Newsletter

No 21 August 2021

www.tavistockramblers.org.uk Message from the Chair

elcome to the August 2021 edition of our Newsletter. In addition to this, in At the time of our last Newsletter in May, Covid order to minimise risk Wrestrictions were just starting to be lifted and we were of spreading infection, cautiously hopeful that we would be able to resume a more at the moment normal range of Ramblers activities. Gradually we Ramblers advise us to have made some progress. plan for our meetings to be held on line for Over the last three months we have been able to enjoy a full the time being. programme of walks and, as we can now car share, we have ventured a little further afield to the start of the walks to such This is a small price to places as , Manaton, Noss Mayo and Bude to name pay for our now a few. comparative freedom in our other activities. We have also been able to put some linear walks on the programme, The Lich Way Walk, Archangel Way and a Bere Thank you to all our Peninsular using the train. These have added a greater Walks Leaders for dimension to our walking experience, something which we offering such a varied selection of walks and to our Committee have missed for over a year. members for their continued support which is vital in the running of Tavistock Ramblers. We are not out of the wood yet and must still proceed with caution, but we do have more planned for you with our first Thanks must also go our members who help out with and take social event since the start of the pandemic, a BBQ on Sunday part in our activities and in doing so add so much to the 22nd August and a long weekend of walks in Dorset in October. vibrancy of our group.

Ramblers update their website, www.ramblers.org.uk, Best wishes to you all. regularly with advice about running our group activities. Whatever we are planning must keep within National Covid restrictions for our area at that time. Rosemary

News from the Committee

1. Snowdonia Holiday 2022 is Cancelled 4. 11 Tors Challenge Search and Rescue Group Snowdonia was to be the destination for our group holiday in June 2020 but like so many plans had to be postponed until Tavistock, this year due to the pandemic. Again this year the holiday was Saturday 18th September 2021. postponed for a further twelve months as government Covid restrictions prevented the necessary preparatory visits to We have a Tavistock Ramblers Team entry for this walk. Snowdonia. If you would like to join us contact Rosemary by email [email protected] or text 07951755858 for The original notice for this holiday went out to members in further details. 2019 and, at the time, there was considerably more interest from members and walks leaders to take part than there have been for the postponement to next year. 5. Tavistock Ramblers AGM 2021

The Committee therefore decided that the Snowdonia holiday Please note the change of date. The original date which was had to be cancelled. set at our AGM 2020 was for the Sunday of our Dorset trip. 2. But here is the Good News:- Tavistock Ramblers AGM will now be held on Wednesday 20th Dorset Long Weekend 2021 October 2021 at 19:30 by Zoom. Details nearer the time. Read later in our newsletter (next page) “We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday”. There are still a couple of rooms if you We are advised by Central Office of Ramblers to hold our would like to join us! meeting on Zoom if possible for the time being. 3. Walk followed by BBQ 6. Training Day for new walks leaders Sunday 22nd August at 13:30 Derek and Peter Wright are kindly putting on a training Lydford Sports Hall session for those new to leading walks. This will include identifying a route on a map, preparation for leading a walk Booking essential. Full details available on Tavistock and walking group welfare. We very much need new walks Ramblers website on Social and News page and on the leaders. August walks programme. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to help us.

Photo on the cover is of Northcott Mouth on the north Cornish coast on the recent walk with Long John. News from the Committee

7. Dartmoor Way update However, in order for this to be viable, there have to be enough members feeling comfortable about being in a small Our twice yearly checks of our stretch of the route are once space with those who they may not know well while there is again permitted now that Ramblers have lifted the restriction still so much Covid infection around. We are monitoring the on footpath maintenance which was imposed during the situation. pandemic. Meanwhile, please come on our walks, get to know each Rosemary is currently responsible for our area which is other, chat as you walk and try to arrange sharing lifts. Walks Lydford to Tavistock and the High Moor Link from Leaders cannot be held responsible for arranging lifts. to Tavistock. Please be aware that those new to the area may take a while New proposed date: (originally planned for late May Bank to become familiar with our locality and not everyone has a Holiday 2020) car. Launch and Dartmoor Way Festival of Walks: 9. Volunteers Needed Friday 29th April to Monday 2nd May 2022. Everything we do in Ramblers is dependant on volunteers. 8. Car Sharing Without them there would be no Committee to organise our We are aware that a number of members are missing our car events, no Walks Leaders and no Area Ramblers sharing arrangements from the Pixon Lane car park. which is the tier in management between our Ramblers Group and Central Office Ramblers. Many hands make light work. We are allowed to car share and hopefully in the not too distant future we will include a car share start point and time Please do consider volunteering in whatever way you can. in our programme of walks.

We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday

ell, not quite! Tavistock Ramblers are going on a short holiday to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast in October. W Our hotel This is the first holiday of any sort for a couple of years and the first short break for six years.

We are staying at the Eype Country House Hotel which is only a few yards from the beach. If you don’t know the area you will have seen it on TV as it was featured in the series “ Broadchurch”.

It’s location means that we will not need to use cars once we get there. We can walk straight from the hotel and this is one reason it has been popular with walkers for years.

We are going for a long weekend from Friday 15th October to Monday 18th October. Walks, with short or longer options, are being led by Long John and Rosemary. The photos were taken by Long John on the reccees.

Because of a cancellation, it is not too late to book a room which can be a single, twin or double.

Full details are on the Members page of the website or contact the leaders. Are you coming?

Lyme Regis from Timber Hill Colmers Hill Golden Cap and Seatown from Thornbury Beacon Jay’s Grave

n the last Newsletter, I included some This was to ensure that the restless soul information about Stephens’ Grave of the departed could not return to haunt Inear Peter Tavy. Jay’s Grave is further God fearing mortals. away in the parish of Manaton but Tavistock Ramblers have been there on Accordingly, she was buried at the inter- various occasions in the past including section of a road and a moorland track. quite recently on Ian’s walk. (Who can The grave soon became known as ‘Jay’s remember the “Hound of the Basket Grave’ and it did not take long for strange Meals” that was just down the road at events to start taking place. On certain Swallerton Gate?). moonlit nights a dark figure could be seen kneeling beside the sad little mound with bowed head and its face buried in its As with Stephens’ Grave, Jay’s Grave is hands. Nobody has ever been able to the burial place of a real person and from say if the spectral figure was male or around the same time. It is thought that in female because it was always wrapped in about 1790 an orphaned baby was taken a thick, black cloak. There are two into the Poor House at Newton Abbot. schools of thought as to who the ghostly The little girl was named, as was the apparition is. Some say it is the spirit of custom, with a surname beginning with one of those responsible for driving Kitty whatever letter the Poor House had from the farm and others say that it is the progressed to, in this case ‘J’. As many of soul of the faithless farmer’s son who, as As I said before, as far as I know the commoner names had been taken the punishment, has been sent to stand vigil Stephens’ Grave and Jay’s Grave are baby girl ended up with ‘Jay’. In those over the grave of his victim and his the only two human graves on Dartmoor days the word ‘Jay’ was also a slang term unborn child. marked on the OS map. for a prostitute so the Christian name of Mary was added. But then, of course, there is always the The other phenomenon associated with Giant’s Grave on Mardon Down and Kitty’s resting place is the daily Grim’s Grave on the upper reaches of She remained in the Poor House until her appearance of fresh flowers on the the Plym. teens where she supervised the younger grave, nobody is ever seen leaving them Were these real people? Who knows. children. Then she was sent to Canna but no matter what time of year there are Perhaps they are just fairy tales. Farm, which is just outside Manaton. She always flowers, posies or greenery on the was employed as an ‘apprentice’ which lonely mound. Tradition says that the meant she would work both in the house flowers are the work of the piskies who Long John and in the fields. It would have been a out of sympathy tend the grave hard life with few rewards other than food throughout eternity. When I was there a and a roof. For whatever reason, it is week or two ago there were coins and thought that it may have been at this farm even a charm bracelet on the headstone Dartmoor Walking that Mary Jay got her more famous name in addition to the flowers. Is that the work of ‘Kitty’. of the piskies as well? Festival ’ lthough Tavistock Ramblers are It wasn’t long before she started to records that in the late not taking part this year, the receive the attentions of the farmer’s son eighteenth century a local farmer called ADartmoor Walking Festival is still which may have seemed to her a way of James Bryant from Hedge Barton going ahead without us. obtaining some security and a sense of opened the grave and found a human worth. Sadly, as in many similar cases, skull and bones. Bryant’s son-in-law was The dates are 28th August to 5th she fell pregnant and soon discovered a doctor and examined the bones and September. that her meaning of worth was very declared that the skull was that of a different to that of the farmer and his wife. female. The farmer had the bones placed The programme can be found at Clearly the girl had ‘thrown’ herself at their in a box and re-interred on the spot www.moorlandguides.co.uk/dwf son and with the name of Jay, no wonder. where they were discovered. He then built a mound over the grave and set up the headstone. The end result was that she was thrown out of the farm and left with a reputation as a ‘slut’. Kitty knew only too well that Jay’s Grave was the inspiration for a once word got around she would never story by John Galsworthy called ‘The find employment in the area and that only Apple Tree’ although he is probably best left the prospect of returning in disgrace to known today for the books which were the Poor House. Tragically Kitty Jay took serialised on TV as “The Forsyte Saga”. the only other option and was found hanging in one of the barns at Canna. More recently, of course, local folk musician Seth Lakeman released an The custom of the day was that any album of Dartmoor inspired songs, one of suicide could not be buried in consecrated which is “Kitty Jay”. ground so they were interred at a crossroads (as of course was George Stephens of Stephens’ Grave). Beetles, Wedges and a Goring

embers of Tavistock Ramblers are familiar with the This was not my first close encounter with the river. For some rich diversity of its walking programme which ranges years in the 1950’s and 1960’s I lived in Putney in South West Mfrom exploring the expanses of Dartmoor, to the London. While at school we were told about the importance of history of Plymouth and even trips featuring train or boat rides. the Putney Debates which took place here after the Civil War What they have in common is that in order to get to know a which helped define the constitutional role of the monarchy in a place or an area and appreciate its countryside, geology or developing democracy. I also got to know in my teenage years history, you need to be on foot. the river side pubs and jazz clubs where if you made a pint last you could enjoy a free evening’s entertainment. Simple days. Over the years I have walked much of the high ground in the UK but somehow I never got round to exploring the flat lands A few years ago I went by boat eastwards from Putney to of middle England. That was until my older daughter married a Greenwich and witnessed the transformation of London from resident of Moulsford, a little village on the border of Berkshire being a port to being an international business and financial hub and Oxfordshire on the River Thames. during the time I lived in London. I now plan in August to retrace my steps this time on foot to walk some of the Thames Path They were married in a lovely old church near the river and my westwards. Nothing too ambitious only about 25-30 miles over 2 daughter arrived at the wedding reception by boat, standing days but all adventures and walks start with a first step but I have resplendent in the bow. Images of Titantic still come to mind. been warned that once you start doing the “Path” you can get Over the years with family visits, and encouraged by my son in hooked. law’s enthusiasm, I have enjoyed walking the area including the river bank from Moulsford’s most famous pub/restaurant, My first instinct was to get my old, big rucksack out the loft to The Beetle and Wedge, to Goring. walk this section of the path with all the necessary gear on my back. Sarah had other ideas. She also told some London friends As suggested by its name the river in earlier times could be what we were doing so they will join us for a day’s walking and forded at Moulsford and for many years there was a ferry share dinner so suddenly the wardrobe requirements increased here. Not surprisingly a pub soon appeared to help sustain exponentially. We are now intending to travel light with a courier travellers wanting to cross the river. That is where the Beetle taking the gear between hotels. and Wedge is and given its scenic location, it is now a popular venue for marriages, as it was for our family. Like starting the South West Coast Path, there could be a strong incentive to walk all the Thames Path, all 215 miles of it or I hear you all asking “what is the derivation of such a strange equivalent to twice round the Dartmoor Way. We shall see how pub name”? we get on but the attraction of walking the length of our longest river, sharing the experience with a few friends and appreciating A Beetle in old English was a heavy hammer which was used its historical sites, is obvious. with a wedge to split or shape wood. There had been a boat house on this site for years so perhaps that helped explain the However, after years of walking the ups and downs of Dartmoor choice of name. If you run out of conversation in the snug I am and crossing muddy stream in the rain, we might find walking on sure friends will be impressed by these fascinating facts or it the flat with near empty rucksacks a bit tedious and lacking a might help you win at Trivial Pursuits. challenge for us ageing Tavistock Ramblers.

“Wind in the Willows” immortalised this length of the river bank What do you think? and walking it today you enjoy its timeless quality. Red kites fly high above, small cruisers or rowing or sailing boats glide Malcolm Cooper by, paddle boards have become more popular, people sit fishing in the gentle stream. No one seems to be in a rush to go anywhere as they slow to the pace of the river.

The Beetle and Wedge at Moulsford on the banks Another way to get to the Beetle and Wedge. Rowers passing of the Thames as seen from The Ridgeway path, under Moulsford viaduct, just a short distance upstream. The Thames Path goes under the viaduct on the opposite bank.

Photos by Long John when walking The Ridgeway What is the Definition of Flat? D N P 70th Anniversary

ometimes, as I am sure you will all agree, it is a small t is 70 years since a forward-looking decision was taken by world. Just a couple of weeks ago, I walked a national Parliament to preserve some of England’s finest landscapes Strail in “the flat lands of middle England“ to which Iand help people visit and enjoy them. 2021 is the 70th Malcolm refers. anniversary of the designation of Dartmoor as one of UK’s first National Parks, on 30th October 1951. The trail is “The Ridgeway” and, as I have discovered, some people have not even heard of it. Despite the fact that it is Dartmoor was one of the first places to be designated as a arguably the oldest road in the country. National Park (the Peak District, Lake District and Snowdonia were also awarded the designation in the same year). Certainly it is prehistoric in origin, probably 5000 years old. No one invented our National Parks as such, in essence they Starting in the World Heritage Site of Avebury (which has the were already there. But someone had the foresight to recognise largest stone circle in the whole of Europe and the enormous their distinction, mark them off as something special, and make Silbury Hill nearby which is the largest prehistoric structure in sure that the public would have access to them. Europe) it makes its way across the Marlborough and Wessex Downs and through the Chilterns. In his book ‘National Parks for Britain’ (commissioned by the Government in 1946) Henry Chessell wrote: It is a Ridgeway, so it’s flat, yes? NO!. ‘Dartmoor and Exmoor, with the rolling moors rising to characteristic granite tors, fulfil the needs of a national park from It may not be mountainous but over the course of the walk (8 the scenic point of view, and the district certainly requires no days) the amount of ascent and descent was in excess of popularising. Rather it is a question of controlling, however 10,000 ft. That is not flat and there were only two days when unobtrusively, the use that is already made of it, and preserving it height gained and lost was under 1000ft. Admittedly, some of from further vulgarisation’. this was due to the fact that one had to walk down off the trail at the end of the day to the overnight accommodation and back It appears that Dartmoor and Exmoor were initially considered as up the following day. (To put that into some sort of context, the one unit as seen in his list of five potential National Parks for average ascent of the last five Tavistock Ramblers weekend England: walks that I have been on has been 950 ft). 1. The Lake District I started by saying that it is a small world but that is not just 2. The Peak District because of the “flatlands of middle England” but because of the 3. The Roman Wall River Thames connection. The Ridgeway crosses the Thames 4. The Malvern Hills at Goring and then follows the river upstream for several miles. 5. Dartmoor and Exmoor It passes by the Beetle and Wedge but on the opposite bank. There is no ferry now and as my photo illustrates, there is a His book was written three years before the Hobhouse Report slight problem of a rather wide river to cross. This was the and in 1949 the National Parks and Access to the Countryside closest that I got at around coffee time on the fifth day but they Act turned the National Park dream into reality, along with the didn’t do takeaways. designation of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

A couple of days later the route passes Chequers (in fact, the It will be interesting to see how the Government respond to and footpath crosses the main drive to the house) and although deliver the recommendations in the recent Glover Review. Its local gossip was that the PM was at home there was nowhere purpose was to ask what might be done better, what changes to get a coffee there either. are needed to assist these areas, and whether definitions and systems (which in many cases date back to their original You can’t have it all. creation) are still sufficient or fit-for-purpose. Long John After the horrors of two World Wars people needed fresh air, space, and greenery to heal a wounded and traumatised nation. This need is still as vital as ever as we crawl out of Covid Don’t get into deep pandemic lockdowns. Our green spaces (whether urban or rural) water when out and interaction with nature are essential to our mental health and walking! wellbeing and are arguably as important now as ever before.

Dartmoor National Park has reached its three-score years and ten, let us hope it has many more to come.

Tavistock Ramblers members who have been with us a long time will be sorry to hear of the deaths in July of Betty Read and Rodney Smith.

Betty will be remembered for the Christmas parties at Bere Ferrers and Rodney who thought it was hilarious to walk on Shorts Down. Know Your Crosses? Where are these Dartmoor crosses?

Clue: Their names all begin with the letter “H” and the top four are a Dartmoor 365 We do like to be beside the seaside!

We don’t get to the seaside very often these days but Long John took Tavistock Ramblers to Bude last month.

The tide was so far out that it would have been possible to walk all the way to Sandy Mouth along the beach.

We didn’t do that, though, cos it wasn’t in the risk assessment!

Photos by Long John and Carol Voaden

From the Archives

Tavistock Ramblers at Bude in July 2011.

Some of those who came ten years ago came back again for the same walk in 2021.

Photo: Long John Discovering Dartmoor One Square at a Time

here’s a thick, red book in my lap, cup of tea to my side His approach is very methodical and involves an element of and a sharpened pencil in my hand. I’m just back from a personal competition. He keeps a spreadsheet to record the Twalk on Dartmoor with the Ramblers. Flicking through dates and locations and stores photographs of each subject in the pages I’m trying to find the hike grid references and if special folders. Lockdown meant that many hikes further afield something we’ve seen is included. Success. I’ve found Jay’s were curtailed so his progress visiting and revisiting the 365 Grave which we visited today on Ian’s route. It means I can locations increased. In 2020 he recorded over 200 and his goal colour in square J16 on the map at the front of the book. is to double that in 2021. (Something wrong with the maths, Instead of the usual history (online or guidebooks) there are there. Long John). song lyrics that tell the sorry tale of the suicide of unwed, pregnant, orphaned dairymaid Kitty Jay. There’s a note to sing Unlike me, he plans walks around specific landmarks or items. it “sadly, to the tune of Billy Boy.” I settle back with a sense of He told me that a friend has caught the bug recently and insists satisfaction for crossing off another place of interest and on taking a photograph at exactly the same angle as the learning a bit more about the wild expanse of this 70-year-old drawing in the book. National Park. Although Long John knows Dartmoor really well, he’s got to The thick, red book is Dartmoor 365 and recommended to me know a few new places by following the guide. One is Grim’s in my first weeks of joining Ramblers. It was the brainchild of Grave (S9) which he’s revisiting this month for a walk designed John Hayward who, in the early 1990s, realised that the area to take in several other squares too. One of the most of the National Park was 365 square miles which correlates disappointing, in John’s opinion, is I6; the main feature is a neatly with the number of days in the year. firing range pole and the terrain is so inhospitable that he wonders why anyone would want to go there. (Other than to It’s not a comprehensive guide book to all the major bag a 365 of course). attractions of the moors, although it does contain quite a few. It’s more a way to discover a wide range of items of interest John argues that there is good reason from wild flowers to dramatic tors, from legends to stone to revisit the squares; there are circles and more. seasonal changes and some flowers and wildlife make brief appearances. At the beginning of lockdown when our walks were restricted around Tavistock I kept going over the same areas. Since Even some landmarks that have existed we’ve been able to travel further afield my ‘collection’ of for centuries can be altered – he found squares has grown and so has my enthusiasm for filling them that one had gone missing when he in. My rather ramshackle way is to scribble the date I visited went to Drywell Cross last week (M15). the item of interest and who led the walk onto the relevant The fine old beech tree on the Two page plus pencil in another square. Moors Way has finally succumbed.

How people use the book varies and not everyone takes my Another is Leat Meet (M8) where the rather casual approach. As we were walking along the cliff Environment Agency in their wisdom path near Bude, I asked Long John about how he completed have recently replaced the grid over the Long John the entire map. He told me he was given the book as a fountain on the Devonport Leat with celebrating his present that he didn’t know he needed. It took him about 2 something far less aesthetically very last 365 (I6) years to visit all 365 landmarks but that’s not the end of it. pleasing. “When we were young we collected train numbers or stamps,” he told me “now we collect tors and squares.” Christine Youds, another Tavistock Ramblers member, has a slightly more relaxed approach. Like me, she pulls out the map when she returns from a ramble but puts a tick on the map for squares visited even if the main attraction hasn’t been spotted.

However, the guide was really important to her when she first moved to the area and needed help settling in Sadly, the old tree has gone

She expanded her contact with the local community via the Dartmoor 365 Facebook Group. Members who join the group are encouraged to share their thoughts, photos, drawings and poems of things directly connected with the book and '365ing'.

Those who post often give helpful advice, answer questions and some of the images are stunning. Here are some snippets: Sally at H5 (Tavy Cleave) Q12 Aune Head. It was a bit wet and tricky around there, minding footing, watching out for adders and being attacked by horseflies. Discovering Dartmoor One Square at a Time

K13. Exploring Cator Boundstones, Arthurs Stone, a ringed Although a major task to visit all 365 things of interest, as the cist and a couple of benchmarks...... all in the same square as Facebook group says when encouraging people to give it a go, Ephraim's Pinch. “you will learn so much about the moor and have great fun on the way”. All this has spurred on my inner explorer (and On Hameldown Beacon (K15) I had to admire the skill of the competitive spirit!) and I’m eager to colour in many more dry stone waller. The straightest, truest stone wall I know on squares before the end of the year. the moor, built by hand with hand tools, who knows when, with great care and precision. Are you a Dartmoor 365-er? It would be great to know other Tavistock Ramblers methods. Would you like to share your In many ways the Dartmoor 365 challenge has taken on a life story. Maybe then we can do Dartmoor 365 part two. of its own. The book is in its third edition with revisions from Rob Hayward (John’s son). The National Park has also changed and has expanded to 368 square miles so Read more: technically you need to add on another three days if taking on http://www.dartmoor365.org/ the challenge. https://www.facebook.com/groups/296555273885240

Sally Prosser

Don’t Lose Your Way (DLYW)

ome significant progress has been made with thanks to path, and this is not just looking at old maps, is a time Long John and Kit Harbottle who both volunteered to consuming job possibly visiting Devon Archive, possibly visiting Sprioritise some paths. parish clerks and viewing old parish records, looking at old newspapers, checking on the tax maps and the railway maps. We now have about 25 high priority paths and about 40 I am not going to say it will be easy, it’s not, but unless we medium to low priority paths out of over 300 “lost” paths that have some volunteers some very useful paths will be lost for were in our area. Very many paths were dead ends, old miners ever. or farmworkers tracks and now of no value except perhaps to the land owner. These have been catalogued and discarded as If 20 volunteers could take just one path that would be brilliant. what we have called “dross”. I have already started it for you as I have checked out each of the high priority paths to make sure they appear on the historic The Ramblers Central Office map is now being updated with maps. Training will be made available and there is a book paths being coloured from red to grey depending on their already written called ‘Rights of Way Restoring the Record’ by priority. This is taking me bit of time. In fact, quite a lot of time Sarah Bucks and Phil Wadey that tells you how to do it. Just so but I am on the job and will get there soon. When all the paths as you know, the task is to make a Schedule 14 application to have a priority colour the next phase starts which is proving bring back into use a path or bridleway. public access. You can email me direct at [email protected] and, dare I This is where I need your help as a member of Tavistock say, I look forward to hearing from you! Ramblers. I have to be quite blunt in saying that the task of bringing back into use these lost paths just won’t happen David unless there are at least half a dozen volunteers. To prove a Footpath Officer

Ramblings ere Ferrers is an agreeable place. It has a railway station and that is where our walk on 8th August started. The Western took us to Bere Alston and we Bwalked around the Bere Peninsular. Early blackberries supplemented our lunchtime stop by the Tamar.

On returning to Bere Ferrers station our attentions turned to the artefacts and memorabilia nestling behind Platform 1. Old engines and carriages are being put to good use. Several carriages are used for holiday accommodation and one serves as a café. Hoping the café would be open, this is where we headed for tea, scones with jam and cream (served the Devon way) and cakes.

However the diesel locomotive standing nearby had to be inspected and it wasn’t just by the boys! Soon the owner was suggesting we should have a ride and so in two groups he took us in the Diesel Shunter, “The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe”, up and down the sidings. For those interested in such things this noble beast is an 0-6-0 and was built in 1945. nd finally, congratulations to Simon Gent who led our walk on 1st August. Appetites whetted we then had a tour of the signal box and a detailed explanation A of its mechanisms. Sadly, the station was the scene of a tragedy in 1917 when ten We are sure that this was the first time that New Zealand soldiers were killed on their way to France. A fitting memorial can be two generations of one family have become inspected under the New Zealand flag that flutters there. walks leaders for Tavistock Ramblers.

Peter Luff Well done!