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This walk: 2013-2-15. Modern Mary Tavy/Brentor boundary stone, GWR bridges, Brent Tor, Was Tor, SD&TR, L&SWR bridges, snowdrops, Lydford railway station. Station Stables, Was Tor Chapel, Wastor Farm & holiday cottages, Burnville, walled garden, ponies in a muddy field, dog poo fairy notice, faded signs on bridges, blue tit.

Walk details below - Information about the route etc.

Link to Google Satellite view of the area - the car park is near centre-bottom of the map.

Identical walk 31st October 2012.

West Black Down car park at SX 49280 81611, showing a modern Mary Tavy/Brentor boundary stone .....

From Brentor Village web site (under 'About Brentor - More About Brentor'):

"..... The boundary changes of the 1880s (ecclesiastical boundary change 1883, civil boundary transfer 1885) transferred the detached portion of Lamerton to the Parish of Brentor, more than doubling its size and population. Further boundary changes in 1987 saw the area east of the 'White Lady Waterfall' on the River Lyd transferred to Lydford parish and Blackdown, up to the road, transferred to Brentor from Mary Tavy parish."

From Dave Brewer (2002) Dartmoor Boundary Markers, Halsgrove .....

"1 April 1987 saw ... the creation of four new parishes in the Borough of West Devon .............. Dartmoor Forest, Lydford, Sticklepath .............. Gulworthy." p.187.

"Brentor's bounds, too, were changed in 1987, but parts are still those of Saxon origin. .............. The 1987 changes involved the loss of a portion of land to Lydford north of the River Lyd, and the acquisition of a thin strip of land on its eastern boundary" p. 190.

Another stone at SX 49621 82107, the "B" signifies Brentor Parish .....

SX 49954 82437 ................. and Brent Tor is over there .....

13th Century Church of St. Michael de Rupe, on Brent Tor.

Another boundary stone at SX 49954 82437 .....

Stream at SX 50086 82502.

Was Tor, SX 50000 82958, elevation 253 m (830 feet) .....

..... and beyond the fence, under the trees, is a disused railway, part of the South Devon & Tavistock Railway: "The northern section of the Branch, between Tavistock and Launceston, in Cornwall, was officially opened on Thursday June 1st 1865, although public services did not begin until Saturday July 1st. It, too, was worked by the South Devon Railway. Intermediate stations were opened that day at Mary Tavy & Blackdown, Lydford, Coryton, and Lifton."

History of Mary Tavy - The Railway Station: "The first line to reach Mary Tavy was Brunel's broad gauge railway in 1865. It was the furthest west that the railway had got at the time and was South Devon's northen extension from Tavistock to Lydford. It then headed west down the Lyd valley to Launceston and beyond. (These early trains ran on track that was just over 7 feet wide. Although designed by Brunel, the railway was run by the South Devon Railway until financial difficulties in 1876 lead to a takeover by the Great Western Railway. Brunel's broad gauge network was converted in 1892 to run on the narrower 'standard' 4ft 8.5 ins gauge introduced by Robert Stevenson.). When a rival railway company, the London and South Western Railway, extended their Okehampton line south to Tavistock in 1874, Mary Tavy got a second line but there was no station. Those that wanted to go to Okehampton by train would have had to change lines at Lydford where both railway companies had stations."

Sign at the end of the 'leg' across the Down.

Snowdrops Galanthus nivalis = snowy milk blossom (because each flower is thought to resemble a droplet of milk), also called �Fair-maids-in-February� or "Candlemas Bells" (named after Candlemas, 2^nd February).

Looking right, over the first railway bridge ..... out there was Lydford Station, at SX 5026 8293 .....

Looking back to the first (T&DR, which became the L&SDR) bridge, with the open Down behuind .....

Over the bridge, turn left for this sign .....

Entrance to the stables: was this where Lydford Station was?

The second (GWR) bridge .....

View to the right, from the bridge.

View to the left, to the west.

Signs along the way, with part of the GWR bridge in view.

Was Tor Chapel, now a private house ....

The house name plaque.

Approaching .....

Wastor Farm.

Ceylon and Batavia holiday cottages.

Public footpath at the back of Wastor Farm (my photograph of the farm did not work) .....

Zoomed view.

Odd land form at the edge of the field, the footpath is at the left.

Scene along the way.

Walled garden at Burnville - at the time of writing, community growers are sought (look down the page).

Panoramic view of the garden.

We thought this rabbit was quite a mason!

House sign .....

.... and the entrance.

Guinea holiday cottage.

Zoomed view to the car park.

Farm sign.

Another property entrance .....

..... called Langstone.

Another road sign, we took the road to North Brentor.

Dartmoor ponies in a muddy field .....

Most of the fields in the area have gateways like this, the result of an 18-month long wet winter.

Believed Dunnock or Hedge Sparrow (Prunella modularis), however, the collar around the front of the neck seems more pronounced than in my books or in Google images although the orange-brown leg is quite a distinctive character.

"There's no such thing as the Dog Poo Fairy" notice.

There is a much better photograph of this in the previous walk, without a parked car.

The cottage name.

Another holiday cottage.

One of the buildings associated with the old blacksmith and wheelwright, nearby was the sawpit .......... somewhere.

An old quarry?

The GWR bridge again .....

Just down the road, the L&SWR bridge .....

Looking west over the GWR bridge, a two-line railway .....

Worn sign on the bridge .....

Ditto .....

GWR boundary marker .....

Location of the boundary marker .....

Annother look over, this time rthe L&SDR bridge ....

Blue tit .....

Blue tit.

More marks .....

Ditto .....

As previous photographs.

Back at the car park, the other side of the modern boundary marker.

Walk details

MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.

This walk was reached by turning north-west in Mary Tavy beside the CJ Down garage/coach company, then following the road around to Furzleigh, turning right just before the cattle grid, then following the road to a sharp left bend. There is parking on the right, on the hard standing just beside the bend, at the yellow cross on the map.

Statistics
Distance - 6.22 km / 3.87 miles.