Dartmoor CAM

This walk: 2011-5-11. Station Cottages, Dartmoor Brewery, GWR horse stable, PCWW 1932 stone, station master's house, piece of rail, Sitka spruce, Sheep's Tor, Leather Tor, Sharpitor, bridges, sedge, tormentil, buttercup, Foggintor Quarry, crane base, blacksmith's shop, hawthorn, may blossom, moorland crowfoot, broom.

This walk covered a lot of thwe ground we walked on 10th March 2010

Walk details below - Information about the route etc.

This area of Dartmoor was very bleak until Thomas Tyrwhitt decided to develop it. Tor Royal and The Plume of Feathers were the first two buildings. Various enterprises including agriculture failed and granite quarrying was just about the only viable industry. He built a horse-drawn tramway from what was he called Prince's Town into Plymouth, this later became a steam railway (the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway, later GWR and later still BR, closing in 1956. Another undertaking was that he built the prison, opened 1909 for French POWs and 1812 for American POWs. It closed in 1815 and was reopened in 1850 as a convict prison.

Near the car park in Princetown, Station Cottages ..... no prizes for guessing what was here years ago. The station was opened in 1883.

Look, Jim, a real photograph!

The old GWR stable .....

..... and from the other side!

Of interest because in earlier web pages, this sign was saying Princetown Breweries.

PCWW 1932, one of four stones (all close together here) from when it was decided that this small area was part of the Burrator Reservoir catchment area and that this may have been the true source of the River Meavy.

As previous photo.

The detached house was once the Station Master's house, this area being the terminus of the railway that was originally horse-drawn - this was Thomas Tyrwhitt's tramway (Royal Assent granted in 1821).

Position from which an old photo of the railway was taken, now there is almost nothing left .....

..... except for the odd reminder that the railway was once here, a piece of old rail used in a fence.

Not strange fir cones but burst buds and later stages of this years new leaves ("needles"): believed Sitka Spruce, Picea sitchensis, commonly planted on Dartmoor.

View to Sheep's Tor (left), Leather Tor (centre) and Sharpitor (right), with trees of Raddick Plantation (Burrator) visible.

Bridge in the old railway for livestock to pass under .....

As previous, from a different viewpoint.

Similar view to a previous photo.

Possible Black-headed Green-ribbed sedge (Carex binervis) ..... several flowering stages in view .....

A sedge "landscape", growing in large patches in some areas locally.

A group of traditional native Dartmoor ponies, not multicoloured.

Another bridge.

Tormentil, Potentilla erecta.

Buttercup.

One of several views into Foggintor Quarry .....

Foggintor Quarry .....

Four Winds from Foggintor .....

Foggintor Quarry ..... opened in the 1820's and in its 1850's heyday, around 600 men worked here with a whole community involved, with a farm, school etc. Eventually the enterprise became uneceonomic as cheaper building materials were found. Now, concrete is king.

A particular "stack" inside Foggintor Quarry .....

Foggintor Quarry .....

Remains of Hill Cottages.

Looking through an entrance to Eva's Farm .....

Displaced notice, now on the way into the quarry .....

Foggintor Quarry .....

A ruined crane base in the entrance to the quarry .....

Liz, Viv and Chris walking towards the ruins of Hill Cottages.

View to King's Tor.

Another view of Hill Cottages.

Hawthorn (Cretagus monogyna) or May blossom .....

May blossom .....

What is this? It seems that nobody knows, not even Kath Brewer who wrote the book about the area!

Two sett makers' bankers, at SX 56586 73524, where granite setts were made for cobbling the streets of local towns.

View to Ingra Tor, where the quarry can be seen towards the left.

A covered stream running under a bridge along the railway track .....

Looking the other way, almost towards the Devil's Elbow area.

Moorland aka Round-leaved Crowfoot (Ranunculus omiophyllus) in a watery runnel near the brewery.
Other types include .....
Pond Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus peltatus) - floating leaves are lobed, submerged leaves are feathery; normally found in still water.. Found throughout Europe.
Common Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) - floating leaves are rounded and lobed; found in still and flowing water. Found in western and central Europe.
Three-lobed Crowfoot (Ranunculs tripartitus) - floating leaves are three-lobed and broad, submerged leaves are feathery. Found in south-west England.

The yellow flowers of Broom, Cytisus scoparius, a member of the pea family and closely related to the gorses .....

Broom flowers.

Walk details

MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.

This walk was accessed from the main car park in the centre of Princetown, marked by the yellow cross on the map.

Statistics
Distance - 6.45 km / 4.01 miles