Trans-Dartmoor Packhorse Track: Part 1 – Roborough Down

Part of Hemery’s ‘Walking Dartmoor’s Ancient Tracks: A guide to 28 routes’, Track 9 – Chagford to Plymouth Route

This section was from the DNP boundary at the Dartmoor Diner Roborough to Yelverton, across Roborough Down. 3 miles.

Part 2 – Trans-Dartmoor Packhorse Track: Part 2 – Yelverton to Dousland to Goad’s Stone Pool

Background

Packhorse tracks were the medieval equivalent of motorways, moving goods overland between important commercial centres . This particular track relates to trade between Plymouth and Chagford. In his introduction to this track, Hemery gives some historical context on ‘Plymouth’ as the start/end point of this track and how it differed in the past compared to the current geography. In early medieval times, Plymouth did not exist. Instead there were three important centres, based around their respective harbours – Devonport, Stonehouse and Sutton Pool. It was Sutton Pool that became Plymouth, before its conurbation engulfed the whole area that we know as Plymouth today. Traders would have therefore branched out in various directions to their respective. end-of-the-line destinations, or merged from their various starting points, depending on whether you prefer to imagine these things as comings or goings.

Much of Roborough Down, on superficial inspection, seems rather flat and featureless, perhaps more so than most other parts of the moor. But this is a deception of the eye. Under one’s feet are all sorts of undulations that tell of past activities including medieval field boundaries, boundary stones, tracks and mining. Roborough Down is as rich in archaeology and history as every other portion of the moor. Some of the more noteworthy features are highlighted here.

Although I grew up on the edge of Roborough Down in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, the down wasn’t a place I gravitated to, being that a walk here is one constantly accompanied by the thrum of rubber on tarmac from the always busy A386. Because of this traffic noise and the many side roads segmenting it, the character feels rather different from many other parts of the moor, even from that of other downs. However, in exploring this route and its history, I have discovered much of interest. I have walked this route in the opposite direction to that described by Hemery, starting at the DNP boundary on the edge of Roborough. The original route would of course have extended through Roborough village and on to the harbours of the Plymouth area. This is the first of three walks along this branch, going through Princetown and on to Two Bridges, where this packhorse route joins the other branch between Chagford and Tavistock (Hemery Track 8).

7 Interesting Things

1. Boundary Stones

All across Roborough Down are dotted boundary stones and waymarkers, demarking which road is which and whose parish or field belonged to who. These stones are of various ages with some relating to the more recent turnpike road between Yelverton and Plymouth and others being of greater antiquity. There were a few stones located along the route that I walked in the area between the earthwork and the edge of the DNP boundary at the Dartmoor Diner. The stones were both hidden in hedges and engulfed in vegetation which I had to wrestle with to get some photographs. The markings are not clear but I think the older looking stone on the red-coloured rock, appears to have a B for Bickleigh on it.

2. Iron Age Earthwork

Delineated by the heather growing on its banks lies the annular form of what is thought to be an Iron Age settlement. It consists of an outer ring of about 100m, and and inner one of about 30m diameter. Embanked ways can be identified leading towards the A386 road side, and north east of the earthwork. According to the Heritage Gateway website there is evidence that the inner embankment has been previously planted with Hawthorns and may therefore have acted as a pound for animals at some point in its history. It is also apparent that the ‘camp’ was used as a site for one of the network of Tudor beacons as it is marked as ‘Rowben Beacon’ on Spry’s 16th C map of Plymouth Leat. In fact, the whole etymology of the name of Roborough Down may have come from this earthwork being that ruh-beorg, means rough hill/mound/barrow (Mills, 1991). Crossing (1990, p444) also notes the place name as Rugheburgh which he also suggests relates to the earthwork.

3. Pre WWII Military Practice

Written large on this landscape is the modern military archaeology of RAF Harrowbeer, more of which I will write in a minute. What is less well know is the use by the military of this area further back in time. Crossing, writing in 1888 recounts an early memory from a walk on Roborough Down:

I remember, although I was but a very young child at the time, walking one morning with my father … to see a sham fight on the down, in which a fine body of Highlanders took part. Not long after the greater numberof these poor fellows lost their lives in the Crimean War.

Le Messurier, 1974, p20

Worth (1967, p491) writing in the early part of the 20th Century about ‘Gun Areas’, describes military activity more in condemnation than with Crossing’s small boy’s awe. He describes how the military is being allowed to operate in area with no respect for ‘the camp, the menhir and the stone row alike’. He also speaks out against the use of ‘mechanical traction in a manner which might interfere with either of the objects of antiquity’. In relation to Roborough Down Worth tells us that the military were using the ‘camp’ as a readymade obstacle for the purpose of tank practice over the banks.

4.Devonport Leat

The Devonport Leat travels south from Yelverton and then traverses SW across the down, cutting through this packhorse track. The leat was started in the 1790s to bring water to the fast growing town around the successfully expanding Devonport Docks. Originally 27 miles in length it was completed in 1802. Hemery (1986) starts his chapter on the Devonport Leat with an entertaining but dreadful historical reference. He notes a piece in the Western Morning News from 13 Dec 1984 commemorating the death of Dr Samuel Johnson 200 years previously. The illustrious doctor had apparently visited Plymouth in 1762 with his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds and had commented on the rivalry that was simmering between Devonport and Plymouth. He took the side of Plymouth and pronounced that the ‘rogue dockers’ should not be allowed to share the water supply to Plymouth . “Let them die of thirst. They shall not have a drop” he compassionately uttered!

I know that I am guilty of taking for granted the leats that run across the moor as familiar parts of the landscape. Writing this has made me think about the incredible achievement of building this lengthy water-course. Imagine the precision of the surveying; charting the intended route of this sliver of channel over 27 miles; designing it around contours with its miniscule drop over its entire course so the water constantly flows downhill; engineering it to divert water from three moorland river catchments; building it with the capacity to carry 4.5 million litres of water a day. The leat now discharges into Burrator Reservoir but seeing it cross over Roborough Down is a reminder of its remarkable accomplishment.

5. Furze

Notice, when walking over the down the Furze (Gorse). Worth (1967, p66) refers us to some historical observations about the Gorse on Roborough Down and how in the past it has been damaged by cold winters. Gorse is ubiquitous and dominant on Roborough Down. It likes the dry soil conditions and dislikes water-logging and so it thrives on the downs, particularly around the south and west of Dartmoor. It is great at surviving fire, and therefore sprouts back well after swaling, and it is also a good fodder crop for grazing by wild ponies. But of relevance here, Gorse is not very frost hardy. Apparently, the winter of 1869 was very severe and killed much of the Gorse on the down and before this, an author called Polwhele said that in the harsh winter of 1794-5 nearly three quarters of all the furze on the commons of Devonshire perished.

6. Roborough Rock

Well, I say Roborough Rock but is it? It appears to have had quite a few names over the years. Donn’s map of Devon from 1765 shows it named as Hurlstone Rock. Crossing (1990) mentions another but unnamed 18th C map that apparently calls it Ullestor Rock.

This may be an error promulgated by Carrington (1826, p142). He writes ‘In Donn’s old map of Devon, it is called Ulster or Ullestor Rock‘ . To add further to the confusion the typeface makes Donn look like Dunn, which explains why some people refer to another old map by Dunn, which as far as I can find out, doesn’t exist. As we can clearly see from the above image from Donn’s map, the Rock is clearly noted as Hurlstone, and not Ullestor Rock. Gill (1984) adds to the confusion. He says (p8) that Yelverton Rock was ‘Udell Torre in the 16th Century, Hurlstone Rock on the 1765 Donne map, and Ullestor Rock by 1840‘. But he then contradicts himself (p26) by talking about Udell Tor near the Rock being destroyed to make way for a nursing home. If this is the case, and it is supported by the old OS map (see route maps below) which show Udal Torre and Roborough Rock as separate entities, then Udell Tor and the Rock cannot be the same thing. My goodness, what a mess! To add a modern twist, Roborough Rock these days is also known as Yelverton Rock or just the Rock.

Today the Rock is a bit of a honeypot, particularly for visitors with children, who like to climb over it, so much so that some of its surfaces have become smoothed by decades of bottoms sliding over its inclined planes. In fact, the Rock has been a leisure destination from Victorian times as evidenced by this site being chosen to erect a Queen Victoria diamond jubilee monument and accompanying drinking fountain (which apparently still works!). I was surprised to learn that the well-known silhouette of the Rock, with its two prominent ends and lower middle section, is possibly recent. According to Gill (1984) the middle section was denuded in 1830 when the rocks were used for road maintenance.

7. RAF Harrowbeer

By far the most prominent and extensive feature on this walk is RAF Harrowbeer, which extends from the Rock to Yelverton and NW towards Crapstone and Horrabridge. The airfield, constructed using hardcore from the Plymouth Blitz, was opened on 15th August 1941 and remained in use until July 1945. Today the buildings are gone but their footprints are evident, whilst the runways have been succeeded by grass. Around the edges the most visible reminders are the big earthen banks of the blast bays /dispersal pens, erected to protect the planes. The interested reader will find a wealth of detailed history and photographs at the RAF Harrowbeer website.

The second leg of the route can be followed in the blog post ‘Trans Dartmoor Packhorse Track – Roborough-Dousland-Goad’s Stone Pool’

Route

• Start on the edge of the moorland next to the Dartmoor Diner next to the A386.

• Walk north, crossing two tarmac tracks, the second of which you should notice the entrance/lodge to the Maristow estate.
• Continue uphill so that you clip the edge of the earthwork which should be on your right. The route of the trackway across this portion of Roborough Down appears to be shown on the OS map and this is the line I followed.
• The track crosses two further roads in quick succession and then a bit further along another road leading to the former Moorland Links Hotel, which at the time of writing this, has closed down, seemingly as a result of the Coronovirus pandemic. Hemery describes the track here as being worn and stoney. I did notice some worn and stoney patches but I wouldn’t say that the path was distinctly discernible as a stoney path along its length here. Perhaps in the nearly 40 years since Hemery published this route the grass has grown over it a bit more!

• The next section leads up past the turning to Yeoland Lane and the Moorland Links golf course club house. According to Hemery this runs about 50 m to the east of the houses along this stretch. I was able to follow the path along some of this route but I did lose it within the mining spoils of Yeoland Consuls Mine.

• The track then crosses the road by Roborough Rock, keeping the Rock on your left. Hemery is vague here saying that the road crosses between Udal Tor (an old name for the Rock), and Yelverton Green, so I am assuming this means along the line of the hangers of RAF Harrowbeer towards Yelverton. Between the WW2 works and the main A386 road there can be little vestige of the old packhorse road.

References

ARCHI Old Maps. https://www.archiuk.com/

Carrington, N. T. (1826). Dartmoor, a descriptive poem, with notes by W. Burt. British Library, Historical Print Editions.

Crossing W. (1990). Crossing’s Guide to Dartmoor. Peninsula Press: Newton Abbot. (First published 1912)

Dartmoor Preservation Association (undated). Conservation on Devonport Leat. https://web.archive.org/web/20130527070859/http://www.dartmoorpreservation.com/conservation-work/devonport-leat/70-devonport-leat

Gill, C. (1984). The Brief History of Yelverton. Grey House Press.

Harris, H. (1992). The Industrial Archaeoloy of Dartmoor. Peninsula Press: Newton Abbot.

Hemery, E. (1986). Walking Dartmoor’s Ancient Tracks: A guide to 28 routes. Robert Hale: London.

Hemery, E. (1986). Walking the Dartmoor Waterways: a guide to retracing the leats and canals of the Dartmoor country. David and Charles: Newton Abbot.

Heritage Gateway (undated). Roborough Down Camp north-east of Higher Lodge, Buckland Monachorum, https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MDV2366&resourceID=104

Historic England (undated). Inscribed stones in vicarage garden, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1003871

Le Messurier, B. (1974). Crossing’s Amid Devonia’s Alps or Wanderings and Adventures on Dartmoor, David and Charles: Newton Abbot.

Mills, A.D. (1991). English Place-Names, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Worth, R. H. (1967). Worth’s Dartmoor. Peninsula Press, Newton Abbot.