Gibbet Hill dominates this stretch of the King Way with a history I sense is intertwined with this postal route; a place where the highwayman’s cadaver was left to ferment in the breeze, just like his notoriety.
A Walk in English Weather Posts
The tincture of transformation in the built environment is duplicated in the natural, as the road ascends from the plateau of Roborough Down, up through the borderlands, to the open moor: a transition to abundant fog, and reduced visibility; to stronger winds, and lesser shelter.
In response to the air raids that reduced much of Plymouth city centre to rubble at the start of 1941, my dad and his mother evacuated to stay on West Bohetherick Farm. This walk explores the landscape of Bohetherick and its agricultural and market gardening heritage.
Not every walk provides a lesson. Why should it? But this walk did give me one. It reminded me of the need to get out of the ruts we form for ourselves when we walk our usual haunts, and the need to sometimes depart from our self-made beaten track.
The King Way was a riding track between Tavistock and Okehampton, used for pack horses and post-boys on horseback delivering the King’s Mail. As a walk, I feel it is a hard sell.
Through the collection of tithes and taxes, through the control of manors and markets, through the exercise of power and politics, monks of various rank would have had need to travel.
Water-laden westerlies
Orographic clouds
Precipitation falls
Mizzle mists and ceaseless showers
Gauzes of frost
An occasional shield of snow
Packhorse tracks were the medieval equivalent of motorways, moving goods overland between important commercial centres. The route over Roborough Down on superficial inspection looks relatively featureless but there is a lot more going on than first meets the eye.
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