5
COUNTRYSIDE & ENVIRONMENT
THE COASTLINE
The Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site chartered in 2001, stretches for 95 miles, from Orcombe Point, Exmouth, to Old Harry Rocks, near Swanage, Dorset. The entire length can be walked on the South West Coast Path, which runs 630 miles from Minehead, Somerset, to Poole Harbour, Dorset.
Prawle Point near Salcombe is the most southerly part of Devon, while Foreland Point near Lynton is the most northerly.
DARTMOOR
Dartmoor, covering 368sq miles, or 14 per cent of the county’s land mass, was created a National Park in 1951 under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act.
The highest point on Dartmoor, High Willhays (2,039ft above sea level), is not only the highest in the county, but also in Britain south of the Brecon Beacons.
Canonteign Falls, in the Teign Valley, is England’s highest waterfall, with the falls descending almost vertically for 220ft.
EXMOOR
Exmoor, of which 29 per cent lies in Devon and 71 per cent in Somerset, covering in all 267sq miles and 34 miles of coast, became a National Park in 1954. Part of the North Devon coast within Exmoor has the highest sea cliffs and coastline in England. Great Hangman, near Combe Martin, has a cliff face of 820ft, and the hill is 1,043ft high.
PLACE-NAMES
The name Devon is said to be derived from Dyvnaint, a Celtic term meaning ‘a deep valley dweller’. The Roman name for Exeter was Isca Dumnoniorum. Dumnonia was the area of ancient Britain corresponding roughly to present-day Devon, and the Dumnonia the British Celtic tribe who lived there, the name taken from the proto-Celtic root word dumno-, meaning ‘deep’ and ‘world’. Isca is alternatively said to be a Latin word for river, or for ‘river full of fish’. Other names thought to be Celtic in origin are Barum for Barnstaple, and Penn for Newton Abbot. Sudtone, probably Saxon in origin and meaning ‘south town’, became Sutton, the settlement around the harbour which developed into Plymouth.
Buckfastleigh is believed to be unique among British place-names in using exactly half the letters of the alphabet, and each only once.
An even longer place-name in the county is shared by two villages, both called Woolfardisworthy, the larger being in the Torridge district and the smaller near Crediton. The name is believed to mean ‘Wulfheard’s homestead’, Wulfheard being a medieval Bishop of Hereford who died in about AD 820. It is now generally pronounced and sometimes spelt Woolsery.
Several local names contain the word cott, Anglo-Saxon for a small hut; worthy or worthig, an area of enclosed land; or combe or coombe, a valley or well-hidden place. Pennycomequick, Plymouth, comes from the Celtic Pen-y-combe-gwyk, or settlement at the head of the creek valley. Goosewell is said to be from the Anglo-Saxon goose-wealig, or spring of the goose, though is more likely to be from the Celtic cus-ughel, or high wood.
The South Hams takes its name from ‘ham’, or low-lying meadowland.
CONSERVATION CHARITIES
Devon Wildlife Trust
Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and English Nature both have several reserves in Devon, including some of those listed below, and Butterfly Conservation has a branch in the county.
BUTTERFLIES
Between 2006 and 2010, sightings of between forty-one and fifty different species have been reported annually to the Devon branch of Butterfly Conservation. The full list for 2006, the best of these years, is as follows, with the most common first and the last five having been recorded only once. Some are classed as migrants which rarely appear in Britain and do not breed here, while the Large Tortoiseshell, once fairly common, is thought to be extinct in this country although still fairly widespread in Europe.
Red Admiral
Small Tortoiseshell
Brimstone
Peacock
Meadow Brown
Hedge Brown (Gatekeeper)
Painted Lady
Speckled Wood
Small Copper
Comma
Holly Blue
Clouded Yellow
Orange Tip
Green-Veined White
Large White
Pearl-Bordered Fritillary
Small White
Wall Brown
Wood White
Green Hairstreak
Dingy Skipper
Grizzled Skipper
Heath Fritillary
Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillary
Small Heath
Common Blue
Marsh Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
Brown Argus
Large Skipper
Silver-Studded Blue
Ringlet
High Brown Fritillary
Marbled White
Small Skipper
White Admiral
Silver-Washed Fritillary
Purple Hairstreak
White Letter Hairstreak
Chalkhill Blue
Grayling
Pale Clouded Yellow
Long-Tailed Blue
Brown Hairstreak
Swallowtail
Camberwell Beauty
Bath White
Essex Skipper
Monarch (Milkweed)
Large Tortoiseshell
Recent years have seen an increase in Devon of two of the rarest English butterfly species, the Small Blue (the country’s smallest resident butterfly) and the Marsh Fritillary. The Small Blue has been bred from larvae taken from a colony in Torbay and introduced to another area nearby by the Torbay Coast & Countryside Trust. On Dartmoor, the Two Moors Threatened Butterfly Project was set up by Butterfly Conservation in partnership with the Dartmoor and Exmoor National Park Authorities to try to reverse the decline in numbers of the Marsh, High Brown and Heath Fritillaries, and the sites kept under observation reported a healthy recovery in all three, particularly the former.
DEVON WILDLIFE & NATURE RESERVES
Aylesbeare Common
Baggy Point, near Croyde
Berry Head, near Brixham
Braunton Burrows
Chapel Wood, near Braunton
Dawlish Warren, Exe Estuary
Hope’s Nose, Torbay
Lady’s Wood, South Brent
Lundy Island
Morwellham
Occombe Valley Woods, near Paignton
Otter Estuary
Prawle Point, near East Prawle
Slapton Ley, near Torcross
Stover Country Park, near Newton Abbot
Yarner Wood, near Bovey Tracey
LUNDY
The waters around Lundy, which had been a marine nature reserve for over twenty years, were officially recognised as Britain’s first marine conservation zone under the Marine and Coastal Access Act, which became law in November 2009.
Lundy is renowned for its rich variety of bird life. There are 317 species on the list of those recorded on the island, with an average of 144 different species recorded annually between 1980 and 2005, the record year being in 1985 with 160 species. It is a popular breeding site for the Manx Shearwater as well as the traditional Lundy seabird, the Puffin. Several vagrant species from North America and Europe have been seen, including the only British sightings of the Ancient Murrelet, Bimaculated Lark, Common Yellowthroat and American Robin.
Towards the end of the twentieth century the number of Puffins on Lundy declined sharply, from more than 3,500 pairs in 1939 to less than 10 pairs in 2000, while the Manx Shearwater showed a similar fall in numbers. In 2003 the Lundy Seabird Project was launched, part of which was a £50,000 operation to exterminate rats on the island by placing thousands of specially designed and baited traps laid in a strategic grid across the island.
DEVON ZOOS & WILDLIFE PARKS
Buckfast Butterfly Farm and Otter Sanctuary, Buckfastleigh
Combe Martin Wildlife Park
Dartmoor Wildlife Park, near Sparkwell, Plympton
Paignton Zoo Environmental Park
Shaldon Wildlife Trust
DEVON NATURALISTS & SCIENTISTS
Thomas Savery (c. 1650–1715), born at Shilstone, near Modbury, and Thomas Newcomen (c. 1663–1729), born in Dartmouth, went into partnership as inventors of the first practical steam engine for pumping water.
John Lethbridge (1675–1759), a wool merchant from Newton Abbot, invented an underwater diving machine in 1715 – an airtight barrel or oak cylinder with a glass porthole, enabling the user to salvage valuables from wrecks off the seabed.
Thomas Fowler (1777–1843), born in Great Torrington, patented the first convective heating system, forerunner of the modern central heating system, and built one of the first calculating machines.
William Snow Harris (1791–1867), born in Plymouth, nicknamed ‘Thunder and Lightning Harris’, invented a successful system of lightning conductors adopted by the Royal Navy.
Charles Babbage (1791–1871), born in London but brought up largely in Teignmouth and Totnes, was a mathematician, inventor and mechanical engineer credited with inventing the first mechanical computer.
William Elford Leach (1791–1836), born in Plymouth, collected marine samples from Plymouth Sound and along the coast as a boy. An expert on crustaceans and molluscs, he became Assistant Keeper of the Natural History Department in the British Museum, and published several major scientific works, including his Systematic Catalogues of the Specimens of the Indigenous Mammalia and Birds in the British Museum, and Synopsis of the Mollusca of Great Britain.
George Parker Bidder (1806–78), ‘the Calculating Boy’, a precocious child mathematician, born in Moretonhampstead, later became a civil engineer, and was involved in helping to plan and construct railways, gas lighting and transatlantic cables at home and abroad.
William Carpenter (1813–85), born at Exeter, physician, invertebrate zoologist and physiologist, was noted most for his research into marine zoology. He also wrote Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors, one of the first books to promote the fact that alcoholism is a disease.
Charles Bate (1819–89), Cornish by birth, spent most of his life in Plymouth. A dentist by profession, he contributed several papers to learned journals on the subject. Also known for his zoological expertise, he produced a Catalogue of Crustacea in the British Museum Collection.
The Revd William Keble Martin (1887–1969), Archpriest of Haccombe and Rector of Coffinswell until his retirement in 1949, spent 60 years writing and illustrating The Concise British Flora in Colour. It was published in 1965 when he was aged 88 and it became an instant bestseller.
W.N.P. Barbellion, the pseudonym of naturalist and diarist Bruce Cummings (1889–1919), born in Barnstaple. He worked in the Department of Entomology at the Natural History Museum, Kensington, but early in adult life he was diagnosed with disseminated sclerosis. Selections from his diaries, mixing scientific and personal observations, were published in The Journal of a Disappointed Man, a few months before his death.
H.G. (Henry George) Hurrell (1901–81), was a regular broadcaster with the BBC Natural History Unit, and took a leading part in various international ornithological congresses. He bought a property near Wrangaton, South Brent, where he and his family kept ravens, otters and pine martens and a grey seal, Atlanta (see p. 101) in order to study their behaviour more closely. His books included Wildlife – Tame but Free (1968), and a short animal novel Fling, the Story of the Pine Marten (1980).
Tony Soper (1929–), founded the BBC Natural History Unit, became its first film producer, and presented several wildlife documentaries and children’s series on TV. He also wrote widely on wildlife subjects, and the success of his The Bird Table Book, reprinted many times since its appearance in 1965, resulted in him being dubbed Britain’s ‘Mr Birdwatch’. His other titles include Wildlife Begins at Home (1975), and Discovering Owls, with John Sparks (1995).
COUNTY WEATHER RECORDS
February is generally the county’s coldest month, when the sea reaches its lowest temperature. There have been occasional exceptions, such as when -8.9°C (48°F) was recorded at Exmouth on 13 January 1987. A combination of frosty midwinter weather with clear and calm nights resulted in -15.0°C (5°F) at Exeter Airport on 24 January 1958.
July and August are the warmest months, producing an average daily maximum temperature of around 18°C (64°F). The Torbay area, which faces east, is normally the warmest area of the county. Extreme high temperatures are rare, being associated with hot air brought from mainland Europe on south-easterly winds and accompanied by strong sunshine. The county’s highest temperature was on 3 August 1990 when 35.4°C (96°F) was recorded at Saunton Sands. Temperatures over 31°C (88°F) were registered at several locations in Devon on 29 June 1976, and of 33°C (91°F) at Killerton in July 1923.
Devon’s worst weather disaster in terms of lives lost was on the night of 15/16 August 1952 – 9in of rain fell on Long Barrow, Exmoor, in twelve hours, while the swollen East and West Lyn rivers destroyed the centre of Lynmouth and claimed thirty-four lives. Ninety-three houses were destroyed or so badly damaged that they had to be demolished, as were twenty-eight bridges in the area.
DROUGHTS
According to D. St Leger-Gordon (Portrait of Devon, 1963), Devon is unlikely to run dry, as it has more rivers and streams than any other English county, and while several run into Devon from its neighbours on either side, none run out until reaching the sea. Nevertheless, the county has regularly been affected by severe droughts, particularly in the especially sunny years of 1921, 1933–4, 1959, 1975–6, 1984 and 1989–90.
Of these, that of 1976 was by far the worst. A long, hot dry summer in 1975 was followed by an unusually dry winter and spring the following year. Parts of the county had no rain at all throughout June 1976, and temperatures of 32ºC, or 89.6ºF, were recorded for fourteen consecutive days throughout southern England. Teignmouth had no measurable rain throughout the summer and tinder-dry woodland, moorland and heathland areas were devastated by fires. The drought peaked during the holiday season in July and August when demand for water was at its greatest. A Drought Act was passed, standpipes were installed in some areas, and no substantial rain was recorded until late September.
SNOWFALL
Devon has also experienced heavy snowfalls and blizzards, and recent history has proved that one should not pay too much attention to those who predict that climate change and global warming will consign such occurrences to the history books.
In March 1891 The Times reported that ‘no such storm had visited the West of England within remembrance’. Winter came late that year, but between 9 and 13 March Devon and Cornwall were almost completely cut off from the rest of the country by conditions in which over 200 people and 6,000 animals perished. Temperatures fell below zero, trees were felled by violent gales, and snowdrifts up to 15ft high in places were reported. Ships were driven on to the rocks, roads were impassable, and trains were snowbound. A train travelling from Yelverton to Princetown was trapped by a large snowdrift and could not move overnight, with three crew and six passengers having to huddle up together in a carriage until they were rescued the next day by a farmer struggling to tend his sheep. The line subsequently remained closed for several weeks.
Devon had a white Christmas in 1927 when snow began falling on Christmas Day, the heaviest falls seen in the region since 1891. Within 24 hours, most of East Devon was experiencing 10ft drifts, while on Dartmoor they reached 16ft. Diners were eating at a Princetown hotel that night, some less aware than others that snow was piling up outside the building so quickly that they would be unable to leave that night, and next morning convicts from the prison had to dig out warders from their snowbound homes so they could report for duty.
Even worse was the winter of early 1947. Over 7in of snow fell across most of the county in late January, while people in villages on and near Dartmoor were faced with 20ft drifts, and the RAF had to make food drops to some stranded communities.
On 28 December 1962 blizzards were reported over Devon and Cornwall, with 15ft drifts by 30 December. These conditions persisted for several weeks, and on 4 February 1963 seventy lorry drivers had to take refuge overnight in a school at Whiddon Down between Exeter and Okehampton. On 17 February, after several hours of brilliant sunshine (and fear of floods due to sudden thawing), some roads across Dartmoor were able to open for the first time since the week of Christmas. On 2 March troops relieved a farm on Dartmoor which had been cut off by 20ft drifts for 66 days.
After several days of dry, frosty conditions, up to 10in of snow fell overnight on 15/16 February 1978. Within two days, gales and blizzard conditions had resulted in much of Devon being at a standstill, and on 19 February 13½in of snow fell at Exeter Airport, resulting in drifts of up to 24ft. For three days many areas were without electricity as power lines were down, the M5 Exeter to Bristol and all roads over Dartmoor were impassable for several days, and due to the transport network being paralysed, food and water had to be flown in to some more remote communities by helicopter. By 22 February a thaw was setting in, but some of the larger snowdrifts were still visible for several weeks afterwards.
Although it was a comparatively mild winter in 2004, parts of Dartmoor, Torbay and Plymouth had light snowfall on Christmas Day. Six years later, on 20 December 2010, the county had its heaviest snowfall since February 1978. Commuters were trapped on the A38 at Haldon Hill for several hours, many schools were closed, and postal and refuse collection services were suspended for some days. Due to low temperatures, a thaw did not set in for over a week in most areas.
FLOODING
Although less severe than the disaster at Lynton referred to on p. 77, in October 1960 Exeter had 15in of rain, about half the annual average. On 26 October, 2½in fell, causing the level of the River Exe to rise suddenly, and next day it burst its banks, flooding much of the city. The worst affected was Okehampton Street, with 6ft of water. Several other towns along the East Devon coastline, including Exmouth, Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton, were also badly inconvenienced.
THE MET OFFICE
The United Kingdom’s national weather service, formerly the Meteorological Office, was founded in 1854 as a small department within the Board of Trade. In 2003 it moved its headquarters to a purpose-built £80,000,000 structure on the outskirts of Exeter, and was officially opened on 21 June 2004.
DEVON & RENEWABLE ENERGY
A MORI (Market Opinion Research International) poll, commissioned by Regen SW, the renewable energy agency for the south-west, was taken from 218 interviews conducted from a representative quota sample of Devon residents aged sixteen and over, from thirteen different sampling points, in October 2004. It found that 86 per cent of those polled supported the use of renewable energy, and only 2 per cent opposed it. Support was reflected in high levels in favour of wind power (76 per cent), and biomass power (67 per cent). 47 per cent of respondents had ‘no strong feelings’ about the appearance of wind farms, and the remainder who expressed an opinion were fairly evenly divided, with 28 per cent saying they liked them, 24 per cent not. Quotas were set on rural and urban location, age, gender and work status to ensure a representative sampling.
NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTIES
A La Ronde, Exmouth
Arlington Court, near Barnstaple
Bradley, Newton Abbot
Buckland Abbey, Yelverton
Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton
Church House, Widecombe
Coleton Fishacre, near Kingswear
Compton Castle, Paignton
Elizabethan House, Plymouth
Finch Foundry, near Okehampton
Greenway, Galmpton, near Brixham
Killerton, near Exeter
Knightshayes Court, near Tiverton
Loughwood Meeting House, near Axminster
Lundy Island
Lydford Gorge, near Okehampton
Markers Cottage, near Exeter
Old Bakery, Branscombe
Overbecks, near Salcombe
Saltram, Plympton
Shute Barton, near Axminster
Watersmeet House, near Lynmouth
Wheal Betsy Engine House, near Mary Tavy
Dunsland House, near Holsworthy, a National Trust property, was completely destroyed by fire in 1967.
LOST DEVON HOUSES & COMMUNITIES
Hallsands was a thriving coastal village near Start Point in Victorian times and had a population of about 160 in 1891. Around that time dredging began offshore to provide sand and gravel for expansion of the naval dockyard at Keyham, Plymouth. Within a few years the level of the beach had dropped significantly, and part of the sea wall was washed away. In 1902 the dredging licence was revoked, but the levels never recovered. During the storms of January 1917, a combination of easterly gales and exceptionally high tides breached the village’s natural defences, and by the end of the year only one house was still habitable. No lives were lost, but all the villagers had to move further inland.
Morwellham Quay and New Quay (not to be confused with Newquay in Cornwall) are small abandoned villages near Tavistock, on the east banks of the Tamar. They prospered during Victorian times with the mining industry, but once the mines were exhausted in about 1900 they were abandoned. Morwellham later became a heritage museum, while New Quay and surrounding area are protected under World Heritage status.
Hundatora was a medieval village to the south-east of Hound Tor, with four Dartmoor longhouses, as well as several smaller houses and barns. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Tavistock Abbey. Hutholes, a village near Widecombe-in-the-Moor, consisted of two longhouses and three outhouses. Both were abandoned in about 1350, either due to the worsening climate or the Black Death, or a combination of both.
Eggesford House, near Chulmleigh, built between 1820 and 1830, was home of the Earl of Portsmouth. Abandoned in 1911, it had become little more than a ruin within less than ten years.
Membland Hall, the home and estate of Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke, was sold off piecemeal after he fell into debt in the 1890s. The increasingly dilapidated structure was largely destroyed by fire about forty years later and the remains were dynamited in the 1960s. Most of the estate buildings have since been converted to private residences.
Oldstone, near Blackawton, the home of the wealthy Dimes family, was gutted by fire in 1895 and the estate gradually went to rack and ruin. Laura, one of the Dimes daughters, had eloped with and married Hugh Shortland, a solicitor, in 1884, much against the wishes of her parents who suspected he was after the family money. He told her he was going abroad on business immediately after the wedding so she returned home without having had any honeymoon, and a few days later she was found drowned in a pond on the estate. He was put on trial for her murder but acquitted, and despite his persistent efforts to have the case reopened on the grounds that somebody else had killed her, nobody was ever brought to justice.
DEVON CURIOSITIES & FOLLIES
Haldon Belvedere, or Lawrence’s Castle, Haldon Hill
This was originally built by Sir Robert Palk in 1788 as a centrepiece to his estates, and dedicated to the memory of Major General Stringer Lawrence, Commander of the British armies in India in the 1750s. Renovated in 1995 by the Devon Historic Buildings Trust, supported by English Heritage, it is one of the finest examples of this type of triangular tower in England.
Daymark, Dartmouth Harbour
Standing 80ft high, this octagonal granite tower was erected in 1864 by the Dartmouth Harbour Commissioners as a replacement for a chapel which had stood there for centuries to help guide sailors into the harbour entrance. It has no lighting, and would therefore only have been useful in daytime.
Charge of the Light Brigade Monument, Hatherleigh
The monument was erected by public subscription in 1860 on the moorland outside the town to the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel William Morris. He was a locally born man who fought in the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, but was wounded and died in India from sunstroke four years later. It is a large obelisk with a bronze bas-relief at the front of the pedestal, showing Morris being carried from the battlefield.
Mamhead Obelisk
A 100ft Portland stone structure built between 1742 and 1745 by Thomas Ball, a merchant, above Mamhead House, near Haldon, ‘out of a regard to safety of such as might use to sail out of the Port to Exon or any others who might be driven on the coast.’
Rhenish Tower, Lynmouth
Built in about 1858 by General Rawdon on the main street facing the sea. He intended to keep salt water there for use in baths in the house, and refined it a couple of years later with battlements. The original was destroyed in the Lynmouth floods of 1952, and the present building is a copy.
Triumphal arch, Filleigh, near South Molton
The arch was erected in about 1730 by Earl Fortescue on a hill leading to his estates at Castle Hill, and rebuilt in 1961 after the original had been destroyed by the weight of overgrown ivy.
Conduit, Brownston Street, Modbury
A gift from merchant Adrian Swete in 1708, consisting largely of a squared granite block with a pyramidal roof surmounted with a ball finial, it was provided to bring a supply of fresh water to the town, fed by the reservoir higher up the street and sourced from the Silverwell Spring. It was moved to the side of the road in 1874.
South Brent jubilee sundial
In 1897 a lamp post-cum-signpost with an inscription on the three-sided base marking Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee was placed in South Brent Square, at the junction of Station Road, Church Street and Plymouth Road. Over the years it became increasingly vulnerable to larger vehicles, and it was moved in about 1969, to the fury of some residents who saw it as a valuable traffic-calming device. It was moved to two successive sites in the village, first to Station Yard and then to Wellington Square, about a hundred yards away from the original site. The lamp post and signpost have been removed and a sundial has been added on the top of the base, on the other two sides of which have been added inscriptions for the silver and golden jubilees of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977 and 2002.
The Ten Commandments stone, Buckland Beacon
In 1928 Parliament rejected a move to adopt the proposed new Book of Common Prayer, regarded by some as a ‘Popish trend’. To commemorate what was seen as a victory for Protestantism, the then lord of Buckland Manor, William Whitely of Wellstor, commissioned Mr W.A. Clement, a stonemason from Exmouth, to engrave the Ten Commandments from a prayer book on two large stones. The work began on 23 July 1928 and was completed on 31 August. During that time, Mr Clement stayed in a cowshed in the woods nearby, with only a candle for light, and a stream in which to wash and from which to obtain drinking water. The inscriptions were recut in the summer of 1995 by the Dartmoor National Park Authority.
Cornworthy Priory Gatehouse
The sole remaining structure of the Augustinian priory of nuns at Cornworthy, near Dartmouth, the smallest of three Devon convents, founded in the early thirteenth century and dissolved in 1537. There are remains of some walls to the south-east.
Wheal Betsy Engine House
Used for mining operations for lead, copper, silver, arsenic and zinc near Mary Tavy, this is the last standing engine house on Dartmoor. The army were given permission to demolish it in 1954, but it was saved after strong lobbying by campaigners and given to the National Trust, who have since restored it.
Brunel Pumping Station, Torre, Torquay
Built between 1846 and 1848 on the Torquay branch of the South Devon Railway between Devon and Exeter, it was intended as part of a system for the atmospheric railway which would work by the propulsive force of compressed air, but the project was abandoned without being completed. It is the only pumping station to survive intact. Others survive, with minor damage, at Starcross and Totnes, and all are listed buildings. The one at Totnes became part of a milk processing factory in 1934 and remained in use until 2007. When Dairy Crest, the owners, tried to sell it off for a housing development in 2008, a campaign led by Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson succeeded in saving it from demolition.
DEVON WINDMILLS
Part of the structure of the following windmills can still be seen, although in most cases all that remains is a derelict tower and part of the base.
Little Rey, Brixham
Cliston Manor, Broadclyst
Warborough, Galmpton
Instow
Lundy Island
Long Burrow, North Whilborough
Bidna, Northam
Fernacombe, Paignton
Heanton, Petrockstowe
Yaddon Down, Torquay
A millennium windmill was designed to be built at Occombe Farm, Paignton, as part of a proposal put forward for the Occombe Heritage Farm, based on that of mills operating in Devon in the nineteenth century, but with computer-controlled variations in sail area according to wind strength. It reached no further than the planning stages.
THE HOUSE THAT MOVED
In 1961 the fifteenth-century Merchant House, which formerly stood at 16 Edmund Street, Exeter, was earmarked for demolition to make way for a new road scheme. As one of the oldest surviving houses in Exeter, antiquarians and archaeologists lobbied successfully for it to be saved, and the City Council provided £10,000 for it to be moved. Several weeks were spent in preparing the 21-ton structure, as it was criss-crossed with strengthening timbers, and iron wheels attached to hydraulic jacks were placed at each corner. Iron bolts, screws and supports could not be used as these would have resulted in damage to the original timbers. It was moved in stages, beginning on 9 December. Four days later, Edmund Street was closed to traffic so the house could be moved up the road on a 10-ton timber cradle, with air compressors driving the winches as it was slowly dragged on the rails, up the street. The operation was completed within twenty-four hours and the house, having been moved 295ft, was placed in its new position, treated for woodworm, and a leaded-light window that was taken to the museum before the move for safe keeping was reinstalled. It has been successively been home to an antique dealer, a gem dealer and a wedding dress shop.
DEVON CASTLES
Few of these survive in their entirety, and only fragments of Plymouth Castle in particular still remain. The twentieth-century Castle Drogo was the last built in England, a distinction it is unlikely to forfeit.
Affeton Castle, West
Worlington
Bampton Castle
Barnstaple Castle
Berry Pomeroy Castle
Bickleigh Castle
Castle Drogo
Dartmouth Castle
Gidleigh Castle
Hemyock Castle, Cullompton
Kingswear Castle
Lydford Castle
Okehampton Castle
Plymouth Castle
Powderham Castle
Rougemont Castle
Tiverton Castle
Totnes Castle
Watermouth Castle, near Ilfracombe
SOME DEVON MUSEUMS
Appledore, Maritime Museum
Ashburton Museum
Barnstaple, Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon
Bideford, Burton Art Gallery and Museum
Bideford, Parsonage Museum
Bideford Railway Museum
Brixham Heritage Museum
Budleigh Salterton, Countryside Museum and Bicton Park Botanical Gardens
Budleigh Salterton, Fairlynch Museum
Budleigh Salterton, Otterton Mill Centre and Working Museum
Cullompton, Coldharbour Mill Working Wool Museum
Exeter, Bill Douglas Centre for History of Cinema and Popular Culture
Exeter, Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery
Exeter, St Nicholas Priory
Exmouth Museum
Honiton, Allhallows Museum of Lace and Local Antiquities
Lifton, Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre
Okehampton, Museum of Dartmoor Life
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
Plymouth, Merchant’s House Museum
Sidmouth Museum
Tavistock, Morwellham Quay and Tamar Valley Trust
Tiverton, Museum of Mid-Devon Life
Topsham Museum
Torquay Museum
Torquay, Torre Abbey Historic House and Gallery
Totnes, Elizabethan House Museum
Umberleigh, Cobbaton Combat Collection
DEVON’S ROMAN FORTS
Sites of Roman forts have been found at or close to the following.
Alverdiscott
Broadbury Castle
Colebrooke
Hembury
Killerton
Newton Tracey
Bolham Hill
Clayhanger
Cullompton
Ide
Lapford
Moridunum, Woodbury Farm, near Axminster
Parts of the Roman wall at Exeter remain, particularly around Southernhay, and a substantial Roman baths complex was excavated below the present surface of Cathedral Close by the Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit between 1971 and 1976, thought to be among the most impressive of any similar Roman structure in Britain. Over 1,000 Roman coins have been discovered in the city, emphasising its importance as a trading centre, particularly around the first half of the fourth century, though none were dated after AD 380.
DEVON’S TOP 10 TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
The following list of popular spots was compiled in a survey by TalkTalk telecommunications group.
1.Crealy Adventure Park, Exeter
2.Babbacombe Model Village
3.Kents Cavern, Torquay
4.South Devon Railway, Buckfastleigh to Totnes
5.Plymouth Gin Distillery
6.Clovelly
7.Buckland Abbey
8.Newton Abbot Racecourse
9.Rosemoor Gardens
10.Blackpool Sands
STATUES
Excluding monuments and war memorials with generic figures of soldiers and sailors, mythological figures such as Britannia, and effigies, these are the major statues of famous people to be seen in Devon. Some of those in Exeter have been moved from their original sites to places considered safer, often as a result of vulnerability to enemy action during the Second World War.
Bideford
Charles Kingsley (1819–75) – quayside
Brixham
King William III (1650–1702) – quayside
Exeter
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, MP (1787–1871) – under city wall
Sir Redvers Buller, VC (1839–1908) – junction of Hele Road and New North Road
William Reginald Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon (1807–88) – Bedford Street
John Dinham (1788–1864) – Northernhay Park
Bishop Richard Hooker (1554–1600) – Cathedral Green
Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh (1818–87) – Northernhay Park
Queen Victoria (1819–1901) – Queen Street (not surprisingly)
Plymouth
Isambard Kingdom Brunel – Pennycomequick
Sir Francis Drake (replica of that at Tavistock below) – the Hoe
King William IV – Royal William Victualling Yard
Tavistock
Sir Francis Drake – Plymouth Road
Tiverton
King Edward VII – Lowman Green
PLYMOUTH MONUMENTS & MEMORIALS
Plymouth is rich in monuments and memorials, particularly around the Barbican area. The following is a selection of those to be seen there.
Mayflower Steps and surrounding wall overlooking sea, all wall-mounted tablets unless indicated otherwise:
Mayflower Memorial to the Pilgrim Fathers, who sailed on 6 September 1620, tablet and carved granite block in surface of pier placed on quay wall 1891.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s voyage from Plymouth Sound for Newfoundland, 11 June 1583, unveiled 1983.
Sea Venture Memorial to ship which sailed to Jamestown, Virginia, 2 June 1609, with crew of 150, wrecked on Bermuda reef, tablet unveiled 1959.
Tolpuddle Martyrs, four of six Dorset farmworkers ‘after exile in Australia’ where they had been deported, landing at Plymouth on 18 March 1838, unveiled 1956.
Tory, pioneer ship in colonisation of New Zealand, which left Plymouth in May 1839, unveiled 1939.
Seaplane N.C.4 arrival at Plymouth Sound on completion of first transatlantic flight, 31 May 1919.
Embarkation of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, from quay on their visit to Plymouth, 26 July 1962.
Plaques on opposite wall
Memorial to Australian Settlers, transport ships Friendship and Charlotte, for convicts who sailed for Australia, 13 March 1787 and landed at Port Jackson, New South Wales, 26 January 1788, unveiled 1987.
Memorial to Cornish Emigrants who sailed for South Australia in the nineteenth century, unveiled 1986.
Memorial to Plymouth men who helped to found modern Australia, including Captain Tobias Furneaux, Captain John MacArthur, Captain William Bligh, Colonel George Arthur and Major Edmond Lockyer.
Memorial for sailing of six Plymouth Company vessels between 1840 and 1842 carrying settlers from Devon, Cornwall and Dorset to establish settlement of New Plymouth in New Zealand, unveiled 1988.
Fishing Boat Dawn Waters Memorial, crew of five from Devon and Cornwall who drowned when vessel sank off the Isle of Man, 20 March 1986.
To people of Plymouth from members of 10 Squadron, Royal Air Force, who operated from Mount Batten 1939–45.
Merchant Navy Memorial, to the 31,442 merchant seafarers who died in war and peace 1939–45.
The RNLI shop on the same side has a number of plaques commemorating individuals, including several lost at sea, or members of individual families. One is to Win and Fred Binney, who died in 1998 and 2002 respectively, inscribed ‘Barbican people both died at 90 – it must have been all that fish’. Another is in memory of the six crew of MFV (Motor Fishing Vessel) Pescado, which sank off the Cornish coast on 28 February 1991 with the loss of all six crew, two of whom came from Plymouth.
Memorials and monuments on or near Plymouth Hoe ‘Blitz’, the Dog Mascot Memorial Cross, Hoe Park (see p. 101).
Sir Francis Chichester Memorial, West Hoe, memorial marking the spot where he came ashore on 28 May 1967 after his circumnavigation of the world, unveiled in 1997 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Death by firing squad – cross embedded in pathway between Citadel Road and the Promenade, where three royal marines were executed on 6 July 1797 after being found guilty of incitement to mutiny among men at Stonehouse Barracks.
National Armada Memorial, unveiled 21 October 1890 by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.
Smeaton’s Tower, removed from Eddystone Rock and erected 1882.
South African (Prince Christian Victor) War Memorial, commemorating those killed in the Boer War, and to Queen Victoria’s grandson who died of fever on the campaign, unveiled 1903.
Norrington Fountain, presented by Charles Norrington, Mayor of Plymouth, in memory of his wife who died in 1881, unveiled that same year.
Plymouth Naval Memorial, unveiled in 1924 by Prince George, later Duke of Kent.
Plymouth War Memorial, unveiled in 1923 by Lord Derby, Secretary of State for War.
Prejoma Clock, erected in 1965 under the terms of the will of Preston John Ball, in memory of his parents John and Mary, with the name taken from the initials of each Christian name.
Royal Air Force and Allied Air Forces Monument, unveiled in 1989 by Air Marshal Sir John Curtiss.
Reform Tablet, commemorating the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, erected in 1833 near Belvedere, later removed to a wall in Madeira Road.
Royal Marine Memorial, unveiled in 1921 by Earl Fortescue, Lord Lieutenant of Devon.
Memorials and monuments in Garden of Remembrance, below the Belvedere, Plymouth Hoe
1940 Dunkirk Veterans’ Association Memorial.
Burma Star Association’s Memorial.
Korean Veterans’ Memorial.
Malayan and Borneo Veterans’ Memorial.
Normandy Veterans’ Memorial.
Plymouth Falklands Maritime Memorial, unveiled 1988.
Polis Naval Memorial, unveiled 1950.
In and around Devonport
Devonport Column, Monument Street, designed by Foulston, completed in 1827.
Devonport World War Two Heroes’ Memorial, North Corner, Devonport.
Devonport War Memorial, Devonport Park, unveiled in 1923.
HMS Doris gun, Devonport Park, gun captured from Boers in South African War and returned on board ship, unveiled in 1904.
Napier Fountain (Sir Charles Napier), Devonport Park, erected in 1863.
St Mark’s Church War Memorial, now in Stoke Damerel Parish Church.
Scott Memorial (Sir Robert Falcon Scott), Mount Wise, Devonport, unveiled in 1925.
Memorials and monuments elsewhere in Plymouth
Charles Church. After the church was ruined in the blitz, the City Council Reconstruction Committee intended to acquire and demolish the remaining walls, but the Old Plymouth Society campaigned for its retention as a permanent memorial to the civilian dead of the Second World War, and it was dedicated thus by the Lord Mayor who unveiled a plaque on the north wall in 1958.
Charles Darwin and HMS Beagle, Devil’s Point, East Stonehouse, a circular plaque marking the sailing of Darwin’s ship on 27 December 1831 from Barn Pool, on the Cornish side of Plymouth Sound.
D-Day Memorial, Hooe Green, Plymstock, Dartmoor granite stone to which is affixed a plaque commemorating the embarkation of the United States Army, 29th Division, from Turnchapel to lead the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.
HMS Ark Royal anchor, at junction of Armada Way and Notte Street. A Devonport-based ship, she was decommissioned in 1979 and the anchor was presented to the City of Plymouth.
Honicknowle War Memorial, Butt Park Road, removed from Honicknowle Methodist Chapel after it was closed, affixed to a wall outside Warwick Park House Nursing Home and unveiled in 1999.
Laira Great War Memorial, Old Laira Road.
Normandy Landings Memorial, Saltash Passage, St Budeaux, unveiled in 1958 by John Hay Whitney, US Ambassador to Britain.
Castle Green War Memorial, Plympton St Maurice, unveiled in 1924.
Burrow Hill War Memorial, Plymstock.
Portland Square Memorial Sculpture, Portland Building, University of Plymouth, dedicated to seventy-six men, women and children who were killed when part of the public air raid shelter in Portland Square was hit on the night of 22/23 April 1941, the worst civilian loss of life in a single bombing incident during the war. It was unveiled by Barbara Mills, one of the survivors, who had lost her parents, sister and grandfather in the attack.
Post Office Workers’ Great War Memorial, Old Post Office Sorting Office, Central Park Avenue, dedicated to twenty-nine men ‘particularly identified with the Plymouth office’, unveiled in 1920.
Regent Brewery Great War Memorial, Union Street, East Stonehouse, dedicated to workers of the breweries lost in the First World War, unveiled in 1920.
Royal Air Force Mount Batten War Memorial, on side of Mount Batten Air Station, a replica propeller from a Sunderland flying boat.
St Andrew’s Cross, 70ft high, erected outside St Andrew’s Church as a memorial to the dead buried in the graveyard after it was levelled in 1884 and the remains transferred to the Westwell Street burial ground. It was badly damaged in the blitz and the remains were demolished a few months later. The surviving statues were transferred to the Guildhall, and the bronze cross which stood at the top is now on the main altar inside the church.
Sabbath Day Fight 1643 Memorial, Freedom Park, Greenbank, commemorating the Parliamentarians’ victory over Prince Maurice’s Royalist army.
South Atlantic Forces Memorial, Booking Hall, North Road Railway Station, commemorating those who fell in the Falklands War, and incorporating crests representing all the armed services who took part in the campaign.
Tamerton Foliot War Memorial, St Mary’s Church.
Z4 Secret Radar Unit Memorial, Ridge Cross, Brixton, commemorating the work of the secret radar unit of 144 heavy anti-aircraft rocket battery, code name Z4, who would detect approaching German bombers, unveiled in 2009.
EXETER MEMORIALS
Livery Dole Martyrs’ Memorial, on the corner of Barnfield Road and Denmark Road, in memory of two Protestant martyrs of the Tudor era who died at the stake, Thomas Benet in 1531, for denying the supremacy of the Pope, and Agnes Prest in 1557, for refusing to accept the doctrine of transubstantiation.
Guildhall Boer War Memorial.
St Hele’s School Boer War Memorial, St David’s Church.
Blue Boy, a statue cast in 1636 which has been extensively restored over the years, originally stood at the entrance to St John’s Hospital School and was moved to Princesshay. When the latter was refurbished in 2007, it was moved again and placed on a new plinth.
Volunteer Force Memorial, Northernhay Gardens, commemorating the founding of the Volunteer Force in 1852, unveiled in 1895.
World War One Memorial, commemorating and inscribed with names of the 187 buried in Higher Cemetery, situated near entrance to St Mark’s Avenue.
World War Two Memorial, a cross surrounded by blocks of graves in Higher Cemetery.
TORQUAY MEMORIALS
10th Battalion Home Guard Memorial, Corbyn Head, Torquay, commemorating the Home Guard, Torbay, and the Corbyn Head tragedy when five members died after their anti-aircraft gun exploded in 1944.
Churchill Memorial Gardens, Berry Head Road, Brixham.
Churston War Memorial, Churston Common, Brixham.
Churston War Memorial Playing Field, Greenway Road, Brixham.
Harrison Memorial, Roundham Head, Paignton, stone of remembrance with tablet dedicated to Lieutenant Commander Arthur Harrison, VC (1886–1918), killed during the Zeebrugge raid, April 1918.
Memorial Gardens, Union Street, Torquay.
Old Parish Church, Torre, Torquay, containing memorial stones and white war crosses in remembrance of deceased members of the parish.
Palace Avenue War Memorial, Palace Gardens, Paignton, memorial at eastern end.
Princess Gardens Memorial, Torbay Road, Torquay.
DEVON CEMETERIES
Plymouth
Efford Cemetery
Weston Mill
Ridge Cross, Plymstock
Milehouse
Jewish Cemetery, Compton Gifford
Ford Park
Drake Memorial Park, Plympton St Mary
Exeter
Bartholomew’s Yard
Catacombs and Lower Cemetery
Higher Cemetery
Exwick Cemetery
Torquay
Torquay Crematorium and Cemetery
DEVON RESERVOIRS
Avon Dam, Dartmoor
Burrator, Dartmoor
Challacombe, Exmoor
Darracott, near Torrington
Fernworthy, Dartmoor
Holywell, near North Molton
Jennetts, Barnstaple
Kennick, Dartmoor
Melbury, near Bideford
Meldon, near Okehampton
Roadford, near Bratton Clovelly
Slade, near Ilfracombe
Tottiford, Dartmoor
Trenchford, Dartmoor
Venford, Dartmoor
Wistlandpound, Exmoor
DEVON ISLANDS
A look at Ordnance Survey maps will reveal numerous tiny islands, in most cases no more than rocks (sometimes named), off Devon’s coasts. In addition to these are what may be called the six main islands, although for the most part they are only inhabited by wildlife. Before anyone comes to the wrong conclusion, the Shag Stone is named thus as it is much favoured by seabirds, especially cormorants and shags.
Lundy, at about 3 miles by ¾ of a mile at the widest point the largest, 12 miles off the coast of North Devon.
Burgh Island, off Bigbury-on-Sea.
Drake’s Island, formerly St Nicholas’s Island.
Great Mewstone, off Wembury Point, Plymouth.
Shag Stone, near eastern entrance to Plymouth Sound.
Thatcher’s Rock, off Torquay.
DEVON’S TOP 10 BIRDS
The 2010 Big Garden Birdwatch, organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in association with the BBC, used viewers’ returns to compile a league table of the most frequently seen birds in people’s gardens. The previous year’s position is in brackets.
1(1) House sparrow – 3.79 pairs per garden
2(3) Blackbird – 2.87
3(2) Chaffinch – 2.77
4(5) Blue tit – 2.70
5(-) Long-tailed tit – 1.81
6(4) Starling – 1.74
7(8) Great tit – 1.59
8(7) Robin – 1.51
9(9) Wood pigeon – 1.45
10(6) Greenfinch – 1.41
The absentee from this list, no. 10 in 2009, is the Goldfinch.
Devon’s county bird in effect is the Dipper, seen on rivers and streams, the emblem of the Devon Trust for Nature Conservation. It has since been superseded by the Devon Wildlife Trust, which has the face of a badger as part of its masthead.
In addition to the birds occasionally recorded on Lundy (see pp. 72–4), Devon has recently been host to other rare species. The south coast is the last stronghold of the scarce Cirl Bunting. The Red-Backed Shrike, which had last been recorded as breeding in Britain in the early 1990s in East Anglia, returned to breed in Dartmoor in summer 2010. Two birds which breed in North America and Canada and are classed as occasional British migrants have been seen in recent years, Wilson’s Phalarope on the coast near Topsham in 2009, and Bonaparte’s Gull over the River Otter in 2011. Early that same year an American Purple Gallinule, which had previously been recorded only three times in Britain, was found (unfortunately dead) in Tavistock.
FAMOUS ANIMALS
Blitz
Blitz was a black and tan mongrel puppy that ran into the ARP Rescue Depot in Mill Street, Plymouth, during an air raid in 1941, and the rescuers promptly adopted him as their mascot. One of them recalled years later that he would sit in a rocking chair at the depot, keeping an eye on them. They were all so tired after a day’s work that they would nod off as soon as the Commanding Officer got his head down, but as soon as anything stirred in the yard, Blitz would growl and paw at their heads to wake them up. It was also claimed that he would help to find people trapped in the debris after buildings were destroyed. He was run over by a lorry and killed in August 1942. Some carpenters made him a small oak coffin and a small memorial cross, placed outside the old depot, was later removed to The Hoe. The original and a replacement have been stolen but subsequently replaced.
Atlanta
Atlanta was a starving Atlantic grey seal pup that was rescued by two fishermen in November 1959 after being stranded on the Yealm estuary during very stormy weather. Naturalist H.G. Hurrell (see p. 76) took charge of her and gave her a home in the swimming pool in his garden at Wrangaton, near South Brent. She was taught to respond to verbal instructions and intelligence tests, including putting letters and numbers on large signs in order. Thousands visited Moorgate every year to come and see her, including a schoolboy in Vancouver about to make his first visit to Britain who said what he wanted to see most of all was Mr Hurrell’s seal and the London Underground. She died in 1973. He wrote about her in Atlanta my Seal (1963).
Casper
Casper was a black and white cat that lived in Plymouth and had been acquired by his owner Susan Finden, of St Budeaux, as a rescue cat in 2002 and became world famous as a bus commuter. She named him Casper after the friendly ghost. He would get on a bus at a stop for the No. 3 First Devon and Cornwall service outside the front door at his home around 10 a.m. each morning and curl up on a seat throughout the full 11-mile route to the city centre, travelling for up to an hour before arriving back at the same stop. She was amazed when she found out he had become a regular passenger. Drivers on the service were advised to look out for him and ensure he got off at the right point. During five years he travelled an estimated 20,000 miles on the bus, was featured on local television, and when it was uploaded on to Youtube he achieved worldwide fame. He was killed on 14 January 2010, aged twelve, by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the road for his daily journey.
DEVON RIVERS
Ashburn
Rises on Horridge Common near Rippon Tor, flows down a steep river valley through woods and under stone bridges before entering Ashburton and joining the River Dart near Buckfastleigh.
Avon, or Aune
Rises in a boggy area near Ryder’s Hill, leaves Dartmoor at point where Avon Reservoir was built and completed in 1957, passes through South Brent, Avonwick and Aveton Gifford, and flows into the sea at Bigbury Bay.
Axe
Flows through Dorset and Somerset as well as Devon, rising near Beaminster, Dorset, flows west and then south through Axminster and into the sea at Axmouth, being fed by several streams and by tributaries Yarty and Coly.
Barle
Rises in the Somerset area of Exmoor, joining the River Exe at Exebridge, on the Devon/Somerset border.
Batherm
Flows through Somerset and Devon, joining the River Exe downstream near Bampton.
Clyst
Rises near Clyst William, near Cullompton, runs rest and southwest through Clyst Hydon, Clyst St Lawrence, Westwood, to Clyst Valley, then south through Broadclyst, West Clyst, Clyst Honiton, Clyst St Mary, Clyst St George, and into the Exe Estuary at Bowling Green Marsh, south of Topsham.
Culm
Rises in the Blackdown Hills, flows west through Hemyock, Culmstock, Uffculme, turns south and flows through Cullompton, alongside the M5 motorway, and the northern boundary of Killerton Park, to join the Exe below Stoke Canon.
Dart
The river which gives Dartmoor its name begins as two tributaries – East Dart, its source south of Cranmere Pool, flowing south to Postbridge and past Bellever, and West Dart, its source near Lower White Tor, flowing south to Two Bridges and then southeast past Hexworthy. East and West Dart join at Dartmeet, where the resulting single river is crossed by several ancient clapper bridges, then the Dart leaves the moor and flows southwards past Buckfast Abbey, through Buckfastleigh, Dartington and Totnes, where it becomes tidal. Kingswear is on the east of the estuary, and Dartmouth on the west. The Dart’s tributaries include the Cowsic, Blackbrook, Swincombe and O Brook on the right bank, and Cherry Brook on the left.
Erme
Rises in southern Dartmoor on Abbot’s Way near River Plym, flows southerly through Ivybridge, past Ermington and Modbury, entering the English Channel near Kingston. The Wonwell and Kingston beaches lie at the mouth of the river on the Erme Estuary.
Exe
The river after which Exeter is named rises near Simonsbath, Exmoor, in Somerset, but flows south and most of it is on the Devon side of the county border. Exmouth is on the east of the estuary mouth, Dawlish Warren on the west, while its tributary the Creedy gives its name to Crediton.
Heddon
Running along the west of Exmoor, reaching the North Devon coast at Heddon’s Mouth.
Lemon
Rising near Haytor, Dartmoor, it joins Langworthy Brook, Sigford, passes the village of Bickington, then flows through the woods in Bradley Valley, through Newton Abbot, and joins the River Teign near the head of its estuary.
Lew
A name shared by two short rivers. The more northerly, giving its name to Northlew, rises south of Beaworthy, flows east, turns north and flows past Hatherleigh and joins River Torridge. The southerly river rises near Surton, north Dartmoor, flows west and south through Lew Valley past Lewtrenchard, south of Lewdown, then joins the River Lyd near Marystow, or Stow St Mary.
Lyd
Rising at Lyd Head, Dartmoor, flowing into the River Tamar near Lifton. Its most spectacular feature is the 1½ mile-long Lydford Gorge.
Meavy
Forming an outlet from Burrator Reservoir, it flows south-west past Meavy and south, then joining the River Plym at the upper end of Bickleigh Vale.
Otter
Rising in the Blackdown Hills, on the Somerset side of the border, flows south through East Devon, though and by Upottery, Rawridge, Monkton, Honiton, Alphington, Ottery St Mary, Tipton St John, Newton Poppleford, Otterton, reaching the coast to the east of Budleigh Salterton, and into the English Channel at western end of Lyme Bay. The River Tale is a small tributary.
Plym
Rising at a small spring, Plym Head, southern Dartmoor, the river flows south-west to Plymouth where it enters the sea.
Sid
Flowing from its source in Crowpits Covert, it flows south through Sidbury and Sidmouth and into the English Channel.
Tamar
Forming most of the border between Devon and Cornwall, it flows south and into the Hamoaze before entering Plymouth Sound. Its Devon tributaries include the Tavy and Deer. The Tavy has its own tributaries, the Collybrooke, Burn, Wallabrook, Lumburn and Walkham.
Taw
Rising at Taw Head, northern Dartmoor, it reaches the Bristol Channel at a joint estuary mouth with the Torridge. Its tributaries are the Little Dart, the Mole and two different rivers named Yeo, known as the Lapford Yeo and the Barnstaple Yeo respectively.
Teign
Rising near Cranmere Pool, Dartmoor, it flows southwards at the eastern edge, beneath Castle Drogo, becomes tidal at Newton Abbot, and flows into the English Channel at Teignmouth.
Thrushel
Runs westerly from its source near Meldon to Tinhay, where it joins the Wolf.
Torridge
Rising close to the border with Cornwall, it flows east, between East Putford and West Putford, and near Bradford, where it is joined by the Waldon, then east past Black Torrington and Sheepwash to Hatherleigh, where it is joined by the Lew, and then the Okement, then northwards past Little Torrington and Great Torrington, and into the estuary at Bideford. Between Appledore and Instow it joins the Taw Estuary. Its tributaries are the Ockment, or Okement, where the East and West Okement join at Okehampton and flow north past Jacobstowe and Monkokehampton before joining the Torridge near Meeth.
East Webburn
Rising on West Dartmoor, south past Widecombe-in-the-Moor and joining the West Webburn, they join the River Dart near Holne.
Wolf
Runs from Broadbury and into Roadford Lake Reservoir, through Slew Woods, below Broadwoodwidger, and continues south, merging with the Thrushel near Stowford, joining the Lew at Tinhay near Lifton and becomes the Lyd, which later joins the River Tamar at the Devon-Cornwall border east of Launceston.
Yealm
Rising on the Stall Moor mires, southern Dartmoor, passes through Cornwood, Lee Mill and Yealmpton, and reaches the estuary mouth below Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo.
DEVON GARDENS
Some of these have also been listed under other categories, such as National Trust properties, but are still noteworthy as among the county’s finest gardens in their own right. Paignton Zoo, first opened in 1923, was one of the earliest combined zoological and botanical gardens in Britain, and the first that was opened with education as its mission.
Abbey Park, Torquay
Arlington Court Gardens, Barnstaple
Bicton Park Botanical Gardens
Brunel Manor Gardens, Torquay
Brunel Woods
Buckland Abbey Gardens, Yelverton
Burrow Farm, Dalwood, Axminster
Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton
Castle Hill, Filleigh, Barnstaple
Clovelly Court Gardens
Cockington Court & Country Park, Torquay
Coleton Fishacre, Kingswear
Connaught Gardens, Sidmouth
Garden House, Buckland Monachorum
Killerton Gardens, Broadclyst
Knightshayes Gardens, Tiverton
Marwood Hill Gardens, Barnstaple
Overbecks, Salcombe
Paignton Zoo Environmental Park
Pecorama Pleasure Gardens, Beer
Princess Gardens, Torquay
Romaleyn Gardens, Paignton
Rosemoor Gardens (RHS), Great Torrington
Royal Terrace Gardens, Torquay
Saltram, Plympton
Stone Lane Arboretum, Chagford
Tessier Gardens, Babbacombe
Tiverton Castle Gardens
Torre Abbey Gardens, Torquay
DARTMOOR ANCIENT TENEMENTS
Ancient tenements are the oldest surviving Dartmoor farms, established in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on sites where settlers were allowed to build farms, and release their livestock to graze on the surrounding land. The following are still in existence today, and most still feature buildings of medieval origin, including elements of their original longhouses. Most are Grade II listed buildings.
Babeny
Bellever
Brimpts
Brownberry
Dunnabridge
Dury
Hartyand
Hexworthy
Huccaby
Lakehead
Merripit
Pizwell
Prince Hall
Riddon
Runnage
Sherberton
DARTMOOR BRONZE AGE STONE CIRCLES
Stone circles, meeting places in the Bronze Age, were located at mutually agreed areas between the well-defined boundary systems on the moor, generally on level ground. Due to stones having been removed for other purposes since then, the number of stones originally in each circle in this list is in most cases a well-informed guess.
Brisworthy, 98½in diameter, 40 stones
Buttern Hill, 97½in, 40
Fernworthy, 78¾in, 20
Grey Wethers (North), 126¾in, 30
Grey Wethers (South), 132¾in, 30
Langstone Moor, 82¾in, 16
Mardon Down, 150½in, 61
Merrivale, 74¾in, 20
Scorhill, 106¼in, 60
Sherberton, 116½in, unknown
Shoveldon, 69¾in, 13
Whit Moor, 79½in, 20
IRON AGE HILL FORTS
Hill forts are earthworks which were used as fortified refuges or defended settlements in the Bronze and Iron Ages, though a few were used after the Roman period. The fortification generally follows the contours of the hill, and consists of one or more lines of earthworks, with defensive walls or stockades, and external ditches. This list includes heights above sea level.
Beacon Castle, near Parracombe, overlooking the Heddon Valley, 950ft
Belbury Castle, near Ottery St Mary, 377ft
Berry Camp, near Branscombe, 459ft
erry Castle, or Black Dog, near Crediton, 652ft
Berry Castle, Weare Gifford, near Torrington, 311ft
Berry Head, south-east of Brixham, partly destroyed by construction of fortifications during the Napoleonic Wars
Berry’s Wood, near Newton Abbot, 246ft
Blackbury Camp, near Seaton, 607ft
Blackdown Rings, Loddiswell, near Kingsbridge, 607ft
Bolt Tail, headland, 196ft
Boringdon Camp, near Plympton, 459ft
Bremridge Wood, near South Molton, 574ft
Brent Hill, near South Brent, 1,020ft
Burley Wood, near Lydford, with a Norman motte-and-bailey nearby, 705ft
Burridge Fort, near Barnstaple, overlooking the Yeo and Bradiford rivers, 492ft
Cadbury Castle, near Bickleigh, overlooking the Exe Valley, used as site of camp by Parliamentarian forces during Civil War, 492ft
Capton, near Dartmouth, 606ft
Castle Close, near Stoodleigh, overlooking the River Exe, 682ft
Castle Dyke, near Chudleigh, 459ft
Castle Head, near Dunterton, Tavistock, overlooking the River Tamar, 328ft, with other, lower earthworks nearby
Castle Hill, two similarly named forts, one in Torrington, the site of the castle, the other a small earthwork south-east of the town overlooking the River Torridge
Clovelly Dykes, near Clovelly, covering about 20 acres, 688ft
Cotley Castle, near Dunchideock, 720ft
Cranbrook Castle, near Drewsteignton, overlooking the Teign Valley, 1,082ft
Cranmore Castle, near Tiverton, enclosing slopes from 390ft to 560ft
Cunnilear Camp, near Loxhore, Barnstaple, overlooking river Yeo, 360ft
Denbury Hill, near Newton Abbot, 524ft
Dewerstone, near Plympton, 210ft
Dolbury, Killerton Park, 419ft
Dumpdon Hill, Otter Valley, near Honiton, 800ft
Embury Beacon, near Clovelly, 492ft
Halwell Camp, near Totnes, 605ft
Hawkesdown Hill, near Axmouth, 433ft
Hembury, near Honiton, 583ft
Hembury Castle, Tyrhecott, near Buckland Brewer, 450ft
High Peak, on coast near Sidmouth, 515ft
Hillsborough, Ilfracombe, 377ft
Holbury, Holbeton, overlooking the Erme Estuary, 310ft
Holne Chase Castle, near Buckland-in-the-Moor, overlooking the River Dart 490ft
Huntsham Castle, near Tiverton, 850ft
Kentisbury Down, near Blackmore Gate, Exmoor, 1,050ft
Knowle Hill Castle, near Braunton, 295ft
Lee Wood, near Barnstaple, 390ft
Membury Castle, 670ft
Milber Down, near Newton Abbot, 360ft
Mockham Down, near Brayfordhill, Barnstaple, 1,015ft
Musbury Castle, near Axminster, 575ft
Myrtlebury, near Lynmouth, 490ft
Newberry Castle, near Combe Martin, 360ft
Noss, Dartmouth, overlooking Noss Point, Dartmouth Estuary, 260ft
Peppercombe Castle, near Bucks Mills, Bideford, on cliffs partly lost to coastal erosion
Posbury, near Crediton, 590ft
Prestonbury Castle, near Cranbrook and Wooston Castles, overlooking the Teign Valley, 720ft
Raddon Top, near Shobrooke, Crediton, 770ft
Roborough Castle, near Lynton, 1,050ft
Seaton Down, Seaton, 410ft
Shoulsbury Castle, near Challacombe, Exmoor, 1,549ft
Sidbury Castle, overlooking the River Sid, 607ft
Slapton Castle, 213ft
Smythapark, near Bratton Fleming, 660ft
Stanborough, near Halwell, Totnes, 660ft
Stockland Great Castle, 690ft, and Stockland Little Castle, half a mile north-east, 575ft
Stoke Hill, near Exeter, 522ft
Voley Castle, near Parracombe, Lynton 755ft
Wasteberry Camp, near Plympton, 300ft
Wind Hill, near Lynmouth, 855ft
Windbury Head, near Clovelly, Hartland Peninsula, partly lost to coastal erosion, though some ramparts about 330ft still exist
Woodbury Castle, near Woodbury, Exeter, overlooking the Exe Estuary, 607ft
Woodbury, Norton Down, near Dartmouth, 475ft
Wooston Castle, overlooking Teign Valley, near Prestonbury and Cranbrook Castles, 655ft
Yarrowbury, near Bigbury, overlooking the Avon Estuary, 262ft
Yellowberries Copse, near South Brent, 508ft
DEVON’S ENVIRONMENTAL FIRST
In the spring of 2007, Modbury became the first town in Europe, if not the world, to ban plastic bags. The campaign was launched by BBC journalist Rebecca Hosking, after she had filmed a wildlife programme in Hawaii and saw first-hand the damage caused to wildlife and the environment by carelessly discarded bags. She persuaded every shop in the town to stop giving them away, and similar communities and businesses across the country soon followed the town’s example.