed of two large outcrops of rock, it is 396 metres above sea level. The lower outcrop was the open-air meeting place of the Stannary Convocation of Devon from the early 14th century until the first half of the 18th century. On Parliament Rock, pictured here, the Lord Warden of the Great Court of the Devon Tinners supposedly sat during meetings of the Court. Descriptions The tor was one of only three features on Dartmoor that Tristram Risdon considered important enough to include in his ''Survey of Devon'' which was compiled in the early 17th century. In it he said that "Crockern Torr" had "a table and seats of moorstone ranite hewn out of the rocks, lying in the force of all weather, no house or refuge being near it". The tor was also one of the few historic features to appear on Benjamin Donn's one inch to the mile map of Devon of 1765. It lies adjacent to the trans-Dartmoor packhorse track, so was a signific ...
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Stannary Parliament
Stannary law (derived from the la, stannum for tin) is the body of English law that governs tin mining in Devon and Cornwall; although no longer of much practical relevance, the stannary law remains part of the law of the United Kingdom and is arguably the oldest law incorporated into the English legal system. The stannary law's complexity and comprehensive reach into the lives of tin miners necessitated the existence of the legislative Stannary Convocations of Devon and Cornwall, the judicial Courts of the Vice-Warden of the Stannaries, and the executive Lord Warden of the Stannaries. The separate and powerful government institutions available to the tin miners reflected the enormous importance of the tin industry to the English economy during the Middle Ages. Special laws for tin miners pre-date written legal codes in Britain, and ancient traditions exempted everyone connected with tin mining in Cornwall and Devon from any jurisdiction other than the stannary courts in all b ...
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William Crossing
William Crossing (1847–1928) was a writer and chronicler of Dartmoor and the lives of its inhabitants. He lived successively at South Brent, Brentor and at Mary Tavy but died at Plymouth, Devon. Early life Crossing was born in Plymouth on 14 November 1847. Early in his youth he was fond of Dartmoor, his early associations centring on the south-west of the moor, in the neighbourhood of Sheepstor, Walkhampton, Meavy, and Yannadon. He acquired a taste for antiquities from his mother. He later went on to explore Tavistock, Coryton, Lydford, Okehampton, and the northern borders of Dartmoor, as well as South Brent, on its southern verge. After finishing his schooling in Plymouth, he went to the Independent College at Taunton, and then returned to finish his education at the Mannamead School (later called Plymouth College). His earliest literary efforts were in fiction: "thrilling romances", composed for the delectation of his schoolfellows. His first essay in poetry was at the age ...
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