This walk: 2014-4-14. The Three Fishes Stones walk - Page 2.
The path on the top of the wall is an animal path .....
Then is revealed a VERY steep sided valley to cross - Heather Combe!
There is a tiny stream in the bottom of the valley .....
The stream was about one foot wide!
Looking back, after a four-wheel drive climb i.e. using hands as well as feet.
Gate into Heathercombe Newtake (now wooded) at SX 71418 80899 � 3 metres, chained and locked, behind which is the third stone, ON PRIVATE LAND .....
Part of a stone can be seen above the second gate bar down .....
A closer view: this turned out to be a private family memorial stone ..... about fifteen yards inside the gate .....
Finding a good viewpoint nearby along the wall (take binoculars), and with a zoomed camera, the third stone, erected by Claude Pike in 1977 (Acknowledgements: Tom Soby & Paul Rendell), just inside the moor gate into Heathercombe Newtake (now wooded) .....
Inscribed with the three fishes and "And the Glory".
More information about the stones can be found via the following sources:
C. Pike (1993), Heathercombe - The History of a Dartmoor Valley, Westcountry Books, pages 90-91
Eric Hemery (1983), High Dartmoor, Robert Hale, London, page 722 (& fig. 343).
J. Hayward (1991, reprinted 2009), Dartmoor 365, Curlew Publications, page 154.
RAF Memorial, SX 71418 80899 � 3 metres.
Click the image to see a larger version.|
V |
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 .....
On the back of the memorial stone .....
Closer view.
Haytor, viewed from a lunch position!
Gorse .....
As previous photograph.
The Duke of Somerset's Natsworthy Manor boundary stone (formerly Notsworthy and Noteswrde in Domesday), inscribed PIT, one of a series erected during 1853-1854, described by
Dave Brewer (2002) Dartmoor Boundary Markers, Halsgrove, pages 75 and 85 (illustrated).
DS 1853, right beside the road at Natsworthy Manor.
Looking up to Hamel Down from near the PIT stone .....
The sign boards.
On the road back towards Hound Tor .....
Zoomed view.
Last view of Hound Tor from the car park .....
Over-crowded car park, I was the only car at 9.15 am.
Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.
© Crown copyright and database rights 2012 Ordnance
Survey
Licence number 100047373
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.
This walk was reached by the road signed "Widecombe", from the A38 just past Ashburton, heading towards Exeter, via Owlacombe Cross, Halshanger Cross, turn right at Cold East Cross, left at Hemsworthy Gate after passing Rippon Tor on the right. Then, right at Harefoot Cross and on to the car park by Hound Tor, signed by the P symbol and yellow cross on the map.
Statistics
Distance - 8.96 km / 5.57 miles.
All photographs on this web site are copyright ©2007-2016 Keith Ryan.