Princetown Distillery Update: 13 August 2018

The latest photos from the site showing most of the ground levelled. Many of the boulders removed from the peat are being kept to be used in the construction.

Princetown Distillery Update: 26 July 2018

Work continues. The largest of the granite boulders removed from the peat weighed over 20 tons.

Princetown Distillery Update: 23 July 2018

Following a hiatus of several months, work begins again at the site of the Princetown distillery in July 2018, grubbing up large granite boulders undercovered beneath the peat.

Princetown Distillery Update: 27 February 2018

These unexciting photos were the last I took until later in the year as work on the site ground to a halt for several months.

Princetown Distillery Update: Groundworks Begin [February 2018]

Work began on the site of what is to be the highest distillery in mainland Britain on a cold, snowy day on 06 February 2018.This involved putting up a perimeter fence around the area and shifting some heavy machinery onto the construction site.

Princetown Distillery Update: Plans and Design

The distillery at Princetown within the Dartmoor National Park was given the go-ahead back in April 2017. Well over a year later and things on site are really only just starting to take shape so it's a good time to post some updates. There was a burst of activity in February and March 2018 before work ground to a halt following an issue, as I understand it, with the Environment Agency.

The presence of the distillery, destined to be the highest by altitude in the British Isles, has caused some controversy and hasn't been universally welcomed by Princetown residents. The £4 million project received 46 letters of complaint and only 4 in support. However, with the prison destined to close within the next five years, anything that boosts the local economy should probably be welcomed. We already have a brewery operating from the village and the distillery will be close to it.

There was also some concern regarding two buildings that were earmarked for demolition as part of the construction: a 1920s power station by Richardson & Gill and a 1950s 'pocket' power station building. The 1950s building is still going to be removed but the Richardson & Gill building has now apparently been granted a reprieve.

The distillery will follow the designs of Organic Architects, a firm based, fittingly, in Scotland and should produce 400,000 litres of whisky at start-up. Some local residents thought that the design was 'too Scottish' but I personally think the finished structures, once completed, will probably blend in OK both with Princetown and with the moorland environment.

The artist impressions above and below give some idea of how the distillery will look once it's finished, sometime in the summer of 2019.

 Images copyright of OrganicArchitects

Sunset Over Goatstone Pool

Sunset over Goatstone Pool - 31 July 2018

Water Level Falls at Burrator Reservoir: 25 July 2018

The dry weather saw the water level at Burrator reservoir drop by over 50%. As the water fell, a few remains of the settlements and enclosures that stood in the Meavy valley prior to its flooding at the end of the 19th century were revealed: a cobbled path, an enclosure wall, some granite rail tracks used during the reservoir's construction, etc. Not surprisingly, there was no sign of the 'church tower' that, according to modern rumour, was supposed to lie under the murky depths...

The water level usually extends to the treeline

Part of a normally submerged wall

Granite tramlines used during the reservoir's construction

A granite gatepost and part of a field enclosure wall

The remains of a pathway

The river Meavy usually completely hidden beneath the water

Strange piles of white stones on the reservoir bed, possibly the remnants of earlier mining operations

The Meavy flowing into the reservoir

Goldsmith's Cross, near Fox Tor Mire

Goldsmith's Cross, looking north-east across Fox Tor Mire

Goldsmith's Cross stands upon the high moor on the edge of Fox Tor Mire. It is almost certainly one of the many that once acted as waymarkers on the monastic track between the abbeys of Buckland and Buckfast. William Crossing was the first person to record the existence of this track across the moor and in his famous 'Guide to Dartmoor' he referred to it as the "monks' path".

Goldsmith's Cross stands to the west of the cross surmounting Childe's Tomb, from which it is visible. The cross to the west of Goldsmith's Cross is currently Siward's Cross, standing close to Nun's Cross Farm.

The cross is carved from granite and is obviously shorter than it was originally, the shaft having been reduced in height. It was rediscovered by Lt. Goldsmith in 1903 having been thrown down and broken upon the moor not far from its original position. Goldsmith oversaw its repair with metal staples and the re-erection of the cross upon the boulder in which it formerly stood.

It's well-worth visiting Goldsmith's Cross as it lies within easy reach of several other medieval Dartmoor crosses, including Childe's Tomb and the cross at Mount Misery and on Ter Hill.

Goldsmith Cross looking into the eastern extent of the Dartmoor National Park

The cross also enjoys tremendous views north across Fox Tor Mire and towards the eastern side of the Dartmoor National Park. There is a Bronze Age stone-lined tomb or kistvaen in the vicinity.

Access: via Tor Royal Lane accessed at Princetown. There are several car parks above the Devonport Leat.

Sources:
'Guide to Dartmoor', William Crossing, 1981
'Dartmoor Crosses and Some Ancient Tracks', F. H. Starkey, 1989

The 'New' London Bridge Corbels at Swelltor Quarry

The 13 remaining corbels with Swelltor Quarry in the background.

One of Dartmoor's more well-known artifacts isn't prehistoric at all but dates to the beginning of the 20th century. They can be seen at Swelltor Quarry and are granite corbels carved on-site for alterations that were being made to London Bridge [SX556735].

The quarry opened c.1820 along with the quarry at nearby Foggin Tor. In March 1903 nearly 1600 tonnes of granite were blasted in one operation and it was from this rock that the corbels were fashioned. Swelltor Quarry at this time was under the ownership of Pethicks and they were the firm given the commission to supply the pieces necessary for the bridge's alteration.

One of the beautifully worked corbels.

The 'New' London Bridge was designed by John Rennie and opened in 1831 as a replacement for the medieval bridge that had spanned the Thames since the 13th century. Rennie's bridge was itself constructed originally from granite quarried at Haytor. By the end of the 19th century, due to congestion, a plan was hatched to increase the width of the bridge by 13ft by projecting the pavements out over the Thames on a series of corbels. It is the remnants of these corbels which can be seen today at Swelltor Quarry.

Thirteen of them lie on a track to the north-west of the quarry. These were apparently too short to be used and so lie here still, fully finished, enjoying spectacular views into West Devon and Cornwall.

The corbels with views into West Devon and Cornwall.

The bridge itself was sold in 1968 and the casing stones shipped to Lake Havasu. Some of the corbels remaining on the moor at this time are said to have been included in the sale and made the journey to America where they were used when the bridge was rebuilt in Arizona.

Access: A round trip from Princetown to see the corbels is a very easy walk of about 7km along the disused railway line. The corbels are to the right of the path that passes through the quarry on the way to King's Tor.

Sources:
'Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor', Helen Harris, 1986
'Exploring Dartmoor Again', F. H. Starkey, 1986

Crazywell Cross, near Crazywell Pool

Crazywell Cross

This cross stands close to the south-east corner of Crazywell Pool [SX583704]. It is almost certainly one of the crosses erected upon the moor during the Middle Ages to act as a waymaker for the track leading east-west between the great abbeys of Buckfast and Buckland.

William Crossing wrote about this cross at the end of the 19th century as it was lying broken upon the moor: "The cross, of which only the head now remains, is lying near the edge of the pool, and probably not far from its original site. It is particularly unfortunate that it should have been overturned and shattered for no spot could be more fitting for it than the bank of the silent pool".

The cross has subsequently been repaired, the original head and arms being affixed to a new granite shaft and the whole re-erected in what is probably a new socket hole close to where it once stood.

Crazywell Cross towards Burrator Reservoir

Access: very easy via parking at Norsworthy Bridge, Burrator Reservoir. A short walk on a graveled path soon brings you to both Crazywell Pool and the cross.

Prehistoric Art on the Moor? Alleged Cup-Marked Boulder at Holming Beam

The cup-marked boulder. But is it prehistoric?

If true, this would be an artifact of great significance. The stone was identified in 1980 by T. A. Greeves as an example of a 'cup-marked boulder', a type of prehistoric art that is widespread across Western Europe. The stone has what appears to be 14 cup-shaped hollows carved into it.

Two other examples have been tentatively identified on Dartmoor: one at Brisworthy and another at Dunstone. This third example can be seen on the long road leading to the car park at Holming Beam, SX594752.

But is it what it appears to be? Other explanations have included an early-20th century tinners' mortar stone and a stone associated with the nearby prison at Princetown. The stone is now incorporated into a dry-stone wall. At some point it had the number '18' painted on it and the stone was then reused and inverted when it was placed into the Holming Beam wall. 18 became 81.

H. Riley, in 1994, wrote that: "This granite block, built into the stone wall which forms the eastern boundary of Long Plantation, appears to be a mortar stone. The granite block measures 0.7 meters wide by 0.5 meters high; its thickness cannot be measured. There are approximately 12 circular depressions on its eastern face. These measure between 0.075 and 0.1 meter in diameter and up to 0.05 meters in depth. There are two rows of three depressions; the others are arranged at random. The mortar stone itself appears to be part of a relatively recent wall repair and is upside-down to its previous position. Its original location is unknown. The figure 18 is painted on its eastern face, suggesting a previous use by the military or the prison authorities".

I would like nothing more than the carving on the stone to be proven to be of a prehistoric origin. But exceptional claims require exceptional evidence and it seems, in this case, as though the jury is still out.

The mystery stone of the road to Holming Beam.

The Beardown Man Standing Stone

Beardown Man c.1750 BC.

Dartmoor has justly been described as one of the world's greatest open-air archaeological museums and none of its many exhibits are more impressive than the standing stone known as Beardown Man [SX596796].

The menhir is made up of a single slab of granite and currently stands at around 3.5m [11ft]. However, according to Jeremy Butler, the peat here has grown by a least a metre since the menhir was erected during the Bronze Age. This would give an original height of the standing stone of about 4.5m [14.7ft]. The tallest standing stone left on the moor today is a 4.2m example at Drizzlecombe, Beardown Man being the second tallest.

The remarkable shard-like appearance of the standing stone as seen from the west.

The stone is sited at an altitude of 550m near Devil's Tor on the edge of the great peat bog that makes up so much of the northern moor. It is one of just three standing stones on Dartmoor that don't appear to be associated with any other prehistoric ritual features e.g. stone rows, cairns or circles. The remains of several small Bronze Age settlements lie nearby in the valley of the Cowsic river to the west but the settlements might post-date the standing stone by centuries.

Beardown Man with Devil's Tor, right.

The term 'man' is associated with a number of tall stones on the moor and is derived from 'maen', the Celtic word for 'stone' ['men-hir' has a similar etymology, meaning 'long stone']. Crossing was told at the end of the 19th century that, for the moormen who lived and worked on the moor, the stone represented the Devil.

It's the only prehistoric artifact on the moor that, for me, has a genuinely eerie presence. Many of the ancient sites have a powerful atmosphere redolent of people long gone whose lives and beliefs seem impossibly distant. But Beardown Man feels different. Like in an M.R. James ghost story, you can imagine visiting it on a winter's afternoon and inadvertently bringing some thing back home with you. It's a tremendous object, even now in the 21st century long after its original purpose has been lost.

Beardown Man from the east with rain falling over Great Mis Tor.

Was it a meeting place? A burial place? An object around which commemorations and rituals took place? Was it a boundary marker? Is its location on the edge of the vastness of the northern moor significant? Was it to tell people to go no further? Butler concludes that, like the other two solitary standing stones, it was probably "a memorial of some kind". I doubt we'll ever know. Around 3500-years ago, at least, the people who lived on Dartmoor in what we now call the Bronze Age dragged this enormous pillar of rock into a vertical position and here it still stands.

Beardown Man just visible on the horizon from Conies Down Tor.

Access: relatively easy from the car park at Holming Beam. Park up, descend into the Cowsic river valley to the east, crossing the wooden footbridge, then follow the peaty path towards Beardown Tors and then northwards to Lydford Tor. Then it's a relatively straight walk northwards, using the big stiles set in the wall of the Beardown newtake, to Devil's Tor and Beardown Man. Going straight there and back is about 6.5 km.

Sources:
'Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor', William Crossing, 1912
'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities. Vol. II: The North', Jeremy Butler, 1991
'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities. Vol. V: The Second Millennium B.C.', Jeremy Butler, 1997