This walk: 2014-8-7. Little Staple Tor, Middle Staple Tor, Great Staple Tor, Great Mis Tor, Shillaford Farm, Cox Tor, Walkhampton / Peter Tavy parish boundary stone, Duke of Bedford marker stones, Roos Tor, Fur Tor, sett maker's banker, explosives store.
Walk details below - Information about the route etc.
Link to Google Satellite view of the area - including the GPS track of the walk (compare with the Ordnance Survey map plus track below)
Previous walks in this area: 4th January 2009, 3rd November 2010, 29th Feb. 2012 & 11th June 2014.
Approaching Little Staple Tor, SX 5386 7536, elevation 380 metres (1246 feet), with an interesting feature in the foreground that looks almost manmade, a stone "balanced" on two small ones?
Rock pans in the top of Little Staple Tor - note the perforated rim near bottom right.
View from Little Staple Tor with Leather Tor (left, dark "pimple" just below the skyline, Sharpitor and the rounded, smooth-looking Peek Hill (right).
Approaching Middle Staple Tor, SX 5403 7564, elevation 431 metres (1414 feet) .....
Female whinchat, summer visitor - click the right arrow on the photo to see the female.
The twin pillars of Great Staple Tor seen on the skyline from Middle Staple Tor.
Zoomed view to Great Staple Tor, SX 542 760, elevation 455 metres (1492 feet).
Summer cloudscape over Cox Tor, SX 530 761, elevation 442 metres (1450 feet), not an easy form, looks a bit like cirrocumulus stratiformis? Is it high enough, 16,500 to 45,000 feet, or is it a form of low-level cirrostratus? Pick the bones out of that!
Looking back at Middle Staple Tor.
Looking ahead to Great Staple Tor.
One of the Great Staple rock piles.
Another look back at Middle Staple Tor.
Looking down on Shillapark farm from Great Staple Tor, during a coffee break.
Great Mis Tor, SX 563 769, elevation 538 metres (1765 feet).
Another view of a rock pile at Great Staple Tor, we made various faces in the top of the pile, from Popeye to an eagle etc .....
Could this be a logan stone, if not now then in the past or in the future?
Zoomed view to a Walkhampton / Peter Tavy parish boundary stone.
Approaching Roos Tor, SX 543 766, elevation 454 metres (1489 feet), with Firing Range flag pole on the right and a logan stone just left of centre.
Looking back at Great Staple Tor .....
As previous photograph, zoomed view.
The Walkhampton ("W") / Peter Tavy ("P") parish boundary stone, with Roos Tor behind .....
The other side, showing "P" for Peter Tavy and with Great Staple Tor behind.
Looking back at Great Staple Tor.
Approaching Roos Tor, with one of the Duke of Bedford marker stones ..... there are fourteen of these around the tor marking the limit inside which the taking of stone in former times was forbidden ..... the markers and bound stones are described by Dave Brewer (2002) Dartmoor Boundary Markers, Halsgrove, p. 251, complete with a sketch map.
For better or worse, we walked clockwise around the tor, "GPSing" the Bedford stones, starting with the first one encountered .....
| 1. SX 54309 76472 | 2. SX 54231 76522 | 3. SX 54163 76595 | 4. SX 54163 76662 | 5. SX 54189 76692 |
| 6. SX 54264 76751 | 7. SX 54295 76761 | 8. SX 54332 76751 | 9. SX 54375 76732 | 10. SX 54438 76699 |
| 11. SX 54501 76610 | 12. SX 54493 76513 | 13. SX 54439 76463 | 14. SX 54390 76447 | -------- |
The accuracy was � 3 metres.
Dukes of Bedford (also styled simultaneously as Marquess of Tavistock) .....
7th Duke of Bedford (1788-1861), MP for Peterborough (1809 for three years) and then for Bedfordshire until 1832
8th Duke of Bedford (1809-1872), MP for Tavistock, 1832-1841
9th Duke of Bedford (1819-1891), MP for Bedfordshire, 1847-1872
10th Duke of Bedford (1852-1893), MP for Bedfordshire, 1875-1885
11th Duke of Bedford (1858-1940). apparently never an MP.
Their years of tenure of the title can be seen HERE (coloured red). The similar Pew (Pu) Tor markers were cut in the years 1847 & 1896, during the lifetimes of the 7th and 10th Dukes (if they had anything to do with the Pu Tor markers). I have not ascertained when the Bedford stones shown above, around Roos Tor, were installed.
Closer view of the Bedford stone (there are fourteen around the tor, 4-5 feet high) duplicating earlier marks of a bisected circle cut into fixed rocks: it is not easy to see all of the original marks .....
View of Cox Tor and the small pool at SX 536 762 where cattle were drinking on this hot day .....
A section on the north side of the tor where three Bedford stones can be seen not far apart ..... These are at SX 54264 76751 (nearest), SX 54295 76761 and SX 54332 76751 (farthest) .....
The best example of an early marker seen on this walk, with the sun being where it was ......
Another pair of markers with Roos Tor behind .....
Zoomed view of the logan stone (GPS'd later as being at SX 5432 7661) on Roos Tor .....
The summit of Roos Tor, with the Firing Range flagpole .....
Lunch on Roos Tor, looking back at Great Staple Tor .....
As previous photograph .....
Roos Tor logan stone .....
Artistic attempt .....
The logan stone, SX 54325 76612 .....
It appears that perhaps it is / was the top two stones that "rocked"?
Closer view of the possible fulcrum area .....
Zoomed view to Fur Tor, SX 587 830, elevation 572 metres (1876 feet), 7.8 km (4.9 miles) distant .....
Foal on Roos Tor calling for its mother.
Sett maker's banker at SX 54402 75974 with Great Staple Tor behind, where cobble stones were made in the 1800's ..... the stone workers were paid 1d per set and could earn up to 5/- a day, that is 25 pence in today's money .....
As previous photograph.
Part of a quite long made-up road, looking north .....
The same road, looking south.
The explosives store at Merrivale Quarry, opened by William Duke in around 1879, closed at Christmas 1997. For a photograph or two of the quarry, see 11th June 2014.
MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.
© Crown copyright and database rights 2014. Ordnance
Survey
© Crown copyright and database rights 2014. Ordnance
Survey
Licence number 100047373
Use of this data is subject to terms and conditions.
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.
This walk was accessed by parking at the Rees Jeffreys car park marked on the map by the P symbol and the yellow cross. This is about 1 km west of Merrivale on the Two Bridges-Tavistock road.
Statistics
Distance - 5.94 km / 3.69 miles.