Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“My Dear Mother”
Down a winding country road near
Widecombe-in-the-Moor, the tiny vil-
lage of Buckland-in-the-Moor, with its
chocolate-box thatched-roof cottages
and fluffy Dartmoor ponies, has a
unique church. Built in the 13th century
of locally quarried stone,
St. Peter's
Church
has a distinctively modern clock
on its tower, which denotes the hours
with letters instead of numbers. The
letters, which may at first seem to be
in no particular order, actually spell out
M
Y
D
EAR
M
OTHER
. The clock was donated
in 1931 by a parishioner whose mother
had recently died, and he had it made
to memorialize her.
Inside, the ancient church has won-
derfully preserved carving work and
an extraordinarily rare medieval rood
screen with much of its original paint-
ing. The screen shows a variety of reli-
gious figures believed to include the
Archangel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary,
and St. Anne, among others. Most such
screens were destroyed when the Cath-
olic church was suppressed in England,
and some of the paintings here have
been defaced. But what survives gives
you a wonderful view of how medieval
English churches might have once
looked.
9
Anglo-Saxon word
cleaca,
which meant “stepping stones.”) Historians believe this
particular bridge was built in early medieval times to speed the movement of tin
across the moor by pack horse.
The much-visited Dartmoor village of
Widecombe-in-the-Moor,
7 miles north-
east of Moretonhampstead, is worth visiting for both its overall prettiness and its
14th-century church (the church of St. Pancras). You can have a drink in one of its
tea shops. On a sunny day, it's a good spot for a picnic.
The highest town in all the moors is
Princetown
(435m/1,427 ft.; it's on the
B3212). It's a favorite starting point for hill walkers striking out across the moors, but
it's a gloomy old place. The looming form of Dartmoor Prison dominates it, and the
weather seems always to be gray. The prison was built in 1809 to house American and
French prisoners of war. For the curious, there's a
prison museum
(www.dartmoor.
pison.co.uk) that tells the tale of the place and sells crafts made by the inmates.
Exploring the Moors on Foot & Horseback
Dartmoor is notoriously wild and challenging for hikers and cyclists, but thousands
of hardy folk traverse it every year. It is crisscrossed with about 500 miles of trails
covering sometimes rough terrain. Its bogs pose a challenge for those who off-road,
and the weather here can be downright dangerous, with sudden thick fogs and
high winds. In short, feel free to explore, but be prepared with good hiking boots,
a compass, plenty of water, and proper maps. Or, in the interest of safety, take a
guided walk.
The
Dartmoor National Park Authority
(DNPA)
runs
guided walks
of vary-
ing difficulty, ranging from 1
1
⁄
2
to 6 hours and treks of some 9 to 12 miles. Details are
available from the
High Moorland Visitor Centre,
Tavistock Road, Princetown
(
&
01822/890414;
www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk). Guided tours cost £3 for a 2-hour
walk, £5 for a 3-hour walk, £6.50 for a 4-hour walk, and £8 for a 6-hour walk. These
prices are subsidized by the National Park services.
