Devil makes work for idle hands 2

In a week when my new sofa is delivered - a pair of cosy chairs for you!  Found at Vitifer Mine.

No, they are not my handiwork!

How novel

I'm not a big reader, but when looking for something to read, I tend towards travel guides and thrillers.  I was more than a little intrigued when I heard about a new novel featuring - amongst other things - Dartmoor letterboxing.  'The Secret Letterbox' is the latest book by writer John Kemp.  

The story follows the lives of triplets whose lives take dramatically different courses, only to, later in life find themselves drawn back together to confront fear, history and, yes, letterboxing.

Its a fantastic tale told at an engaging pace with plenty of  suspense.  The letterboxing element is both key and consistent throughout too.  References are made to Haytor and the Becka Brook.  It is obvious that the American author, now a Devon resident has done his research.

The book is available as a paperback or e-book.  More information via his website (www.johnkemp.uk.com).

I'm looking forward now to Dartmoor based horror/comedy film 'Stag Hunt' due for release by Dog Face Films later this year...  A review to follow!

Home at last

                                                                       Image: Bradleys Estate Agent, Property Information, Rendlestone Pump House.

Some 8 months after relocating to Cornwall, contracts have finally been exchanged on my new house.  With Dartmoor now just over an hour away from home, I am looking forward to being on the Moor far more often.

Imagine, if you can, my surprise when a new property came on to the market:  Rundlestone Pump House near Princetown.  This petite, gabled building was only built in the 1990s.  South West Water are now selling the block, plus the 0.4 acres it resides in.  Unlike Parsons Cottage, which I reported for sale in a blog post in January (Just Past New Year), the Pump House is Freehold, so nothing is owed to the Duchy.  At just £75,000, I could become a Cornish 2nd home owner...

The Pump House is in a desperate condition though.  There are pictures of it's run-down interior, and damaged exterior on the estate agent website.  Property Information via Bradleys Estate Agents

Switched off

2014 is a 'back-to-basics year for me.  That is, when it comes to GPS.  I have considered it in the past, but it was time to finally commit myself to switching the Garmin off, and get back to the good 'ol days of sighting compass only.  The journey so far, only 4 walks into my digital detox, have been quite interesting.  It has made me think about the origins of letterboxing with a GPS too.

Throughout the 1990's, Dartmoor Letterboxing was booming.  People from across the world were discovering the joys of the hobby.  The Meets, and the Moor were crowded.  The Letterbox catalogue, and supplementary updates were positively bursting with new boxes.  This was a fine time to be searching for boxes, were it not for one thing.  The searching.  Compasses of suspect quality, accuracy and reliability were being sought from everywhere and anywhere.  Mirrored, sighting compasses, map compasses.  Hand-me downs, army surplus shops, Christmas crackers...  There was a general understanding of how a clue was formed, though the skill and quality of the actual bearing was heavily reliant on the care and exactness of the compass bearer's hand and eye.  The compass connoisseurs choice of compass was (and still remains) the Silva Expedition type 54.  The Bugatti Veyron of the sighting compass world, with pinpoint accuracy, and hefty price tag to boot - an RRP of £65.

Dodgy bearings, especially in charity walks, were leading to frustration and anger.  6 figure grid references weren't cutting it.  Something had to be done.  There had to be a better way, and in 2000 the United States of America made things much easier.  The Global Positioning System (GPS) - the space-based satellite navigation method designed for the US military was finally opened up to civilian use.

In the 1990s, I worked for a high street outdoor retailer.  I was pretty savvy about the latest kit available.  I was very aware of GPS, and as much as Dartmoor Letterboxing, and The Upland Trotters tried to resist, 10 figure grid references were really catching on.  At the end of 2000, The Upland Trotters acquired a new Garmin eTrex.

Bearings became irrelevant.  If the clue had a 10 figure grid reference, like the time on an atomic clock, it couldn't possibly fail us.  As long as we had a view of the sky, and a set of AA batteries, we were gonna have a good day's searching.  Letterboxing became like join-the-dots.  Like follow-the-leader.  Head down and pursue that little digital arrow to the next stamp.  Box totals previously only considered achievable on big days out at Cut Hill became the norm.

It wasn't all good news though.  If you weren't carrying the GPS, your day on Dartmoor was a predictable trek in someone else's footprints.  This left some disillusioned.  GPS led to the birth of Dartmoor Letterboxing's digital prodigal son: Geocaching.  Letterboxing lost many great ambassadors to this new-found hobby.  The letterbox thief likes GPS and the ease it brings.  10 figure grid references are no longer found in the official letterbox updates.  Even some Word of Mouth box owners are finding this is a sensible approach.

In search of this lost enjoyment, I have given up the GPS.  My findings so far:  Bearings are vastly inadequate - typically long distance, or too close and useless unless you are already stood on the box.  Generally though they are reasonably accurate.  However many boxes I have on my list to find each walk, I should halve it.  Low-tech letterboxing takes longer and far more effort.  Planning and plotting is as important as ever, using bearings to strike for the next box on the list.

Its an interesting experiment, and maybe it is a glimpse back to the future.

Hare Tor

It has been a real treat to be on the moor twice in the past week, in conditions which could be described as perfect.  I was determined to get out a second time, and head out to Hare Tor, partly to recce the area for a future walk, and partly to recover an old box of ours.

It takes about 90 minutes to reach the western edge of the moor from Falmouth, and it was clear, as I was heading towards Lanehead car park that the low cloud and mist that greeted me would soon dissipate.


My first stop was an old 'Trotters Boxing Clever' for White Hill sited on the bank of the Willsworthy Brook.  Since this box was sited in 2009, the landowners have erected a fence effectively cordoning off White Hill.  The boundary runs North, crossing the Wallabrook and follows the contour low on Doe Tor to the existing walls of Doe Tor Farm.  There are two or three gates along it's length, but the wires are widely spaced so squeezing through is not a problem if you find yourself between gates.  As me and my box were.  Retreiving my box was not a problem, and I was delighted to find it on site and dry.

After a loop of Doe Tor, sitting out a hail storm over lunch at Doe Tor Brook, I set out for Hare Tor.  In April last year, Dartmoor's "largest moorland fire in years" took place up here.  It later transpired that it was caused by an accident involving a team training for Ten Tors and cooking stove. The area is recovering slowly.  The grass is short and stubby, and evidence of charred, burnt earth is everywhere around the summit rocks of Hare Tor and across the ridge to Chat Tor.

The walk almost done, I left Little Hare Tor and made my way to Ger Tor, for the relatively straightforward descent to Lanehead.  On my way I stumbled on a letterbox sited for the 18th Truro St George Scout Troop no more than 5 minutes from the summit of Ger Tor.  I was surprised to read in the visitors book that I was only the 34th visitor in 17 years it had been on site.  Not bad for an area that has gained notoriety for letterbox theft.

Beaming

"Beam: A term with mining signification.  Where this word is found on the moor a deep, open working will usually be seen."  - William Crossing

News broke on www.dartmoorletterboxing.org recently that the post commonly known as Cater's Beam - situated just South of Fox Tor - no longer stood upright.  Cater's Beam has long been associated with an upright railway sleeper at the North end of Black Lane peat pass.  A useful waymarker in an otherwise barren landscape.  In John Hayward's book 'Dartmoor 365', first published in 1991, a sketch of the near intact sleeper shows an inscription of 'Caters Beam'.  William Crossing, in his 1912 Guide to Dartmoor points out an age-old Ordnance Survey error, placing Cater's Beam a mile to the West of it's true location - which is the Eastern half of Naker's Hill, between Aune Head and Fishlake.

So, despite it being misnamed, mislocated, and misrepresented, hearing that a plank of wood had fell over was all the prompting I needed to get my boots on, bag packed, and drive to Whiteworks.

I can confirm that Cater's Beam is no longer upright.  Yet I cannot believe that it fell.  It has rotted terribly since it was sketched in John Hayward's book, yet it remains a hefty lump of wood.  The bottom 5th of the post has clearly never been exposed to the elements, and shows how deep underground it was sunk.  Conditions recently have been wet and windy but no more than has been experienced in past decades.  I smell sabotage.  The weight of the post, the risk of further damage, and the surrounding deep pool of water deterred me from resurrecting Cater's Beam.  If anyone has a Ronseal treated railway sleeper, and a spare weekend, I don't mind helping out replacing it.

In the mean time, bearings on the post are off. This only affected a handful of clues on my glorious walk out to Black Lane on Saturday.  The weather was about as perfect as it can be.  Bright blue skies, not a speck of wind, and temperature not too cold or too warm.  In July, weather like this is usually accompanied by horse-flies, deep foliage, sunstroke and crowds.  None of this in early January though.

My route took me up to Eylesbarrow past Siwards Cross, before dropping to Hand Hill, and on up to Crane Hill where the 360 degree views never fail to impress.  Down to Fox Tor Girt next, with several new boxes to find.  Stopping only to exchange superlatives with a walker in relation to the views from Fox Tor.  One of just the few people I saw in the area not cycling up or down Eylesbarrow.  By now I was chasing the sun towards Nun's Cross Farm.  

A very successful day out all in all.  My self-imposed GPS ban means I have no idea how far I walked, but I did find 12 boxes, and I'm already planning another walk for the end of the week.

Just past New Year

The much publicised run of poor weather battering the South West kept me off the moor and away from the Fur Tor pilgrimage on new year's day.  The weather on January 2nd, was considerably better.  I haven't set foot on the moor since siting my Christmas walk on Bench Tor, and I've received a bunch of festive sets to find.  I plotted to complete two of these walks and another independent Christmas box.  

I have decided to go back to basics in 2014, and ditch the GPS for the purpose of finding letterboxes.  I'll keep it deep in my bag for emergency purposes, and when I site my own boxes.  These routes would test my skills, since all the boxes on my list had 10 figure grid references.

Off to Hollow Tor near Princetown to start.  Early gloom lifted, and the light was incredible.  A short Christmas walk which was found without fuss (and my Garmin).  It was interesting to be able to view Yellowmeade Farm's ongoing renovation.  In October, the National Park's Planning Officer recommended that planning permission to construct camping barn holiday accommodation be refused on the grounds that a. It was completely at odds with the NPA core strategy on development and b. The scale, appearance and design of the plan was detrimental to the wider environment.  Back to the drawing board then.

After lunch at the Plume of Doom, it was on to Littaford Tors for my second Christmas series.  This one posed a slightly tougher challenge, not least as it was pouring with rain.  Frustratingly, yet unsurprisingly, the day's best weather had been spent in the pub.  The combination of poor visibility in the heavy showers, an over-ambitious list of boxes to find, and the failing light meant I did not complete the set here.  It was clear that "don't bite off more than you can chew" would be a lesson learnt for the new post-GPS regime.  

On another house point, the property immediately below Crockern Tor on the Two Bridges to Postbridge road - Parsons Cottage - is up for sale.  Details here.  It is telling perhaps how planning regulations have changed in the past 100 years as this 3 bed house was built here in the late 1920s.  Although you'll need £275,000 to purchase Parsons Cottage, it is a Duchy Leasehold which can be a bit of a drawback.  You'll have to pay the Duchy 50% of any projected profit the property will make in the period of your lease up front.  You'll also have to pay the Duchy rent, which is subject to regular review.  It also makes the house non-mortgageable.  Still tempted?