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Bellever Audio Walk Transcript Bellever Audio Walk Transcript Peter Nash – Presenter Jackie Ridley, Sustainable Tourism Officer, Dartmoor National Park Authority Jane Marchand, Archaeologist, Dartmoor National Park Authority Dru Butterfield, Manager, Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust Track One – Introduction Postbridge Information Centre (Grid reference SX 646 789) Hello and welcome to Dartmoor National Park and this audio walk from Postbridge pretty much in the centre of the park in to Bellever forest, which promises to be a fascinating walk, with a lot of prehistoric remains to be explored. We are starting off at the Information Centre in the Postbridge car park, and as with all Dartmoor National Park Authority audio walks, we have divided this audio tour in to several sections, each one being a separate track for you to download on to your player. That way you can simply switch off when you are walking and then start playing the new track at the next point of interest, and I will give you full directions when to do this on the audio itself. You will also find that the name of each track include the grid reference of where you should be, so that you can follow the tour using a standard Ordnance Survey map, Explorer OL28 for Dartmoor, in this case, or you can download the accompanying map so you have a back up to the instructions on the audio. Today’s walk is a circular one, beginning and ending at the Information Centre, taking us out of Postbridge to the south and in to Bellever forest, and then Krap’s Ring, a large enclosure of hut rings and then onward to Lakehead Hill. From there we will head southwards passing various historic remains, and climbing to Bellever Tor, considered the very centre point of Dartmoor, with panoramic views including, among other things, Dartmoor Prison. Then we continue southerly, down hill again to the charmingly named, Laughter Tor. Crossing a number of rather interesting artefacts of a bygone age, including the Sheep Count, which I would be fascinated to find out exactly what that is. Continuing on then, past a large standing stone, and in to Bellever Forest once more, through a gate and passing Laughter Hole Farm, from here it’s on to a stop at Bellever woods for a tea break, and possibly even a paddle, to see a splendid example of a clapper bridge. We head back towards Postbridge, which of course is famous for its own clapper bridge, crossing the road back in to the Information Centre car park where we started. As always let make sure we have sturdy boots as the terrain is a bit uneven and quite boggy in several areas along this walk. A walking stick or pole would also be very useful and take a waterproof coat, and suncream as you can never be too sure with Dartmoor’s changeable weather. The walk is approximately 6 miles, that’s 10 kilometers, so best to allow 3 ½ hours or so, that way you can really appreciate your surroundings here. Joining us on this walk is Jackie Ridley, Dartmoor National Park Authority’s Sustainable Tourism Officer and we have met here just outside the Information Centre in Postbridge car park; Jackie – very much a forest walk, this one? Jackie - Hi Peter, yes it’s got a mixture actually, a lovely forest walk which is ideal if the weather’s not too good, it gives you a bit of shelter, but you also get out on the moor and see some fabulous views and get treated with the riverside stop as well. Peter - Now just before we set off, a word about maps, pretty essential if you’re walking on Dartmoor. Mine is an Ordnance Survey Explorer OL28, entitled quite simply, DARTMOOR, and Jackie you’re bringing with you the map downloaded from the website that accompanies the audio, or you can pick up a copy from the Postbridge Information Centre. The grid reference of the Information Centre is SX646788. And I think I am right in saying we are heading south east? Jackie - Probably south, so if we go out of the car park and turn right, and just walk a short way up the road and then we will cross over the road, take care with the traffic, and you will see a cattle grid and a wooden gate, go through the wooden gate you will see a main road ahead of you, we don’t want that, we want to turn right and then out of three tracks, we take the left track, which is a hard track actually used by the forestry vehicles and then we will head up there, only a short distance (maybe a few minutes walk), until we come across another hard track going off on our right. Follow that for another short while and then there will be a newly cut muddy track on the left and that takes us straight to Krap’s Ring you will see it because the track will run out and go out on to grass and you know you are at the right place then. Peter - That’s where we are going to rendezvous grid ref SX644 781. So let’s get going, Jackie you lead the way. Now there are a number of stops on this audio tour so the best thing to do is to switch off now and enjoy the walk and we will see you at our first stop at Krap’s Ring, switch on again then and we will give you a bit more information. Track Two – Kraps Ring (Grid reference SX 644 781) Peter - So we are coming to the end of this relatively recent path I think it’s fair to say, in these trees, and the trees actually end and if you look around, you have to use your imagination a little bit, you can see quite a large circle of fairly sparsely spaced out granite boulders covered in lichen and mosses and this is in fact Krap’s Ring. Jackie - That’s right, I think there’s eleven settlements here. We are going to meet up with Dartmoor National Park Authority’s Archaeologist, Jane Marchand, to tell us a bit more about this site. Peter - I can see her at the top there, sat in amongst various rocks which I assume are hut circles, one which we are just passing now with a white stick in the middle, which look sfairly official. Jane Hello. Jane – Hello. Peter - How are you? Jane - I’m fine, thank you. Peter - Well it’s a lovely day, which in many ways is perfect for walking. You are an archaeologist for the National Park Authority and you’re working up here today? Jane - Yes, I’m just having a walk around, checking everything is in order Peter - So how old is this? I take it, it’s Bronze Age, which is 3500 years? Jane - It’s about 3500 years ago, it’s difficult to know because the Bronze Age actually went on for a long period, so we think these huts were probably occupied 1500BC. Peter - We are actually in a bigger circle, there are hut circles within this larger circle of granite boulders around, so this was a settlement of several houses I should imagine? Jane - I think originally there were about 15 houses now there are 11 that remain, they have all been quarried for their stone unfortunately, and the one with the white post is probably the best surviving example. They are set within this magnificent enclosure wall which again has spread all over the place, but when it was originally built it must have been quite impressive, it was wide and tall. Peter - And it would have been contiguous all the way around? Jane - Yes completely enclosed this settlement. Peter - And how tall do you think this would have been? Jane - Between a meter to a meter and a half about 2 meters wide. Peter - And I guess a lot of this is conjecture. Jane - Oh it is, absolutely, that’s the wonderful thing about archaeology! Peter - There are no pictures of course. Jane - No they didn’t leave any plans unfortunately. Peter - Now we are in what is clearly planted woodland, which is forestry commission, what do you think were here 3500 years ago when the people were living here? Jane - I think we are just above the original tree line. Most of Dartmoor’s hut circles are on about 300 meter contours, which makes you think the trees have been cleared to just below that, so the trees are along all the valley areas. Peter - And it probably would have been oak woodland? Jane - Yes it would have. Peter - And the question has to be asked, what were people doing here? Jane - They were probably farming, but in this particular instance there is no evidence of field systems, so they weren’t in to arable farming, they were pastoralists. Possibly due to the size of this enclosure there is a lot of space here which hasn’t got any hut circles so they were probably growing a small amount of their own supplies. The other thing you have to remember when you’re standing in somewhere like this, where you only have hut circles taking up a quarter of it, there would probably be timber buildings as well, that we have lost all traces of, which makes it really difficult to estimate the population of somewhere like this. Peter - What about burial mounds? Jane - We are going on to those which is why Bellever is so nice, because we have two discrete areas.
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