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This walk: 2011-4-6. Longash Leat, dung bonnets, blocking stones, double stone row, King's Tor, Little King's Tor, Longstone, Yellowmeade farm, railway track, logan stone, London Bridge corbels, wooden sleepers, nails, railway platform, blacksmith's shop, Swelltor Quarry entrance, bridge, Pu Tor, clay sett marker CW 2 stone, Hucken Tor, Vixen Tor, Great Staple Tor, Pila Brook, hawthorn trees, blossom, TA stone.

Walk details below - Information about the route etc.

 

Longash Leat, running between the two double stones rows at Merrivale which can be seen left and right, seen also on 16 March 2011.

 

Coprophilous fungi: known as dung bonnets, Bolbitius vitellinus.

 

Moor Strollers gathered at the western end blocking stones of one of the double stone rows ....

 

Looking the other way along the double stone row, towards Four Winds.

 

King's Tor, SX 556 739, elevation 390 metres (1279 feet), with Little King's Tor on the right.

 

The Longstone, 3.1 metres high, SX 55355 74588, by a stone circle .....

 

A second stone, now laying, said to be formerly standing, with the remains of a burial cist between the stones.

 

A view of the circle, looking back at Great Mis Tor, with Little Mis Tor on the right, on the skyline.

 

Crossing the stream at SX 55760 74431, that runs to the River Walkham.

 

Zoomed view to Yellowmeade Farm.

 

Looking along the old railway track where the "modern" railway ran left through a cutting and the old horse tramway went straight ahead before rounding Little King's Tor.

 

Moor Strollers gathered by Little King's Tor.

 

A view of the cutting .....

 

Near the cutting is a logan stone .....

 

Zoomed view of the logan stone.

 

Standing on the modern railway track where it crossed over the old track.

 

"A few corbels short of a bridge" - surplus corbels left in place after the 1902-04 widening of London Bridge (opened 1831), this was the bridge sold in 1967 to an American. In 1896, "it was estimated that the bridge was the busiest point in London, with 8,000 people crossing the bridge by foot and 900 crossing in vehicles every hour.[1] London Bridge was widened in 1902–04 from 52 to 65 feet (16 to 20 m), in an attempt to combat London's chronic traffic congestion. A dozen of the granite "pillars" quarried and dressed for this widening, but unused, still lie near Swelltor Quarry" : Source - Wikipedia. It has been said that while there were a dozen corbels originally, a few were sent as spares to America when the bridge was moved - there seem to be eight in the photo above, although a photo in the Dartmoor Archive web site, here, seems to show at least two more? This granite was actually brought here from the quarry at Merrivale because the workers here had the skills to do the job.

 

Still admiring the corbels ......

 

Still .....

 

..... and a poser on a corbel.

 

Old wooden railway sleepers .....

 

Paired iron nails that held the rails in place.

 

Some abandoned pre-cut stones left on the track ......

 

Close-up.

 

The old platform where granite was loaded into trucks on the horse-drawn tramway.

 

A loose bolt, threaded at the top-left end.

 

The old blacksmith's shop .....

 

With posers - Moira, Christine, Isobel, Berni, Viv, Hugh, Sue, Jim and Rosine with Matron at the front .....

 

Similar to previous with the addition of Tim and Lucy.

 

Mickey, Hugh, Anne, Jan, Jim, Pat, Suzi, Rosie and Moira (behind).

 

View through a window in the blacksmith's shop.

 

Something to do with holes in a piece of stone.

 

A casual view.

 

Looking along the track - we didn't go any further.

 

Entrance into Swelltor Quarries.

 

A cattle creep i.e. a bridge along the railway track where livestock could pass underneath .....

 

Looking through the tunnel - at Pu Tor (Pew Tor) .....

 

Pu Tor, SX 533 735, elevation 320 metres (1049 feet).

 

A clay works boundary stone, marked CW 2, by the newtake wall at SX 55165 73891 .....

 

This is one of five stones set up to mark the bounds of Yes Tor Bottom china clay sett that was laid out in 1835 in a 21-year lease from Sir Ralph Lopes to George Baron Stone on certain Walkhampton lands. Source: "Dartmoor Boundary Markers", Dave Brewer, Halsgrove, 2002, pages 239-240.

 

Looking along the rock piles of Hucken Tor - these run in a ridge down into the valley, almost reaching the River Walkham.

 

Vixen Tor.

 

Zoomed view to Great Staple Tor.

 

Lesser Celandine.

 

Rocks piles of Hucken Tor in among ancient oak woods.

 

The bridleway track from Merrivale to Daveytown that becomes a tarmac'd road running past Dittisham into Walkhampton.

 

The stream, Pila Brook, that runs down to Little Wonder Bridge, between Hucken Tor and Longash .....

 

Looking up the stream. Photos of this area and the pump under the bridge can be seen in the photos from 14 July 2010.

 

A gate hanger stone in a wall. The stone would have been used high in hedge or wall with the hole pointing down, to hold the gate in place.

 

Zoomed view to Vixen Tor.

 

Hawthorn trees in flower .....

 

The blossom.

 

Longash Leat running along a wall at Longash.

 

Taken from the main road at Merrivale, looking back along the bridle path (at right).

 

TA stone beside the road, where "T" signifies Tavistock on this side and .....

 

"A" signifies Ashburton on this side. The stones are markers along a very old pack-horse trading route.

 

Walk details

MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.


Ordnance Survey © Crown copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Licence number 100047373.
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.

 

This walk was accessed from the car park on the main road just up the hill from the Dartmoor Inn on the road to Princetown. Parking was at the park marked by a yellow cross by the  P  symbol on the map.

 

Statistics
Distance - 6.32 km / 3.92 miles
 

 

 

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