This walk: 2012-3-21. Shapley Common, Round Hill, Jurston Valley, Curlicombe Brook, Chagford/North Bovey parish bound stone, slotted gateposts, Jurston, Mariner's Way, chimney pot, clapper bridge, stepping stones, roe deer, Lettaford hamlet, The Landmark Trust, circular stone.
Walk details below - Information about the route etc.
View from Round Hill, looking down Jurston Valley (not Green Combe as on the map), this being the north end of Shapley Common.
Similar to the previous photograph.
Curlicombe Brook ..... looking upstream .....
Curlicombe Brook ..... looking downstream.
"..... and on my left ....."
Man on phone, "Hello, Home for the Bewildered - have you lost anyone?"
Most of the group.
Bound stone at SX 69290 83138, erected in 1997, showing "NB" (for North Bovey) on this side .....
Showing "C" (for Chagford) on this side. A similar stone (SX 696 893) is shown by Dave Brewer (2002) Dartmoor Boundary Markers, Halsgrove, pp. 73.
Another view down into the valley.
The path ahead, just before reaching the road that goes down to Jurston; it looks a bit like a leat.
A fine example of slotted gateposts close to SX 6937 8419 .....
Slotted gatepost with the "L slots." for sliding the gate bars into place.
"Now you've got their attention!"
Entering Jurston or Jurs'on, a hamlet with two old longhouses (Higher Jurston and Lower Jurston plus listed barns) from the 15th and 16th centuries, although the settlement is first mentioned in 1242.
Mariner's Way signpost pointing to Hurston (to the west). This was a sailor's path from Bideford (North Devon) to Dartmouth (South Devon), between St George's Channel up to Bristol and the Channel in the south.
A round-ended barn or round-house, inside which horses were probably used to walk around, driving some sort of machinery - perhaps for threshing or milling corn.
A modern-looking house.
Two farm dogs.
The Mariner's Way to Moorgate (south-west from here).
Farm building .....
The type of chimney pot that once accommodated a thatched roof.
General view.
Clapper Bridge over Curlicombe Brook ......
The older stepping stones, seen from the bridge.
A fallen tree.
Two roe deer .....
As previous photo.
An unusual form of ivy, a garden escapee?
As previous photo.
Another slotted gatepost, at SX 70034 84244 .....
The matching gate post with L - slots.
Entering Lettaford, first mentioned in 1244 in the Assize Rolls as Lotreford ..... three medieval longhouses clustered around a green and a stream with various other buildings. This is a good example of how these settlements were farmers' hamlets. The Landmark Trust (Holidays in historic buildings) took over three of the buildings in 1976 (The Chapel, Higher Lettaford and Sanders) and now let them out as holiday accommodation.
Embedded Google Earth image .....
Google Earth aerial image of Lettaford.
Plan of Lettaford with labels mostly as in the Legendary Dartmoor web page: The Sanders Longhouse.
Barn.
A fine example of a longhouse ("Sanders") with the living accommodation (left) and the animals' shippon (right) down the slope ....
"Is there anybody there?"
The path leading back up onto the moor.
Mariner's Way sign back down the path to Lettaford.
A circular stone at SX 6990 8382 .....
Showing the location of the circular stone, near the moor gate.
MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.
Ordnance Survey © Crown copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Licence number
100047373.
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.
This walk was reached by driving from Postbridge, past The Warren House Inn, passing the turnoff at Challacombe Cross and on to the car park on the left, marked by the P symbol and the yellow cross on the map.
Statistics
Distance - 4.15 km / 2.58 miles.
All photographs on this web site are copyright ©2007-2016 Keith Ryan.