Childe's Tomb
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Childe's Tomb is a granite cross on
Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
,
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, England. Although not in its original form, it is more elaborate than most of the crosses on Dartmoor, being raised upon a constructed base, and it is known that a
kistvaen A kistvaen or cistvaen is a tomb or burial chamber formed from flat stone slabs in a box-like shape. If set completely underground, it may be covered by a ''tumulus''. The word is derived from the Welsh Language, Welsh ''cist'' (chest) and '' ...
is underneath. A well-known legend attached to the site, first recorded in 1630 by
Tristram Risdon Tristram Risdon (c. 1580 – 1640) was an English antiquarian and topographer, and the author of ''Survey of the County of Devon''. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated ar ...
, concerns a wealthy hunter, Childe, who became lost in a snow storm and supposedly died there despite disembowelling his horse and climbing into its body for protection. The legend relates that Childe left a note of some sort saying that whoever found and buried his body would inherit his lands at
Plymstock Plymstock is a commuter suburb of Plymouth and former civil parish in the English county of Devon. Geography Situated on the east bank of the River Plym, Plymstock is geographically and historically part of the South Hams. It comprises the vil ...
. After a race between the monks of
Tavistock Abbey Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and S ...
and the men of Plymstock, the Abbey won. The tomb was virtually destroyed in 1812 by a man who stole most of the stones to build a house nearby, but it was partly reconstructed in 1890.


Description

Childe's Tomb is a reconstructed granite cross on the south-east edge of Foxtor Mires, about 500 metres north of
Fox Tor Fox Tor is a relatively minor tor on Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England. On the flank of the tor, about 500 m to the north stands Childe's Tomb - according to local legend, the last resting place of Childe the Hunter, an unfortunat ...
on
Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
,
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, England at . According to William Burt, in his notes to ''Dartmoor, a Descriptive Poem'' by N. T. Carrington (1826), the original tomb consisted of a pedestal of three steps, the lowest of which was built of four stones each six feet long and twelve inches square. The two upper steps were made of eight shorter but similarly shaped stones, and on top was an octagonal block about three feet high with a cross fixed upon it. The tomb lies on the line of several cairns that marked the east-west route of the ancient Monks' Path between
Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac (later Cistercian) abbey cons ...
and
Tavistock Abbey Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and S ...
and it was no doubt erected here as part of that route: it would have been particularly useful in this part of the moor with few landmarks where a traveller straying from the path could easily end up in Foxtor Mires.
Tristram Risdon Tristram Risdon (c. 1580 – 1640) was an English antiquarian and topographer, and the author of ''Survey of the County of Devon''. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated ar ...
, writing in about 1630, said that Childe's Tomb was one of three remarkable things in the
Forest of Dartmoor The Forest of Dartmoor is an ancient royal forest covering part of Dartmoor, Devon, England. A royal forest was an area reserved by the king for hunting, and William the Conqueror introduced the concept of forest law in England in the 11th ce ...
(the others being
Crockern Tor Crockern Tor is a Tor (rock formation), tor in Dartmoor National Park, Devon, United Kingdom, 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 Conv ...
and
Wistman's Wood Wistman's Wood is one of three remote high-altitude oakwoods on Dartmoor, Devon, England. Geography The wood lies at an altitude of 380–410 metres in the valley of the West Dart River near Two Bridges, at grid reference SX612772. The sourc ...
). Risdon also stated that the original tomb bore an inscription: "They fyrste that fyndes and bringes mee to my grave, The priorie of Plimstoke they shall have", but no sign of this has ever been found. Today the cross, which is a replacement, is about tall and across at the crosspiece, and it has its base in a socket stone which rests on a pedestal of granite blocks that raises the total height of the cross to . The original, now broken, socket stone for the cross lies nearby. The whole is surrounded by a circle of granite stones set on their edge which once surrounded the cairn—the rocks of which are now scattered around—that was originally built over a large
kistvaen A kistvaen or cistvaen is a tomb or burial chamber formed from flat stone slabs in a box-like shape. If set completely underground, it may be covered by a ''tumulus''. The word is derived from the Welsh Language, Welsh ''cist'' (chest) and '' ...
that still exists beneath the pedestal.


Destruction

In the early 19th century there was much interest in enclosing and "improving" the open moorland on Dartmoor, encouraged by Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt's early successes at Tor Royal near
Princetown Princetown is a villageDespite its name, Princetown is not classed as a town today – it is not included in the County Council's list of the 29 towns in Devon: located within Dartmoor national park in the English county of Devon. It is the ...
. Enclosure was aided by the greatly enhanced access provided by the construction of the first turnpike roads over the moor: the road between Ashburton and Two Bridges opened in around 1800, for instance. In February 1809 one Thomas Windeatt, from
Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the parish of Saint Michael. Bridgetown is sometimes locally referred to as "The Ci ...
,
Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and abo ...
, took over the lease of a plot of land (a "newtake") of about 582 acres in the valley of the River Swincombe. In 1812 Windeatt started to build a farmhouse, Fox Tor Farm, on his land and his workmen robbed the nearby Childe's Tomb of most of its stones for the building and its doorsteps.Stanbrook (1994) p. 42–3 In 1902
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 N ...
wrote that he had been told by an old moorman that some of the granite blocks from the tomb's pedestal had also been used to make a
clapper bridge A clapper bridge is an ancient form of bridge found on the moors of the English West Country (Bodmin Moor, Dartmoor and Exmoor) and in other upland areas of the United Kingdom including Snowdonia and Anglesey, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, La ...
across a stream flowing into the River Swincombe near the farm. The moorman also said that they had lettering on their undersides. This encouraged Crossing to arrange to lift the clapper bridge, but no inscription was found. However, he did locate nine out of the twelve stones that had made up the pedestal, as well as the broken socket stone for the cross.


Reconstruction

Crossing rediscovered the original site of the tomb in 1882 and said that all that remained was a small mound and some half buried stones. He cleared out the kistvaen, reporting that it was long by wide and that unlike most kistvaens found on the moor, the stones lining it had apparently been shaped by man, which led him to suggest that it was less old than most. Having located most of the stones of the original tomb, Crossing thought that it could be rebuilt in its original form with little effort, but it was not to be. J. Brooking Rowe, writing in 1895, states that the tomb was re-erected in 1890 under the direction of Mr. E. Fearnley Tanner, who said that he was dissatisfied with the result because several stones were missing and it was difficult to recreate the original character of the monument. Tanner was the honourable secretary of the
Dartmoor Preservation Association Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA) is one of the oldest environmental or amenity bodies in the UK. It was founded in 1883.Kelly, M. ''"Quartz and Feldspar. Dartmoor: A British Landscape in Modern Times"'', Jonathan Cape, London, 2015, It ...
,Stanbrook (1994) p. 44 and this reconstruction was one of the first acts of that organisation. The replacement base and cross were made in Holne in 1885.


Childe the Hunter

According to legend, the cross was erected over the
kistvaen A kistvaen or cistvaen is a tomb or burial chamber formed from flat stone slabs in a box-like shape. If set completely underground, it may be covered by a ''tumulus''. The word is derived from the Welsh Language, Welsh ''cist'' (chest) and '' ...
('chest-stone' i.e. burial chamber) of Childe the Hunter, who was Ordulf, son of Ordgar, an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Devon in the 11th century. The name '' Childe'' is probably derived from the
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
word ''cild'' which was used as a title of honour. Legend has it that Childe was in a party hunting on the moor when they were caught in some changeable weather. Childe became separated from the main party and was lost. In order to save himself from dying of exposure, he killed his horse, disembowelled it and crept inside the warm carcass for shelter. He nevertheless froze to death, but before he died, he wrote a note to the effect that whoever should find him and bury him in their church should inherit his Plymstock estate. His body was found by the monks of
Tavistock Abbey Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. Nothing remains of the abbey except the refectory, two gateways and a porch. The abbey church, dedicated to Our Lady and S ...
, who started to carry it back. However, they heard of a plot to ambush them by the people of Plymstock, at a bridge over the
River Tavy The Tavy () is a river on Dartmoor, Devon, England. The name derives from the Brythonic root "Tam", once thought to mean 'dark' but now generally understood to mean 'to flow'. It has given its name to the town of Tavistock and the villages of ...
. They took a detour and built a new bridge over the river, just outside Tavistock. They were successful in burying the body in the grounds of the Abbey and inherited the Plymstock estate. The first account of this story is to be found in
Risdon Risdon is a surname and also a first name, and may refer to: ; Given name * Risdon Beazley (1904–1979), British businessman ; Surname * Dustin Risdon (born 1981), Canadian professional golfer * Elisabeth Risdon (1887–1958) English film act ...
's ''Survey of Devon'' which was completed in around 1632: Finberg pointed out, however, that a document of 1651 refers to Tavistock's guildhall as ''Guilehall'', so ''Guilebridge'' is more likely to be ''guild bridge'', probably because it was built or maintained by one of the town guilds.Finberg (1946) p. 277


In popular culture

Devon folk singer
Seth Lakeman Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. Ac ...
sang about Childe the Hunter on his 2006 album ''
Freedom Fields ''Freedom Fields'' is an album by Seth Lakeman released twice in 2006. It is his third album as a principal performer. It is named after a park in Plymouth, England, where the Sabbath Day Fight during the Siege of Plymouth is commemorated. T ...
''.


References


Sources

* * * * * {{coord, 50.51719, N, 3.94085, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SX625704), display=title Dartmoor Monuments and memorials in Devon Monumental crosses in England