The Quarryman’s Path

Hemery’s ‘Walking Dartmoor’s Ancient Tracks: A guide to 28 routes’, Track 17, 3.7 miles. Mary Tavy to Merivale

Background

Whilst the ‘moorstone’ of Dartmoor has been used for centuries, millennia even, granite quarrying only really got started at the very end of the 18th Century. In Dartmoor terms, it is a young industry (and a short-lived one). Quarries sprang up in various locations around the moor, facilitated by the transportation advances of proximal tramways, and distal canals and later, railways and traction engines.

The Walkham Valley was a key centre of quarrying with quarries at Foggin Tor, Swell Tor, King Tor, Heckwood Tor, Pew Tor, and Merivale. Here, as elsewhere, quarrying took two forms. There was the working of surface rock which Crossing says is known as ‘grass rock’. This led to the destruction of many rocky outcrops. The other was the extracting of rock from quarry pits, aided by blasting, and leading to the steep-cliffed craters that we see, bitten out of hillsides. And thus, in these two forms, quarrymen would have been scattered all over the hillsides of Walkhampton Common in the Victorian era.

The granite quarries employed hundreds of men at the height of their production. For example, Tor Quarry (Merivale) had around 170 workers at the turn of the 20th Century. Some workers lived close by in purpose-built cottages, such as the Red Cottages at Rundlestone and the terrace at Merivale called Walkham Cottages. Others commuted, with Crossing (1992), writing in 1903, of many workers travelling to work daily from Princetown, Horrabridge, Tavistock and other neighbouring villages.

The quarrymen, walking to work at these various quarries, used a network of roads and paths; no doubt exploiting existing routes in some cases, but in other cases leading to the development of new paths. There is therefore no definitive Quarryman’s Path; no simple route of men travelling from village A to Quarry B. So, to walk Hemery’s Quarryman’s Path is to acknowledge that it is but an example of one of a number of routes that would have been used in this portion of the moor; criss-crossed in the early morning, and at the end of the day, by men toiling to and from their place of work.

It is sobering to think about the necessity of walking many miles before then doing a full day’s physically demanding work, to then have to walk miles home again. And this across soggy moorland wearing natural fabrics! I wonder what the maximum distance from work would have been considered reasonable in those days? How far was just too far to live from your place of work? What a remarkable invention the bicycle, and later the motorbike, would have been for the Dartmoor worker.

Anyway, back to the Quarryman’s Path (Route 17) – Hemery picks out this particular route to exemplify these many paths and journeys. He justifies this selection on the basis of it being noted by Crossing (although the reference is not given) as being one of the longer Quarryman’s routes. Significantly the selection of the Mary Tavy to Merivale route is chosen because of oral history relayed to Hemery in the memories of George Penrose of Peter Tavy. George passed on what he knew of his father Frederick Penrose’s work as a quarryman. Frederick was born in 1870 and lived at Higher Godsworthy Farm. He would walk to work following the Quarryman’s path, which in those days was known as ‘The Sheep Path’. And finally, in championing this Quarryman’s route and what sets it apart is the causeway of granite and ‘a kerb like series of set stones’ (Hemery, 1986, p198), laid by the quarrymen across Great Staple ridge, presumably to help keep their feet a little less wet and muddy. This quote from Pilkington-Rogers certainly substantiates it’s definitive footprint across the landscape:

Numerous tracks rise from the surrounding hamlets and villages into the moor, but anyone who expects to find it traversed by well-marked paths … will suffer a painful shock… Many of them lead merely to points just within the edge of the moor; most of them die away to nothing … In very few instances indeed do they form anything in the nature of clearly marked routes over long distances, as in the case of the track … from Peter Tavy to the Merrivale quarries.

Pilkington- Rogers (1930), p81

A final point – Here I have used the spelling Merivale as that is what is written on the Quarry entrance and used by Hemery. The OS and other authors tend to use Merrivale, with two r’s and I am sure elsewhere, as this blog develops, my spelling will flip-flop between the two.

7 Interesting Things

1. Hydro-electric Power Station

Delivering electricity to 1700 houses, the Mary Tavy Hydro-electric station has been producing power since the 1930s. It started as a business opportunity by the Christy Bothers who saw the potential in acquiring the water rights from the Wheal Jewel and Mary Tavy Mining Company for the fast growing electricity market. They launched in 1932 as the West Devon Mining and Power Company. The station still operates and is now owned by South West Water.

There are two plants in operation. The first and earliest plant was powered by water coming from a leat that starts at Hill Bridge. This is then used to create a head of water at Bennett’s Reservoir (capacity 2.5 million gallons). From here it drops from a height of 230 feet (70m) through a 36 inch (91cm) pipe to feed three Francis turbines – the turbines essentially being cast metal, enclosed water-wheels. The turbines drive three Crompton Parkinson alternators at a speed of 1000 rpm. The alternator converts the mechanical energy in the turbine to an alternating current via a rotating magnet passing over a conducting coil.

Because demand for electricity increased so much, a second plant was built in 1936. This plant takes its water from Tavy Cleave, through a leat, and into Wheal Jewel reservoir. Wheal Jewel is a much bigger reservoir than Bennett’s Reservoir and is at a greater altitude. It holds 16 million gallons and the water descends 1,100 feet (335m). Conveyed through a slightly bigger pipe (39 inches, 99 cm) the water enters one of three Pelton Wheel turbines which in turn power three English Electric alternators at the lower revolution of 428 rpm. And for those that love some engineering specifics, the voltage from each plant is stepped up from about 420 to 11,000 volts.

2. Peter Tavy Higher Mill

Thought to be 18th C with 19th C additions, this historic building that stands on the Colly Brook has a gabled right wing and a hipped left. According to Historic England the central part of the building has a corner fireplace, and in the right wing a fireplace with side oven. Pigeon holes can be seen in the exterior walls of the left wing and the different designs of the chimney stacks can also be noted. Originally the mill wheel was into the side wall of the left wing but this no longer remains. Apparently inside the machinery remains in the ground floor room with the milling stone gear in the room above.

3. Combe Bathing Pool

Tucked in the Combe, to the east of Peter Tavy, just past the clam, is a concrete lined pool. Today it is rather mud-filled and uninviting and is accompanied by an ominous sign warning ‘DANGER. WATER UNFIT FOR DRINKING OR SWIMMING. KEEP OUT’.

What I find interesting is that this well-known and loved leisure spot of recent years goes seemingly un-reported in print. My Dartmoor library is not exhaustive but I do have a fair few books and I can’t find mention of it. Even the comprehensive and detailed writing of Hemery ignores the existence of this pool as he walks on by on this route. I did find other people writing about Combe on their blogs . I am sure the facts are correct, but I wanted to check, so I posted a request on a local Facebook site to try and corroborate the details. I happily received lots of responses from people who had enjoyed summer days bathing there. Here is a bit of what I found out.

Combe was reputedly constructed in the 1930s with one respondent to my post remembering her Grandad, Harold Friend, being one of the men that helped to build it. This sparked recollections of photos of the men working there and one of the opening ceremony with ‘the men in old fashioned full swimming costumes with shoulder straps‘.

Another respondent stated that the pool had originally been a holding pond for the mill further down the valley. The old OS map record bears this out with the footprint of the bathing pool evident, straddling a watercourse that comes off the Colly Brook below Little Combe Tor and then flows back into the brook near the footbridge. Notice the straight line fronting this feature which suggests it is man-made. It therefore appears that Combe pool was made into a bathing pool out of the redundant mill holding pool. The 1930s timing is possibly significant. Above, I wrote about the opening and quick expansion of Mary Tavy hydro-electric power station as electricity rapidly grew as a source of power. For the residents of Peter Tavy, the redundancy of the pool as a holding pond by the 1930s would likely have been obvious. No doubt it was being used to bathe in anyway so why not repurpose it?

Combe was very popular and many people have reminiscences of happy summer days bathing in its water, but also of the effort required in maintaining it, as exemplified by this quote from another villager:

‘the village children used to clean the Combe out ready for the summer holidays where it then became the meeting place for them all. Lots learnt to swim there, my husband had a bit of an accident there around 1970-1972, he dived in & hit the bottom leaving a very nasty injury needing stitches. He still has the scars to show for it’.

Stricter health and safety standards meant that Combe fell out of favour and had closed by the early 1990s. Despite the ominous warning sign however, there are still sitings of people taking the opportunity to have a sneaky little bathe at Combe.

4. Great Combe Tor

A modest tor and one of the Dartmoor tors that is not made of granite. Great Combe Tor is made of Dolerite. Dolerite, also known as Diabase, is a medium-grained, dark-coloured, intrusive igneous rock formed in the metamorphic ‘aureole’ around the granitic upland of the high moor. The views from here are fabulous, extending back down the Combe, across Mary Tavy and to Brentor in the distance.

5. A Brawl

Along this quarryman’s causeway, at the point where it intersects the parish boundary between Whitchurch and Peter Tavy, Crossing describes an altercation between men of the two Parishes . He recounts:

This was once the scene of a quarrel which terminated in the manner usually associated in our minds with the slight misunderstandings that occasionally arise at Donnybrook Fair [a slang term for a brawl or riot]. The men of one of the parishes named were viewing their bounds, the operation being watched by the men of the other, when a dispute arose about a bondmark. Heated arguments followed, but failed to be convincing, and finally recourse was had to another means of settling the matter. But that also failed to do so, though it cannot be said that it was barren of results. Those who returned home with broken heads were certainly not inclined to think so.

Crossing (1990, p150)

6. Causeway

Pilkington-Rogers (1930, p96) mentions this path and the rough paving along most of its length between Peter Tavy and Merivale, hypothesising that it might be an ancient track that linked Mary Tavy and Peter Tavy to the Tavistock to Ashbuton Road.

He also notes the the specific area on the Great Staple Tor ridge saying that each quarryman ‘on each occasion of his passing by, added a stone‘. This sounds like a pragmatic and realistic approach. What sounds less convincing is his explanation of the quarrymen running out of stones to cobble the road and instead …

Then some bright member of the party conceived the idea of continuing the work with contributions from broken crockery. The result is a tribute to the reckless household zeal of the Petertavians.

This seems far-fetched given the plentiful supply of stone on the ridge, not to mention the impracticality of broken pottery as a walking surface. However, next time I am walking that ridge, I will no doubt look down to my feet, hoping to find evidence in a broken sherd.

7. Explosive Store

On the final approach the path descends on the west side of Merivale Quarry, which opened in 1875 as Tor Quarry (Harris, 1992, p83). Here can be seen a small building surrounded by a round stone wall. On first appearance the structure looks too small to function as a room with any purpose, and it is set apart from the quarry, making it impractical for regular access. But there is of course a reason for this. This small building is set apart precisely because of its function, which was as an explosives store. Looking again at the store one observe the thickness of the walls and roof, designed to help contain a blast. My observant partner, who is practically minded, pointed out the wires set into the store’s outer rendering, surmising that these were a Faraday Cage to protect the explosives from a detonating lightening strike.

The Route

• From Mary Tavy take the path, passing the hydroelectric power station on the right, across the River Tavy across the clam bridge towards Peter Tavy.

• Turn right from the clam towards Peter Tavy. Notice Longtimber Tor to the right, hidden in trees. Take care because if it has been wet this path can be very muddy.

• The path pops out in Peter Tavy at the Peter Tavy Inn. Walk along the road and at the road junction turn right and then turn left off the road with the village hall and methodist chapel on the right.
• Take the footpath beside the Colley Brook. This emerges onto a small road at Peter Tavy Higher Mill.
• Proceed along the road until it enters via a gate a small patch of woodland.
• Take the lower path that crosses the Colley Brook via a clam bridge.
• This path rises up the hillside, passing the long redundant pool on the left and ascends to Great Combe Tor. Here the path is also very muddy but it is on a slope so it can be additionally slippery.

• Above the tor the path follows the route between two walls and crosses the field below another unnamed outcrop.
• Stick to the path close to the wall on your left and this takes you to the roadway to Higher Godsworthy Farm.
• Cross over the road and follow the pathway (marked as bridleway on the OS map) that heads roughly ESE gently rising around the upper and east side of Cox Tor. There are various paths worn by frequent use here so take care to check you are following the right one.
• The path turns to a more SE direction and continues straight, though a settlement of Bronze Age hut circles and rises over the ridge between Great Staple Tor and Middle Staple Tor. here will be seen the granite causeway setts.
• Descend over the ridge to the back of Merivale Quarry which can be circumvented, passing the explosives hut, to the west down to the road (B3357).

References

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

Crossing, W. (1992). Crossing’s Dartmoor Worker. Peninsula Press: Newton Abbot. (First Published in the Western Morning News in 1903)

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

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.

Historic England (undated) Higher Mill peter Tavy. Historic England. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1105409

Pilkington-Rogers, C.W. (1930). Days on Dartmoor, Methuen: London.

South West Water (undated). Mary Tavy Power Station. South West Water. https://www.southwestwater.co.uk/siteassets/documents/mary_tavy_a5_leaflet.pdf