Tom Pearce, Tom Pearce, lend me your grey mare.
All along, down along, out along lea.
For I want for to go to Widecombe Fair,
With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney,
Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all.
You've all heard the song about Widecombe Fair, well we had a run out today around Dartmoor and stopped at Widecombe on the Moor for a lunchtime pitstop.
Left our place around 11am and took the A30 east towards Bodmin. Went over Bodmin Moor, passed Temple where legend says that it got it's name as it used to be a resting place for the Knights Templar on their way to the crusades. Then on passed Jamaica Inn and then took a right towards Callington. From Callington to Gunnislake then crossed the Tamar into Devon. First stop was Tavistock, birthplace of Sir Francis Drake.
From Tavi we took the old post road to the moors and headed for Princetown which is where HMP Dartmoor is located. The prison was built by Napoleonic prisoners for Napoleonic Prisoners. Most of the roads across the moors and most of the dry stone walls were built by prison gangs over the last two hundred years.
You can just see the roof tops of some of the prison buildings
Getaway car was parked as close as I wanted to be to that scary place
The roads were very near empty, the weather was gorgeous
Plenty of Dartmoor ponies roaming the moors
It was too hot for some of these guys so they are taking shelter under the trees
Then onto Two Bridges so called because it has two bridges, an old bridge
and a new bridge
It's not so new now though
Then we drove through Postbridge which is famous for having a beautiful example of a clapper bridge which was built around the 13th century for sheep drovers to cross the river. You can walk across today
From there we went to Widecombe on the Moor. Free parking on Sundays so all was good. We went into the local pub for a ploughmans and a coke.
Incidentally, the famous Widecombe Fair was held on 9th September, just a few days ago.
Lovely old church
The Sexton's house is opposite the village pub
Suitably refreshed we headed on to Bovey Tracy then onto Moretonhampstead then picked up the A30 for a 60 mile dual carriageway blast home.
Here's a few pics after we left Widecombe on the Moor on the way to Bovey Tracy
All in all a great day out, covered around 150 miles all in.
Dartmoor National Park is an amazing place to explore and we'll be doing more visits in the future. The scenery is lovely and the weather was kind to us today as it was a few weeks ago on our last trip out.
The photos of the old bridges were "borrowed" from google because my attempts were pretty bad, but I'll try to remember to take a proper camera next time.
Bye bye xxx
All along, down along, out along lea.
For I want for to go to Widecombe Fair,
With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney,
Peter Davy, Dan'l Whiddon, Harry Hawke,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all,
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all.
You've all heard the song about Widecombe Fair, well we had a run out today around Dartmoor and stopped at Widecombe on the Moor for a lunchtime pitstop.
Left our place around 11am and took the A30 east towards Bodmin. Went over Bodmin Moor, passed Temple where legend says that it got it's name as it used to be a resting place for the Knights Templar on their way to the crusades. Then on passed Jamaica Inn and then took a right towards Callington. From Callington to Gunnislake then crossed the Tamar into Devon. First stop was Tavistock, birthplace of Sir Francis Drake.
From Tavi we took the old post road to the moors and headed for Princetown which is where HMP Dartmoor is located. The prison was built by Napoleonic prisoners for Napoleonic Prisoners. Most of the roads across the moors and most of the dry stone walls were built by prison gangs over the last two hundred years.
You can just see the roof tops of some of the prison buildings
Getaway car was parked as close as I wanted to be to that scary place
The roads were very near empty, the weather was gorgeous
Plenty of Dartmoor ponies roaming the moors
It was too hot for some of these guys so they are taking shelter under the trees
Then onto Two Bridges so called because it has two bridges, an old bridge
and a new bridge
It's not so new now though
Then we drove through Postbridge which is famous for having a beautiful example of a clapper bridge which was built around the 13th century for sheep drovers to cross the river. You can walk across today
From there we went to Widecombe on the Moor. Free parking on Sundays so all was good. We went into the local pub for a ploughmans and a coke.
Incidentally, the famous Widecombe Fair was held on 9th September, just a few days ago.
Lovely old church
The Sexton's house is opposite the village pub
Suitably refreshed we headed on to Bovey Tracy then onto Moretonhampstead then picked up the A30 for a 60 mile dual carriageway blast home.
Here's a few pics after we left Widecombe on the Moor on the way to Bovey Tracy
All in all a great day out, covered around 150 miles all in.
Dartmoor National Park is an amazing place to explore and we'll be doing more visits in the future. The scenery is lovely and the weather was kind to us today as it was a few weeks ago on our last trip out.
The photos of the old bridges were "borrowed" from google because my attempts were pretty bad, but I'll try to remember to take a proper camera next time.
Bye bye xxx
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