Powering down

Say farewell bearing fans!  

Hello pylon, what you knowing?  I've come to watch your power flowing

After much anticipation, these well known telegraph poles/pylons are being removed this Summer.  The 2.5 miles of 'YP' poles and high voltage electricity cable that cross Horn Hill, Leedon Tor and Walkhampton Common on their way up to Princetown are on their way down.  Western Power Distribution announced plans to do this way back in Winter 2011, but planning permission, sought from the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was required.  The planning application duly passed last August (accessible here), and so it was just a matter of when not if.  The work will involve burying the cables under moorland below Peek Hill from where the cables currently exit the fields uphill to the cattle grid.  This 400 metre stretch will be fenced off, and will be for between 12 and 18 months.  The ugly cables will now go under the B3212 from the cattle grid all the way to Devils Bridge (close to where the power cable currently goes underground).  The 40 mph speed limit has just been halved, and will remain so until road works are completed.  Completion date is expected to be August 15th this year.

Princetown's power supply is secure for the future then!  Chances of finding boxes with bearings or paces on these poles are not.  Will we mourn the loss of overhead lines?  Probably not.  Based on National Park intentions, other undergrounding schemes are likely to follow across Dartmoor.