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

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

This section is from Yelverton to Goad’s Stone Pool. Approx 3 miles.

Part 1 – Trans-Dartmoor Packhorse Track: Part 1 – Roborough Down

Part 3 – Trans-Dartmoor Packhorse Track: Part 3 – Goad’s Stone Pool to Princetown

Background

Passing through Yelverton and Dousland, both youthful settlements, this segment of trans-Dartmoor packhorse track is one whose essence is transformation. The landscape through which it passes speaks more of the formation of new places than the loss of old. Prior to rail travel, Yelverton and Dousland were non existent as villages. Both were defined on tithe maps by single dwellings – probably roadside inns. The Manor Inn at Dousland and the Rock Hotel at Yelverton would have been well-placed on this working route to serve the needs of the men guiding the pack horses that trudged down from, and up to the moor. This 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.

Covered now in tarmac, it is for this section of the packhorse track for which there is the earliest record. A boundary clause of a Meavy Charter from 1031 AD talks of ‘the highway of the dwellers of Buckland‘ and indicates that this lies close to the line of the Meavy/Walkhampton parish boundary. This boundary is very close to the line of the B3212 today, which follows the same course as the packhorse route.

Packhorses, once ubiquitous across moorlands, were supplanted by the late Victorian by innovations in transport. But before the world moved on, sturdy ponies were used for centuries to transport goods along routes that were unsuitable for carts and wagons.^. They are therefore typically associated with (although not exclusive to) upland areas where the climate, terrain and low populations meant there was no maintained road network. For the transportation of any kind of produce – food, wool, tin, lime, peat – packhorses would have been the only choice. It was, as ever, a matter of practicality and economics:

“A nineteenth-century calculation shows that the cost of drawing waggons more than trebled if the gradient increased from 1 in 50 to 1 in 10. Over bad roads with steep gradients wheeled transport could be considerably less efficient than packhorses.”

Gerhold, 1993

Indeed, in relation to Dartmoor, Burnard (1905, quoting Marshal, 1796) states that:

“this part of the county did not possess a single carriage with wheels, nor, fortunately for the necks of the travellers, any horses but those which were natives of the county”.

Burnard goes on to cite the work of Youatt (1831) that mentions that:

“there were still some farms in secluded parts of Devon on which wheeled vehicles were unknown. Hay, corn, straw, fuel, stone, dung, and lime were carried on horseback; and in harvest, sledges drawn by oxen and horses were employed.”

The coming of the Princetown to Sutton Harbour tramway in 1823, mainly to transport granite, but also used for other items, was the first jolt in half a century of rapid change. By the end of the 19th C long distance packhorse transportation across Dartmoor would have become a thing of the past.

Walking this stretch today is not easy. There is pavement from Yelverton as far as the Walkhampton turning at Woodman’s Corner, but between here and the open moor the road is not suitable to walk; it is far too busy. I explored it in a succession of car hops, with stops at Yelverton, Dousland, Yennadon Cross and Goad’s Stone Pool.

7 Interesting Things

1. Yelverton – The Rock Inn

Yelverton is young. A mere new kid on the block. Before the railways came in the 1880s there was only one dwelling – The Rock Inn. It is thought that the ‘Rock Hotel’ as it was then called (also known as Rock House and the Blatchford Rock Hotel – Quick, 1992) was probably a coaching inn. The earliest part of the building may date back to the 16th C.

There are records of stables at the site, and inns needed stables for horses as much as they needed bed and board for travellers. The Rock Hotel responded to rail travel in the same way as the village did – by expanding! Firstly it was extended to incorporate the old stables but with various later add ons; the footprint incrementally enlarged. In 1966 the now substantial Rock Hotel closed and much of the building was turned into flats. But a bar was retained. The ability to get victuals at the Rock Inn continues to this day.

2. The Devonport Leat

In part one of this walk across Roborough Down, we were introduced to the Devonport Leat, built in the late 18th C to serve the rapidly expanding dock. I had vague notions that it, and the earlier Plymouth (or Drake’s) Leat, traversed these parts, but I had not paid much attention to their precise courses. What I found most intriguing is how the Devonport Leat is right beside your car, hiding behind the hedge. Of course, if you live in Dousland you will know this very well, but for those of us just driving through, en-route to Burrator, Sheepstor, or Princetown, we will likely be clueless.

I enjoy the way the Devonport and Plymouth leats parallel each other and the road before arching sharply clockwise, following a contoured path, mirrored too by the former railway line. The easiest place to view the Devonport Leat is just opposite the now closed down Burrator Inn, where it is bridged to access a residential area.

3. Dousland ‘s Origins

I have really enjoyed researching Dousland because it is a place that has been utterly transformed over the last 200 years by railways, much in the same way that nearby Yelverton has. Dovesland as it was on a 13th C deed, and Doustiland on the 19th C tithe map, Crossing describes Dousland’s diminutive size:

“It is not so many years since that it was represented by a single roadside hostelry, named the Manor Inn, but which was generally referred to as Dousland Barn. It forms a capital base for moorland explorations”.

Crossing, 1912

The Manor Inn buildings are shown, standing on their own, on the tithe map at the crossroads junction (see map below). Today the village has spread around three of the four quadrants of the crossroads and strings out lengthily southwards along the Burrator Road.

The historical record states that there was a farm here called Manor Farm but the first edition OS 25 inch map (c.1880) labels an inn not a farm. This implies that the original inn was here before the railway opened. I wonder at what point in its history did it become an inn? Perhaps when the tramway opened, running right past its door, or maybe it has always been an inn and not a farm, serving this ancient packhorse path.

4. Dousland’s Trams and Trains

In 1823 the Plymouth and Dartmoor Tramway from Princetown to Sutton Harbour opened, to transport granite and other products between moor and city. The tramway still made use of horse power, but the railed route charted a longer path over lesser inclines, making pulling feasible instead of carrying. Unfortunately it wasn’t very successful and didn’t attract much business other than granite. But the engineering of the route was in itself a major innovation and its ribbon of rails was the first was the first stage in a recasting of the landscape at this location.

Notice on the tithe map of c1840 how the tramway runs through Dousland, parallel to the Yelverton road before sweeping in a sharp ninety degree arch across the land of the Burrator Inn, and across the Burrator Road.

The tramway was upgraded to a rail route in 1883 with the railway line mostly following the course of the former tramway. However, through ‘Dowsland’ 9another name change!), presumably because the bend of the tramway was too acute for the faster steam trains, the railway line took a gentler arch. We can see on the First Edition OS 25 inch map (below) the paths of the tramway and the railway taking slightly different curves through the village. Notice the building labelled the Manor Inn (discussed above) on the east side of the Burrator Road, opposite where the Burrator Inn stands today.

The coming of the railway was the catalyst for major change in Dousland. By the time the Second Edition OS 25 Inch map was printed c.1904, the substantial Manor Hotel had been built on the west side of the Burrator Road. The route of the old tramway is now all but lost, and residential buildings are beginning their proliferation towards the commuting environment that we see today, all enabled by rails, a train, carriages, a station and a railway timetable.

5. Yennadon Cross

I like crossroads. The coming together of routes; the divergence of people going their separate ways; the crossing of paths. Unlike the stretches in-between junctions, they are places of choices, and choice has connotations of both optimism and risk. That, I presume, is why the devil hangs out at them, looking for some poor fool willing to take a bullish yet doomed punt.

I don’t mean to imply that there is any mythological connection of the devil to Yennadon Cross. However, it is a junction connected to the lighter side of the religious duopoly, where the monastic ways of Tavistock to Buckfast, and Buckland to Buckfast converge. Overlooking the junction now stands a late-medieval cross, erected here in 1974. It was being used, upside down, as a gatepost at Mid Tors on the Walkhampton to Dousland road, The cross shaft is chamfered and is incised with a carved cross. If it relates to the monastic route to Buckland Abbey than I assume that the cross dates to the late 13th C when the abbey was founded. A cross base can be observed a bit further down the road, closer to Dousland, and this has to be a strong contender for the original location of this way-marker.

A final point about Yennadon Cross – the tramway cut straight across this junction in 1823, adding a further axis of interest (the red dotted line in the map above). Much of the granite tramway was re-purposed for the railway line and other sections have been built over, but here, heading NE across the fields, the untampered tramway can be spied.

6. RAF Sharpitor

Some parts of our landscape, like henges, have survived for millennia. Others are ephemeral. RAF Sharpitor is one of those short-lived places. Considering how substantial this RAF station was, it is quite remarkable to me how indistinguishable it has become in such a short period of time; with the subtle footprints of former structures evident only to the enquiring eye.

RAF Sharpitor was a master transmission station for the south west area using ‘Gee navigation’. Gee navigation was employed operationally for the first time by the RAF in WW2 and utliises the difference in time between two transmission signals from an aircraft to be able to fix its position. RAF Sharpitor consisted of two zones – a domestic zone (nearer to the road, which existed between 1942 – 1947) and the technical zone (further from the road, which dates from 1942 – 1971) (Grigg, 2020). The aerial photograph (above) shows the extent and layout of the site which included accommodation, offices, a guardroom, a canteen, ‘cookhouse’, garage, fuel compound, toilets, wash rooms, workshops, armoury, transmitter buildings, transmitter towers, power generation buildings, and stores.

I encourage you to click on the links to Steve Grigg’s two blog posts about this RAF base as they contain some wonderful photographs superimposed on the current landscape, which powerfully show these military ghosts in context in the landscape

RAF Sharpitor Domestic Site and RAF Sharpitor Technical Site

7. Goad’s Stone Pool

Right next to the road, flanked by some spaces to park the car, is a pool. It doesn’t have a name listed on main maps but it does have one – Goad’s Stone Pool.

I have never thought of this pool as being anything other than a big puddle from which cattle and ponies drink; but it turns out it is possibly a sacred pool. According to research by Greeves (2019) there are over 40 pools on the moor that have associations with prehistoric features such as cairns and stone rows. It is possible that the pools were ‘designed’ for practical or religious reasons (or both). The pools, normally sited on ridges, may have been gathering points for cattle and people. Maybe offerings were made? Perhaps the pools are natural features which ‘attracted’ human attention and resulted in the associated ceremonial and grave monuments?

In the case of the Goad’s Stone Pond, the way it is positioned in relation to the archaeological remains (beside them and clipped by a stone row) makes me feel that the pool was man made later. Perhaps it is because I am walking the packhorse route but it feels to me that this could instead be a man-made pool to serve as a drinking spot for the packhorses along this track. Although high on the moor it is not blessed with many natural drinking places and so a watering hole along this well-traversed road would have been very welcome.

Route

The route of this trans-moor packhorse route is very straightforward because it follows the road from Yelverton through Dousland and up to the moor. Easy peasy. However, because walking along stretches of this road is dangerous I did not walk its entirety but made stop-offs. What follows is a description, not of the historical route but how I accessed it in order to see some of the interesting things along it.

• Park in Yelverton and walk east, passing the Rock Inn (1) and out of Yelverton as far as Woodman’s Corner. There is a pavement along this stretch. On Woodman’s corner is a lovely route-marker stone that was only found in 2003. Just 100m further along from Woodman’s Corner the Devonport Leat passes under the road (2).

• Return to Yelverton and Drive to Dousland. Park along Burrator Road and from here you can explore. Notice where the oldest buildings in Dousland are on the crossroads where the Manor Inn would have been (3). Use old maps to locate the tramway route and the railway line both of which crossed the Burrator Road in slightly different places (4). Over the road, opposite the Burrator Inn, is a good place to be able to see the Devonport Leat.
• Drive to Lowry Cross Car park and use the footpath across the road over a patch of moorland to walk down towards the road. A short way up the road, on a junction to a farm is one of the many milestones that line this route. Turn and walk back down the road as far as the Yennadon Cross junction (5). Then return to the car.

• The final stop is Goad’s Stone Pool. Park here and walk back down the road to where there is a small parking bay ringed with a semi circle of stones. This is where the access to RAF Sharpitor was situated (6). Leave the road and walk uphill at this point to discover the clues in the ground of the footprints of buildings, roads and structures of this WW2 RAF base.
• Cut back to the car and to Goad’s Stone Pond (7). I am afraid I did not locate the Goad’s Stone from which the pond takes its name.

References

Archiuk. Old Maps. https://www.archiuk.com/archi/archi_maps.htm

Burnard, R. (1905); The Pack-Horse on Dartmoor. DA Transactions; pp: 168–174

Devon County Council Environment Viewer. https://maptest.devon.gov.uk/portaldvl/apps/webappviewer/

Gerhold, D., 1993. Packhorses and wheeled vehicles in England,1550–1800. The Journal of Transport History, 14(1),pp.1-26.

Crossing (1912). Crossing’s Guide to Dartmoor (Published in 1990, Ed. IanMercer), Peninsula Press Ltd: Newton Abbot.

Greeves, T. A. P. (2019). Dartmoor’s Sacred Pools. Design in the Prehistoric Landscape, 21, Goad’s Stone Pool (Article in Serial). 

Grigg, S. (2020) RAF Sharpitor (Domestic Site). Dartmoor Explorations. Published 17 July 2020 www.dartmoorexplorations.co.uk/category/military/ 

Grigg, S. (2020) RAF Sharpitor (Technical Site). Dartmoor Explorations. Published 17 July 2020 www.dartmoorexplorations.co.uk/category/military/

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

Heritage Gateway. Plymouth and Dartmoor Tramway

Heritage Gateway. The Rock Hotel, Roborough Down. 

Heritage Gateway. Yennadon Cross, Walkhampton.

Mawer, A and Stenton, F.M. (1931). The Place Names of Devon: Part 1. English Place Name Society Volume VIII. The University Press: Cambridge.