Moor than meets the eye

The Moor than meets the eye landscape partnership aims to show that there is more than meets the eye to Dartmoor and the 4000-year story of its landscape and people. In the first half of a two-part feature, find out how the scheme is ‘bringing communities and organisations together to explore Dartmoor’s past, conserve its wildlife, and improve understanding of this rich landscape’.

Thirteen organisations are involved in the collaborative Moor than meets the eye landscape partnership, led by Dartmoor National Park Authority. This huge five-year undertaking was granted £1.9 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund and has a total budget of £3.8 million. Eighteen projects have already been completed since the scheme was launched in 2014, and there are ten projects currently running, with more in the pipeline, supported by the expertise of the Moor than meets the eye (MTMTE) team, based in Princetown. Volunteers have been an essential part of many of MTMTE’s projects, but the Parishscapes projects in particular have enabled communities to come together and explore projects of local importance, with the aim of engaging a wide range of people in enhancing the local heritage for the community to enjoy now and in the future.

Fourteen parishes are involved: Ashburton, Bovey Tracey, Buckland in the moor, Gidleigh, Ilsington, Lustleigh, Manaton, Moretonhampstead, North Bovey, Throwleigh, Widecombe in the moor, Bickington, Chagford and Dartmoor Forest. £10,000 is available for each parish to invest in heritage projects and Emma Stockley, the MTMTE community heritage officer, has worked with all the parishes to help existing groups of historians, archaeologists, conservationists, artists and many other volunteers come together. The Parishscapes projects have really captured the imagination of the communities; although the original estimate of volunteer involvement was targeted at 1064 hours, Emma has already recorded in excess of 9000 volunteer hours - and there are still two years to go.

One of the first parishes to get involved was North Bovey when its Conservation Group proposed a project to repair a favourite historic feature, Dickford Bridge, which involved members of the community working with a stone mason and learning how to make the necessary repairs, including shaping and engraving a new boundary stone. A very successful community project taster day then led to the parish setting up the annual North Bovey Heritage Festival and the North Bovey Interest Centre in the parish hall, with equipment such as moth traps, a bat detector, butterfly and moth identification cards. This was followed by the North Bovey Wool Project which has enabled the community to investigate the area’s history of wool production, including opportunities to learn new skills such as felting, spinning and weaving.

The community of Moretonhampstead leapt at the chance to explore parish links with the murder of Thomas Beckett in 1170. In 1174 King Henry II granted ‘one hundred shillings' worth of land in Moreton[hampstead], namely Doccombe’ to the Chapter of Canterbury, confirming the original grant made by William de Tracey as penance for his role in the murder of Thomas Beckett in 1170. In a Parishscapes project, entitled Life in the Manor of Doccombe, led by the Moretonhampstead History Society, residents and community groups have come together and attracted support from several other organisations. Weekly sessions in the pub to transcribe Latin documents, are helping them research the link with Canterbury, as well as check for evidence of long houses and hall-houses.

In March 2017 a community archaeology project took place aiming to shed light on the post-medieval farmstead of Vinnimore in the Bovey Valley. This Lustleigh Parishscapes excavation brought a number of different groups and organisations together and volunteers worked alongside professional archaeologists from Oakford Archaeology to uncover the remains, including excavating two hearths, one of which had the remains of a bread oven within its walls. The farmstead did not prove to be medieval but the presence of hearths, and window glass, suggested its status was higher than initially thought.

Thanks to a Parishscapes grant for the community of Buckland in the Moor and funding from the Dartmoor Communities Fund, the lettering on the Buckland Beacon Ten Commandment Stones monument has been restored to its former glory. The monument was first created in 1928 to celebrate the rejection of the proposed new book of common prayer by parliament and over 1500 letters were cut into two tablets of natural granite.

Other Parishscapes projects have taken a more artistic approach to exploring local heritage. The recent Granite Elements art exhibition at Princetown Visitor Centre was inspired by the history and ecology of the Granite tramway which linked Haytor to Stover. It was the result of a two-year Bovey Tracey Parishscapes project led by local resident and artist Bridget Arnold, which brought artists, historians and local experts together, and included fifty events, such as creative writing and art workshops, guided walks and exhibitions. Drama has also played its part in the Parishscapes project; the parish of Throwleigh involved large numbers of the local community in staging ‘Miss Varwell’s Throwleigh’ which celebrated the history and traditions of the village by telling the story of Emmie Varwell who arrived in Throwleigh at the turn of the century. The parish has now started work on a second documentary performance, Colonel Heath’s Hut, about the origins of the village hall, a former nissen hut.

Parishscapes projects are providing the opportunity for people to take ownership of their local heritage, by encouraging communities to learn about and enjoy their cultural and natural environment. Although projects will continue to run for another two years, Andy Bailey and Emma Stockley of MTMTE are now working with groups to develop skills and enable the process started by these communities to continue after the end of the scheme, preserving local heritage for future generations.  

Rosemary Best

For more information visit www.moorthanmeetstheeye.org

An exhibition based on the MTMTE project ‘In the Footsteps of the Victorians’ is now on display at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter