On a dull grey day we started from the church in Mary Tavy.
It is here that William Crossing is buried. His famous Guide to Dartmoor was published in 1909. He is considered to be one of the best known authors on Dartmoor and it's antiquities. It is believed that he was responsible for the modern activity of letterboxing. There is a memorial to him on Dartmoor at
Cranmere Pool and also at
Duck's Pool.
We followed the footpath through a couple of fields and then came to this listed building known as Miners Dry, Wheal Friendship Mine. This was used by miners to dry their clothes and apparently is the only surviving example of this type of building on Dartmoor.
Through another field where there was a huge pile of timber next to this log splitting machine.
On the other side of the field a variety of free range chickens.
We continued past the first of two small reservoirs which are used to power the Hydro Electric power station in Mary Tavy.
Out through the very wet green lane and on to Horndon where we followed the road before cutting up across the moor to........
Wheal Jewell Reservoir. This is the other larger reservoir which provides water for the power station in Mary Tavy. Originally the leat bringing water to this reservoir was used to service the mine at..............
.......Wheal Betsy. This is the site of an ancient silver and tin mine. In 1806 the site was reopened and mined for lead, copper arsenic and silver. The shaft here was 900 feet deep. The chimney on the mine is famous for the fact that it curves out slightly at the top.
The mine is just below the A386. We headed up across the road and up to....
....Gibbet Hill. Very heavy rain at this point and the wind was so strong that the raindrops felt as if they were hailstones as they hit.
From here e it was down to Mary Tavy and we followed the relatively new permissive path which took us to the Mary Tavy Inn where we had lunch.
On the walk today Ian, Jon, Bill, Charlie, Brenda and Stella.
