This walk: 2012-4-3. Headland Warren Farm, artefacts, plastic owl, gerts possibly from Vitifer mine, West Webburn Valley, Grimspound, Hookney Tor, RAF Memorial, WW2 3-metre anti-glider poles, warren boundary stone, dog kennel wall, rabbit-proof walls.
Walk details below - Information about the route etc.
In the distance is the long rabbit proof wall which forms the southerly boundary of the warren. Lynchetts of Challacombe can also be seen in the hillside.
One of the several rabbit buries in the area. A sign on the buildings stated that 700 rabbits a day were sent to the station at Moretonhampstead.
Headland Warren Farm, a 13th Century Devon longhouse (600 years old!), currently for sale at �599,000. Once the Birch Tor Inn, serving thirsty miners from the East Birch Tor, Golden Dagger and Vitifer tin mines. There was an interesting sign in times gone by relating to cider to drink and rabbits to eat.
Headland Warren Farm feature.
Headland Warren Farm feature - closer inspection revealed it to be fibre glass or plastic!
Plastic owl��.friends with the pair of plastic ducks in the nearby pond.
A fine collection of galvanised tin outhouses - probably "listed" now!
Tinners' gerts associated with Birch Tor, Vitifer or the Golden Dagger Mine.
Rabbit warren?
Looking down the valley of the West Webburn towards Challacombe.
Grimspound � remains of the massive enclosure wall.
Stones above Firth Bridge approaching Grimspound.
Grimspound, The main gate, on the southern side, at the bottom of the slope up to Hameldown Tor, looking across to Hookney Tor. There is a small incised cross in one of the large stones on the right in the gateway, not seen on this visit.
A Grimspound roundhouse with a porched entrance.
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RAF Memorial, SX 71283 80703, to the four-man crew of a Hanley Page Hampden (aka "Tadpole") bomber no. X3054 that belonged to RAF 49 Squadron Scampton. It crashed on returning from a raid by six aircraft that bombed submarine pens and laid mines off Lorient on the Brittany coast on 21st/22nd March 1941. Brief details of this raid, part of the Battle of the Atlantic, can be seen on the 49 Squadron Association Roll of Honour web pages dedicated to the young flyers, linked below:
R.D.W. - Pilot Officer Robert
Wilson, Pilot, aged 25, buried Exeter
C.J.L. - Sgt. Charles Lyon, Air
Gunner, aged 23, buried Prescot, Lancashire
R.B. - Sgt. Ronald Brames,
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, aged 22, buried Eltham, London
R.L.A.E. - Sgt. Richard Ellis,
2nd Pilot, aged 23, buried Exeter
RAF Scampton during WWII - home of 617 Squadron (Dam Busters)
RAF Scampton today - home of the Red Arrows
Other links: Legendary Dartmoor link, Dartmoor Crosses link, YouTube movie of a Hampden .....
Information from another walk 2 July 2010.
On the back of the memorial is a more recent plaque.
One of several 3-metre poles placed on the Hameldown Ridge and Hookney Common during World War Two to deter enemy gliders from landing.
16 General scene on Hookney Down - King�s Barrow in the background.
Hookney Tor.
A good example of Dartmoor dry stone walling.
Looking north to Shapley Tor. Here we turned west and headed back towards Headland Warren� - or �exit left, the losers of the silly hat competition�.
An abandoned fire beater from recent swaling?
Thank God, cars in sight! Strollers trying to keep to the 40mph speed limit - The Warren House Inn beckons!
The Bewildered - wondering who is taking the photograph!
Of all the warrens, Headland Warren provides the best marked boundaries. Dating from about 1780 and enclosing 600 acres or a square mile, the old six-inch OS map showed 13 bound stones. However, Dave Brewer found no less than 15! This stone, at SX 6975 8090, is engraved with WB (Warren Boundary) with AP and WN, possibly previous warreners initials. Source: Dave Brewer (2002) Dartmoor Boundary Markers, Halsgrove, pp. 265-267.
The kennel court beside the warren house and a kennel built into the boundary. Later turfed and floored and used as a cool store..
Rabbit proof enclosures of Headland Warren Farm.
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 accessed by taking the FIRST right turn after Bennett's Cross (orThe Warren House Inn) and parking in a small quarry beside the road 1.6 km from the turn-off (marked Challacombe Cross on the 1:50 map).
Statistics
Distance - 5.71 km / 3.55 miles.
All photographs on this web site are copyright ©2007-2016 Keith Ryan.
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