At the recent AGM of the YLHS, (18th March 2003) chairman Nigel Rendle reported that the 20th anniversary year had been a highly successful one. Memberships were still up around the 170 mark, backing up a well attended series of talks & walks; a new website had been launched (www.floyds.org.uk/YLHS) & the anniversary had been celebrated in style. He proposed a special vote of thanks to retiring committee member, Sybil Ball (a founder member) & also to tea ladies Winnie Thomas & Christine Maddock.
Looking forward, he announced a competition to design a new logo for the society, & encouraged members to keep coming forward with contributions for the website, newsletter & local history generally.
Following the meeting, Jenny Sanders gave an illustrated talk entitled the Ancient Farmsteads of the Central Basin of Dartmoor. Jenny took us on a journey spanning 700 years along the East and West Dart rivers and one or two of their tributaries, tracing some of the changes & special features of the earlier holdings on the moor, some dating back to the 13th century. These include the Ancient Tenements which numbered 44 in 1344-5 and 35 by 1702. All of the following sites and others can be traced today.
Starting at Hartyland or Hartland on the East Dart near Postbridge, she explained that this was not the original house, but one that was rebuilt in the early 20th century. She described it now as a country gentleman's residence. She moved along to Headland Warren, on the edge of the Central Basin, a Duchy holding still, but not one of the Ancient Tenements, once also a public house & dominated by the tin industry, and then back past traditional longhouses such as Lower Merripit. These were places where humans & animals co-existed under the same roof, originally with no partition between the two parts, as seen in the Hound Tor houses, and later with just a thin wooden division or a more substantial wall. Ashes analysed from the old hearth pit discovered under the floor, were dated back to the year 1235. All of these existing houses are Grade II listed, and some, like Lower Merripit are II*.
Further downstream on the Wallabrook, a tributary of the East Dart, came Pizwell & Babeny, farms that were given special dispensation in 1260 to carry their dead to Widecombe, instead of taking the longer trek across the moor to the church at Lydford. A corn mill built by the tenement holders operated at Babeny, from the beginning of the 14th right through to the 19th century. There were originally 3 tenements here and features of one partly standing include an early C16 shoulder-headed doorway. Just down the way is a small path leading down to the East Dart river. On the opposite side are the remains of a "sheepwash", where animals were dipped before shearing.
On the hill above is Brimpts farm, very much a working farm and also now popular with tourists & businessmen, with its farm trails, cream teas & conference centre. At Dartmeet, Jenny took off along the West Dart, pausing to mention the little church of St.Raphael, formerly a school built in 1876 on the site of one of the Ancient Tenements of Huccaby. Here we saw one (of two remaining ones) which housed the farmer's cows in a harsh winter a couple of years ago, and part of another with a granite arch.
Our journey diverted slightly up to Jolly Lane Cot, the home of Sally Satterly , built in a day in about 1835 by labourers when the farmers were at Ashburton June Fair. Tradition had it that if the walls were built and the roof was on and a fire was burning in the hearth, then the builders, safely installed, had the right of ownership and could not be evicted. The house is very much occupied today. Our second stop was at John Bishop's house, the home of a C19 master wall builder, sadly ruinous and forlorn now, on the river Swincombe.
Before this tributary meets the West Dart we came to Sherberton, an Ancient Tenement mentioned in 1307, where we saw the survivor of 3 tenements, still a working farm and diversifying into the timber trade.
We then moved across the fields to Little Sherberton and Brimpark, the former perched up high above the river and the latter occupying a sheltered site close to it. This was once part of Sherberton and mentioned as "being built in 1598". Now very much a ruin, it takes its name from the broom which grows abundantly on the river's edge. From here a causeway leads across marshy ground to Dunnabridge Farm on the opposite side of the river. The interesting settlement of Dunnabridge - "bridge by the down" consisted of 5 tenements, and was established as a communal venture in 1305 to reclaim 96 acres of land from the King's Waste, with each of the tenants holding 19 1/5 acres. The large house was built towards the end of the C19, as were many of the "new" Duchy houses to replace the old longhouses. We were taken inside one of the barns where an old fireplace still exists.
At the top of the lane to the farm lies Dunnabridge Pound Farm, itself an old house with a huge hearth. This was the Poundkeeper's house. Beside it is the pound based on a prehistoric enclosure and used to impound stray animals. Part of the duties of the tenement holders was to attend at 4 drifts a year and to feed and water the strays. To collect these, the owners had to pay a fine. The last poundkeeper, Miss Dinah Tuckett, was, it appears, a formidable character, barring the gate and refusing to release any animal before the fine crossed her palm.
Our last stop was Brownberry, the thatched roof of which can be seen in an old photograph of Robert Burnard's taken from near the Poundkeeper's seat at the end of the C19. Now this farm, a replacement of an older one further down the hill and closer to the river, is itself a ruin, but the site is recognisable.
And so the journey ended back where we began with an unbeatable Dartmoor sky over this lovely area and the historic Drift Lane at Postbridge leading out on to the high moor, along which cattle, ponies and sheep have been driven over the centuries to pasture.
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