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There are several different spellings for this village, of Old Uncle Tom Cobley fame. The church is very large for the size of the village, often referred to as The Cathedral in the Moor. It certainly makes a fine sight as you drop down the steep hill into the village from the moor above. The original Widecombe Fair was quite business-like (i.e. The Cattle Market) but this changed significantly after the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould discovered an obscure 18th century Dartmoor folk song. The names of Thomas Cobley and others mentioned in the song appear in the Parish Register.
There is a very old pub "The Old Inn" which serves huge helpings of food, and various gift, craft, and tea shops. It does get very busy in the summer with coaches. There is also a much smaller pub called The Rugglestone Inn which, over ten years ago, did not even have a light outside it or any sign to say it was a pub.
This is a really tiny hamlet made famous by its thatched cottages which have appeared on chocolate boxes, calendars and postcards. The small church of St Peter at Buckland in the Moor is celebrated for its unusual clockface, which has the words "My Dear Mother" spelt out instead of normal numerals. This alteration to the clock was made by the local Squire in 1928. He also placed the tablets on the rocky summit of Buckland Beacon which have the Ten Commandments engraved on them, although weathering has now made them difficult to decipher.
This can be reached as follows. Follow the road towards Widecombe, but after the cattle grid (before you go down the hill into village) take the right hand road towards Hound Tor. After a few hundred yards turn left up a small road. You can park a little way along. Bear right and follow the path which winds round the side of the hill. This is a very pleasant walk and not much populated. One of our rooms in the Woodland Wing is called "Honeybags" after this tor.
This has often been used for location filming, and a version of "Hound of the Baskervilles" is one example. Hound Tor is certainly worth a visit and up until recently had a "Logan Stone" perched precariously on top, but this was destroyed by vandals who managed to unbalance it. The term "Logan stone" refers to slabs of granite, or lumps of stone, which are so precariously balanced that they will rock or pivot on their point of balance. Therefore a small amount of pressure can often make a boulder of many tons rock alarmingly. Apparently many of Dartmoor's Logans in the past were traditionally used by the local population for crushing nuts at Christmas, but many have now lost their point of balance or been spoiled.
If you are going near Hound Tor, take a five minute detour to see if there are flowers on the small grave of Kitty Jay. She was a young orphan servant girl in the 18th century who became pregnant after being seduced by the son of the house where she worked. In desperation she committed suicide but, because of this, Church Law decreed that she could not be buried in consecrated ground. All suicides had to be buried at a crossroads to the parish so that their troubled spirits could not find their way back to haunt people, and so the devil could not claim them. Nobody quite knows who does it, but for a long time fresh flowers have appeared on her grave.
A TV crew once kept watch secretly, but did not see them being left. Sometimes they are not too fresh, and once a plastic daffodil, but always something, and people leave loose change to help pay for them. If you drive out of Hound Tor car park and turn right towards North Bovey, you will see the grave after about a quarter of a mile on the left hand side of the road on a right hand bend. If you stand facing Jay's Grave from the road, you can see Honeybags Tor to the left if you peer through the foliage above the stone wall.
At 2,039 feet this is the highest point on the Moor, and provides the name for another of our rooms, but it is not recommended that you visit it as it is well inside a firing range.
This, like High Willhays, is another area of firing range, so although it is the name of one of our rooms, we would not recommend its inclusion in your itinerary.
This is a very ancient wood of gnarled small trees situated near Two Bridges. It provides the fourth name for a bedroom in the Woodland Wing, the fifth being -
Although not strictly speaking an area on Dartmoor, the Conan Doyle associations with the moor are well known. It is thought that the original Baskerville was actually the Butler of some friends of Conan Doyle that he used to visit in Ashburton and he was so taken with the name that he used it for his Hound.
Approximately two miles from the Hotel directly up on to the moor, you cannot miss it (unless there is low cloud or a mist!) At 1,550ft it has commanding views across South Devon, - you can actually see Teignmouth and the Teign Estuary, Torquay, Berry Head and much of the South Hams. Haytor is very popular and you can almost guarantee that at whatever time of day you go, you will be able to spy someone on top of it.
This is a strange rock figure about half a mile from Hound Tor believed to be the petrified remains of Bowerman the Hunter, who is supposed to have upset the witches of Dartmoor by driving his pack through one of their secret moorland gatherings. One of the witches became a hare and lured him into a trap where they all heaped their spells on him. He is thus petrified for immortality, with his hounds (the boulders) at his feet. Dartmoor abounds with myths and legends, including "the Hairy Hands", and it is prudent
to check this out with reception before embarking on the Postbridge Road after dark.
The Templer Way is an old granite tramway which was built by George Templer to help transport granite from his quarries at Haytor all the way to Teignmouth, on the coast. It was opened in 1820 and, although initially very successful, it turned out to be an expensive method of transportation and gradually fell into disuse. Granite from Haytor was used in the rebuilding of London Bridge, (now in America), parts of the British Museum, and the National Gallery. In Chapple Road, opposite the Hotel entrance, at the double bend near the Brimley end, there is an information board about this, and parts of the track can be seen nearby. The line of the tramway can still be followed from Haytor,
in fact there is a suspicious looking lump of granite sitting on the lawn just opposite the front door here at the hotel.
This is the best known neolithic dolmen or cromlech on Dartmoor. A cromlech usually consists of a great flat stone supported by three or more upright stones. These remains are believed to have a burial purpose.
A word here about something which some outdoor types appear to find addictive. In various secret and out of the way places all over the moor there are hidden receptacles of various shapes and sizes which usually contain a visitors book for names, addresses and silly comments, and a rubber stamp with a design to reflect the name of the location. It is the latter which is the main attraction, and dedicated followers will put up with the most dreadful conditions in their quest to find "boxes".
From small beginnings in 1854 the hobby has grown to enormous proportions. There are now over 1,000 boxes in various locations. It has a cult following, but there are quite careful rules to ensure that nothing on the moor is damaged in their search. Most "boxers" have their own personal rubber stamps with silly names on, some of which are highly collectable items. We hear that it is almost impossible to locate a box without some inside knowledge, or by surreptitiously following someone else, but if you are interested there is an actual newsletter produced for avid followers.
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