Water | Legendary Dartmoor Tim Sandles March 23, 2016 Aspects Of Dartmoor Leave a comment 1,280 Views Water is one commodity Dartmoor is not short of although experts would say that the moor is getting dryer. Having had the luxury of living in a house that got its own water supply direct from a Dartmoor spring I can say it is the coldest, sweetest water you can taste. Dartmoor is the source of most of Devon’s rivers, which begin their journeys in the bogs and mires of the high moor. The main rivers are the Teign, Dart, Avon, Erme, Yealm, Plym, Tavy, Okement and Taw. They are acidic, steep and fast flowing, with a speedy response to rainfall and are classified as torrent rivers. The Main Rivers of Dartmoor. If you take the 25 rivers on Dartmoor their approximate total length of the moorland courses is 137 miles and the total combined length from source to sea is around 287 miles, this does not include streams and leats, clearly a lot of water.

The earliest recorded river is the Teign and this was documented in AD739 as the Teng. Over the centuries the moorland water has been used for many purposes such as drinking and household use, a power source for industry, hydro electricity, and leisure activities such as fishing and swimming. The earliest domestic scheme to exploit moorland water was the construction of Drake’s Leat (completed in 1591). This took water from the river Meavy and delivered it 17 miles via a leat to Plymouth. In 1793 another leat was built to carry water to Devonport, this took water from the headwaters of the West Dart, the Cowsic and the Blackabrook and carried it 21 miles to Devonport. Many of the Dartmoor towns and villages had their wells and springs which obtained the water from the moor, several still survive today. One such example is the ‘ Saxon Well ‘ at Widecombe on the Moor. By the end of the 19th century these methods of supplying water to Plymouth were regarded as inadequate as open leats were prone to becoming clogged with snow in harsh winters so it was decided to build a reservoir.

In 1898 Burrator reservoir was completed at a cost of £150,000 and it flooded an area of 117 acres. In 1929 the reservoir was extended to take in an area of 150 acres. This meant many moorland farms were abandoned and submerged under its waters. In 1907 the Venford reservoir was completed, this supplied water to Paignton and covered 33 acres. In 1942 Fernworthy reservoir was completed, this one covered 76 acres and supplied Torquay with water. In 1950 work began on the 110 acre, Avon reservoir, this was to supply water the South Devon Water Company. Three other reservoirs that originally were not in the bounds of the nation park are Trenchford, Kenniford and Tottiford. Grimstone & Sortridge Leat. As previously mentioned, there were many miles of leats built on the moor.

Some delivered water to the big cities, some delivered water to towns, some delivered water-power to the tin mines and other industrial concerns and some simply delivered water to moorland farms and dwellings (pot water leats). They are a true feat of engineering because in order to work they must gently flow downhill but to look at some of them they appear to be flowing uphill. It was the engineering skills of the old tin miners that gave rise to the leat building phenomena. Many of the leats are now dry but their courses are still clearly visible as they wind around the hillside contours. The farm leats were used to provide all the water needed on the farm. This would not only be for domestic use but for watering the animals, cleaning the parlour and in many cases before refrigeration for cooling cream and cheese. A granite trough would be placed near the house and a constant flow of cold water would keep anything placed in it cold. If ever you want a gentle walk on Dartmoor simply follow a leat, this will give you a gradual ascent or descent and in some cases can be a pleasant experience. There are several features associated with leats, one being the ‘sheep leap’ .

This is simply two projecting slabs of granite site opposite each other on the banks of the leat. There were designed to make it easier for sheep to jump across from side to side. Another feature to be found is the ‘Bull’s Eye’. This is simply a slab of granite with a hole drilled through it. It is set into the bank of a leat and releases water into a branch channel when required. The flow can be controlled by stopping up the hole. There is a good example near the Windy Post Cross at grid reference SX 53460 74313. ‘Bull’s Eye’ Stone, For the past 200 years one use of Dartmoor Water has been in the distillation process of the famous Plymouth Gin. The natural clarity and softness of the water makes Plymouth Gin one of the finest mixing gins available and what many say is the smoothest gin in the world. It is surprising that with today’s fashion for bottled water and the clarity and sweetness of natural Dartmoor water there are so few moorland water products available. Cocktail Recipe.

Geology and Landforms Factsheet Geology and Landforms Factsheet Link to the print version of the Geology and Landforms Factsheet Dartmoor’s relief, soils, vegetation, farming, many of its buildings and much of its industry have been to some degree influenced by the nature of the area’s geology. Most of Dartmoor consists of a single type of rock - granite. This granite was intruded during the late Carboniferous/early Permian Period (around 280 million years ago) into the area we now know as Devon and Cornwall. From the Isles of Scilly to Dartmoor, a number of granite domes are linked within the Earth’s crust, where they form a batholith, one massive intrusion. Gradually, overlying rocks have been eroded thus exposing the granite. Dartmoor granite covers an area of 241 square miles (625 square kilometres) and represents the largest area of exposed granite in southern Britain. It is this granite which underlies the contrast between Dartmoor and the surrounding countryside.

The Dartmoor granite, surrounding rocks and associated mines and quarries The Dartmoor granite was intruded into Devonian and Carboniferous shales, sandstones, limestones and lavas. These surrounding country rocks were altered by the great heat and pressure that accompanied the granite intrusion, resulting in the development of many types of metamorphic rocks, which form an aureole around the granite. As the granite cooled, hydrothermal activity led to the local concentration of minerals in both the granite and the country rocks. This mineralization resulted in tin and copper ore veins, as well as arsenic and lead ores, all of which have in the past been worked commercially. Signs of past mining activity are frequent in the Dartmoor area (such as in the Teign valley). Even iron occurs, especially in the Haytor area, although its origin is the subject of much debate. Other metals to be found include zinc and tungsten, with much smaller amounts of cobalt, bismuth, antimony, uranium and gold. Many less well known minerals are found too, including some that are nationally or even internationally rare, as found in mine and quarry spoil in the Meldon area.

The same hydrothermal activity also led to the formation at depth of the china clay, through kaolinisation of the granite, which is now quarried at Lee Moor on south west Dartmoor. The ball clay deposits in the Bovey Basin area, and near Meeth in mid Devon, are sediments produced from the weathering of the Dartmoor granite and surrounding rocks after their exposure to the atmosphere some 200 million years later. Igneous rocks other than granite occur in the Dartmoor area, notably dolerite dykes and sills and some lavas, among the surrounding rocks. Dolerite is, or has been, quarried commercially for road stone and railway ballast at Meldon Quarry, Crockam Quarry and Pitts Cleave, all of which are now designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. These sites, along with others such as Spara Bridge and Cholwell Brook, are also important for the study of the Carboniferous Period (about 350 million years ago), when the clays and sandstones of that time (later altered to slates and cherts) were laid down beneath a sea that covered present-day southern Britain.

Granite The name granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain. Granites are composed of fairly large crystals and have an irregular granular or granitoid texture. Granite is a group name for a family of plutonic or deep-seated acidic igneous rocks. Dartmoor granite is made up mainly of quartz (glassy, grey/white crystals of silicon dioxide), felspar (particularly orthoclase - potassium aluminium silicate: but also plagioclase) and biotite, a type of mica - a complex hydrated silicate of aluminium and potassium with iron, magnesium and fluorine. Dartmoor granite is also characterised by a relatively high proportion of tourmaline, which is blacker than biotite and distinguishable by its finely grooved surface. Some geologists have identified three major types of Dartmoor granite - the contact granite contaminated by minerals from the surrounding rocks; the tor granite which contains the large megacrysts typical of many of the tors, and the finer grained blue granite. Land formation processes The summits of the Dartmoor landscape slope steadily downwards from north to south and are interpreted as a Tertiary plain tilted south by Alpine earth movements.

The main headstreams of the River Dart and the Rivers Tavy and Walkham drain the northern plateau in a generally southerly direction. The Rivers Plym, Yealm, Erme and Avon drain the southern plateau similarly. The River Dart collects its headwaters between the two plateaux and leaves the granite through the most spectacular of the fringe gorges. Only the River Taw and the East and West Okement Rivers leave towards the north after relatively short moorland courses. The River Teign drains the eastern edge of the northern plateau but turns south on leaving the granite. The River Lyd leaves Dartmoor through Lydford Gorge. This is a classic site for the study of gorge formation and river capture. Dartmoor was south of the original glacial limit during the four Ice Ages of the Pleistocene Period, but during that time the sea-ice abutted the north coast of the south-west peninsula where periglacial conditions dominated. Features resulting from this include tors, clitter, head deposits, stone stripes, nets and other patterned ground features.

These latter formations can be clearly seen above Merrivale Quarry and around Cox Tor, in the Meavy valley above Burrator Reservoir, and in the Leedon Tor area. Tors and clitter slopes Tors and clitter slopes, which are characteristic of Dartmoor, have been formed through the weathering of the granite over at least the last ten million years. They are concentrated where the effects of weathering and erosion have been greatest, ie on summits, valley lips, spur ends and steep valley sides, particularly on the edges of the two great plateaux of Dartmoor and close to the main river gorges. Tors are the remnants of former landscape surfaces. Weaknesses and joints in these surfaces have been subsequently exploited by acidic waters over a long period and by freeze-thaw action during the four Ice Ages. Blocks of granite are levered away by these processes leaving the tor isolated and exposed and littering the ground below with boulders, thus forming the clitter slopes. Weathering eventually causes the disintegration of the granite down to individual crystal level. The resultant gravel is called growan. During periglacial times it became very mobile - moving down slopes and accumulating on flat ground as head deposits.

It is the parent material for a number of Dartmoor soil types. Weathering can also give rise to smooth, bowl-like depressions known as rock basins. These are formed by the repeated freezing of water in surface irregularities where the expanding ice gradually prises out individual mineral grains. The famous land mark of Brent Tor on west Dartmoor, with its hill-top church, is not formed of granite but of basaltic lava which flowed out some 350 million years ago into the shallow sea that covered the area during the Carboniferous Period. It is unusual in that underwater lava flows usually result in pillow lavas, not in the accumulations of unsorted glassy, rocky fragments found at Brent Tor. Tor formation Dramatic rocky outcrops, known as tors, are distinctive features in the Dartmoor landscape. They have been sculpted by weathering into strange shapes. The formation of tors has been the subject of considerable debate. Some observers have noted their resemblance to the granite kopjes found in the tropical African savanna.

Debate centres around which type of weathering predominated - the sub-surface chemical weathering leaving the corestone to be exposed later, or the mechanical freeze/thaw action that can shatter rocks and prise one stack away from another. Approximately 30 million years ago For many millions of years Dartmoor was covered in tropical and sub-tropical forests. Tropical rainwater ran down into the underlying granite and along the joints (natural cracks) and ate away the rock. This created a landscape in waiting. Some geologists believe that the granite was also weathered by chemical rotting just after its emplacement. Present Later, the granite was exposed and during the cold glacial phases, water froze in the joints and prised bits off the rock, forming clitter on the ground. Seasonal freezing still continues to attack the tors. Jointing Tors are a product of differential erosion determined by the spacing of the joints within the granite. The exposed granite generally displays both vertical and horizontal jointing. The vertical joints are thought to have been caused by the contraction of the granite as it cooled.

The more horizontal joints often appear to closely follow the shape of the surrounding land; these probably formed as the pressure was released from overlying rocks when these were removed by the agents of erosion. How Dartmoor came into being Overview Kayaking in Devon Kayaking in Devon Kayaking and Canoeing Kayaking and Canoeing are sports for everyone, from children, families to adults. It doesn't matter what your age is, you ca enjoy a gentle paddle or a rapid exciting descent of a Devon River. As well as lakes and reservoirs, some rivers are suitable for kayaking and canoeing, and there are many estuaries where you can complete a route using the river, through the estuary and back up another river/canal. Local kayak/canoeing places include River Dart, River Exe, River Tavy, River Teign, River Torridge as well as many other small rivers where there are access rights. Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) welcomes canoeists to Dartmoor who take part in a responsible manner and continues to actively work with the British Canoe Union, riparian owners and fishing associations to facilitate access arrangements for canoeists.

However DNPA follows the widely accepted and adopted position that there is no legal right to canoe on non tidal waters which is also the view held by the Environment Agency. River Dart The best known sections of the river are: Upper Dart from Dartmeet to Newbridge (Grade 4, advanced run). The Loop from New Bridge to Holne Bridge (Grade 2/3, beginner/intermediate run). Grade 2 for most of the river with few rapids at Grade 3. Main hazards are trees following across the river. Sections have some wonderful names, such as lovers leap, triple falls and spin dryer. A full description is given in the Uk Rivers Guidebook, last amended by Mark Rainsley (BCU Access Officer) in February 2012. The run is 4 miles and take about an hour. The Lower from Holne Bridge to Buckfastleigh (Grade 2, beginner section). At low water levels, Grade 2 for most of the river with a few weirs posing difficulties. However, at high water it is assumed that the weirs will be very dangerous. The run is 3 miles and take about an hour and half.

The lower reaches of the Dart, including the estuary are suitable for flat water touring. A posting on Wikipedia suggests that the fluctuating river levels on the River Dart is the source of much folklore on Dartmoor, as the waters have a tendency to rise without notice following heavy rainfall on the moors above, adding to the dangers of its rapids and powerful currents. This gave rise to the couplet: "River of Dart, Oh River of Dart! Every year thou claimest a heart." In the upper parts of the river system near Princetown Black Brook (Grade 3) Only possible when river levels are very high. There are fences across the river that need to be avoided, as well as one point where you need to portage. Princetown to West Dart Confluence. Mark Rainsley, in the UK River Guide notes that it is possible to paddle from Black Brook into the West Dart, making for a great long trip, but be aware that he says when Black Brook is running, the Upper Dart will be massive and scary. River Exe The Exe offers lots of sections of reliable white water of a lower grade compared to more the more westerly drainages.

The upper Exe reaches are shallower grade 2 trips through wildlife rich countryside and steep wooded valleys. According to AS Sports , the most popular section through the town of Tiverton to the north of Exeter is still enjoyed by many as a club trip or for introducing paddlers to the joys of white water. Adventure Okehampton use the lower reaches of the River Exe for several of their courses. River Tavy According to AS Sports the Tavy is more attractive to those still learning to handle a kayak in white water. The River Tavy below Hill bridge (the normal get out for the upper section) is an excellent to Grade 2/3 white water and the weirs on the river all have portable routes, should you not feel confident enough to attempt them. From Tavistock downstream the river is usually runnable, even when the upper stretches are too low. Adventure Okehampton use the stretches of the river below Tavistock down to Plymouth on occasion, passing such places as Morewellham Quay, Cotehele and Calstock. British Canoe Union The BCU is made up of three regional Canoe Associations, Canoe England/Canoe Wales/Canoe Scotland.

They offer a range of certificated courses and Adventure Okehampton are one of the approved delivery centres in South West England. We offer Paddlesport and Paddlepower awards. The Paddlesport Start Award is designed to provide a framework for a paddlers first session. It is an adult version of Paddlepower start. The BCU One Star is a flat water award that demonstrates an individual has basic boat control and foundation skills.The one star can be taken in any kind of paddlesport craft (e.g. sit-on-top, slalom C2, polo boat, sea kayak, racing canoe etc.) The BCU Two Star is an improvement award that helps paddlers develop fundamental paddlesport skills on flat water. The emphasis is on gaining a breadth of experience, creating the desired movement of the boat and developing an understanding into how the paddle, boat and water interact. There are also recommended BCU trails which we use for some of our training days. Teign Estuary Canoe Trail Kayak Fishing Kayak fishing is fishing from a kayak or from a canoe, which are used as platforms to fish from.

These techniques have long been used by man, so it's rather like going back to more ancient fishing techniques, as the kayak/canoe leaves no trace of its passing not even ripples thus is an ideal craft from which to fish due to its quiet approach to fishing grounds etc. Many of the techniques used in kayak fishing are essentially the same as those used on other fishing boats however the handling of a kayak/canoe requires various different skills especially when landing a catch. BCU membership Join the BCU, as membership of Canoe England/Canoe Wales/Canoe Scotland, provides with a membership card which also serves as the waterways licence. A lanyard is also provided for ease of display. To join Canoe England What does membership give you?

• Licenses to canoe on 4,500km of Britain's waterways See • 3rd Party Liability Insurance (up to £10 million) • Canoe Focus magazine delivered bi-monthly • Great rates on boat insurance • 10% discount at selected canoe and kayak retailerrs • 15% discount on all Cotswold Outdoor products (with £5 of every £100 spent going back to the Young People's canoeing • Save £7.45 (over 20%) when subscribing to 12 issues of Canoe & Kayak UK magazine • 20% discount on Science in Sport products Safety Advice for paddling Dartmoor rivers (from DNPA web-site) never paddle on your own paddle in small groups, keep together and look out for each other make sure someone knows where you are and what time you are due back ensure someone in your group is available call / meet police if a member of your party is overdue canoe in daylight hours only (aim to be off the water at least 1 hour before dusk) wear a buoyancy aid at all times wear a helmet keep away from weirs and sluices make sure you are properly equipped for the water and weather conditions be aware that rivers

 on Dartmoor can rise quickly after periods of rainfall cover minor cuts and scratches with waterproof plasters before setting out ensure that any abrasions received on or beside the water are washed under running tap water and covered with a waterproof dressing as soon as possible avoid capsizing and try not to swallow river water wear trainers or wet suit boots to avoid cutting your feet wash hands before eating, drinking or smoking do not drop litter or discard unwanted food – take your rubbish home with you be aware of symptoms relating to waterborne illnesses such as Weil’s Diseases (Leptopsirosis) a bacterial infection carried in rat urine which contaminates water and river banks and leads to meningitis, jaundice and sometimes death.

If you do feel ill, particularly if you experience flu-like symptoms, tell your doctor that you have been canoeing Local Kit Suppliers AS Sports : Haven Road, Exeter. Near the Canal. Tel 01392 219600 Monday 10.30 - 5.30 Rivers and sacrifice Death by Water - Rivers and Sacrifice By Jeremy Harte Published at Lughnasa 1998 There is something irresistably poetic about drowning, as long as you are not personally involved. Ophelia drifting through the meadows, chanting snatches of old tunes, is a touching thought: so is Hylas, slipping softly into the nymphs’ embrace. Where would literature be if the remorseless deep had not closed over the head of Lycidas? or if Orpheus had not floated down the swift Hebrus, dismembered by the rout that made the hideous roar, but singing still. Orpheus, admittedly, was both a myth and a foreigner, but we have no shortage of real victims dismembered by the rout and laid in our native waters.

In his glass tank at the British Museum, Lindow Man looks out with anguished eyes to meet the vacant stares of school parties doing projects on the Celts. And he is only the latest, and the best preserved, of some forty bog bodies known to have been uncovered in Britain - most of them nine day wonders like the man found in the bogs near Doncaster in 1645. He was lying stretched out, his head on his arm, as if asleep (1). To drown in the dark, sour water of the peat is to preserve the image of life, while the rushing current of the river both kills and destroys the body. But the river’s broken victims are not forgotten by tradition. People living beside it quote the old rhyme:- ‘The shelving, slimy river Dun, Each year a daughter or a son’ (2). Like most traditional wisdom, this summarises bitter experience; the Don is a dangerous river, and at least one fatality could be expected each year. But the curt rhyme implies something more - that someone must drown every year; that the river requires a victim. There are about a dozen life-demanding rivers of this kind in Britain.

Sometimes they are contrasted with a milder neighbour, like the Aberdeenshire Dee and Don - ‘Bloodthirsty Dee But bonny Don She needs none’ (3). Sometimes the two rivers compete in malice. On the Scottish border, the Tweed takes a life every year (4), but though fast, it is a shallow river and easily forded; its English tributary, the Till, is deeper and has fewer safe crossings. Hence the sombre rhyme, a favourite of Sir Walter Scott - ‘Tweed said to Till Yet where ye droun ae man, I droun twa’.’ (5) As soon as someone was drowned, it was felt that the river had had enough for the time being. In the late nineteenth century, after a boy from Ross had been drowned in the Wye, it was taken for granted that his brothers could play on the slippery banks with impunity. ‘Let ’em go’, people said, ‘let ’em go, no one else’ll be drowned this year, the river has had its due’ (6). The Dean in Forfarshire, another slow river, is more modest, claiming only one life in seven years (7).

The Inverness-shire Spey must have a victim annually; the river is spoken of as ‘she’, a person who requires lives (8). This personification takes the further form of a kelpie, a beautiful white horse which walks alongside tired travellers until they yield to temptation and climb onto its back. Then the creature gallops off at breakneck speed and plunges into one of the deep pools in the river, drowning its hapless rider (9). Another kelpie wanders along the banks of the Ure at Middleham with similar intent - although, as Yorkshire is a long way south for kelpies, one suspects some literary embellishment here. At all events, the Ure claims a life each year (10). There is a white horse seen on another Yorkshire river: it appears from the foam of the Strid, just below Bolton Abbey, where the Wharfe is at its strongest and most threatening. The horse is seen on May Day before a fatal accident (11). The rhyme says:- ‘Wharfe is clear, and Aire is lithe; Where Aire kills one, Wharfe kills five’ (12). Like the Spey, the river has a female personality.

‘In Wetherby and Collingham, downstream from Ilkley, people still say, during the summer months, that ‘she’ll be hungry’, as they wait for news of the first drowning of the year’ (13). This vague sense of the river being female is sometimes developed further into perceptions of a tutelary spirit. Rivers and stagnant pools in the north-west were haunted by Jenny Greenteeth, who hid under the green surface and stretched out witch’s claws to pull down her victims. Jenny belongs to stories told for children, and is to some extent a personification of duckweed (14), but there were other female figures, like Peg Powler of the Tees, whose desire for life was feared and respected by the adult community (15). Peg o’ Nell, the spirit of the Ribble, is the best known of these figures. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, she built up what amounts to a new mythology. Her principal haunt was a swirling ford where the Clitheroe road crosses the river near Waddow Hall.

Peg claimed a life in the river every seven years: people might live securely in the meantime, but they knew that the night would inevitably come when she demanded a victim. There was a young man, a stranger, who rode into Waddow Hall on his journey across the cold fells. The maidservant pulled him to one side and whispered that it was Peg o’ Nell’s Night, but he would go on to brave the rain-swollen ford: and next morning there he was, bobbing on the water, and his horse beside him. (16). It became customary to appease Peg with something drowned on her night - a bird, a cat or a dog - to stave off her hunger for life. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. There were men drowned in the Ribble in 1894, 1901 and 1908 - a seven-year cycle (17). All sorts of things have gone into the making of Peg o’ Nell - poltergeists, mediaeval statuary, severed heads and holy wells. Discovering ancient beliefs in folklore of this kind is a hopeless quest, and besides, people have tried the game before and got it wrong.

The Midland Trent is a life-demanding river - three victims a year - largely in consequence of the Eagre, a tidal bore that sweeps past the river steps backing onto Gainsborough warehouses. ‘I was told in that town that children are often swept from these steps as they play there, and that the Ægir always takes his toll in some way’ (18). But it is mistaken to derive the Lincolnshire word in this way from the Norse sea-god. To start off with, the -r in Ægir is simply a grammatical ending, like the -us in Oceanus, wheras the -re in Eagre is integral: it derives from Old English hygre. And this word was originally applied , not just to the Trent, but to other tidal bores in areas away from Norse influence, notably the Severn. It is proverbial that ‘Severn always gets her man’ (19), and although this does not specify the number of victims in the usual way, it has the same combination of female personification and pitilessness.

The Welsh Dee ‘was the home of the war goddess Aerfen, who was said to need three human sacrifices each year in order to ensure success in battle’ (20). This sounds very much as if genuine tradition has got mixed up with antiquarian speculation. Either the Tamar or its tributary the Tavy demands a life each year (21) - though there are only recent accounts of this tradition. There is a report that the Parrett takes a man, a woman and a child in successive years (22), but this cannot be trusted, since it comes from the fertile pen of Ruth Tongue, as does a grim little rhyme about the river Dart. The authentic couplet about this stream runs:- ‘River of Dart, oh, river of Dart! Every year thou claimest a heart’. William Crossing, who knew Dartmoor well, reckoned that one death a year was about right: the river is very swift, and floods suddenly without warning (23). Dart (not ‘the Dart’) is a person - a masculine one, this time - and he cries for victims in a strange wailing and shrieking call which can be heard at Huccaby Bridge when the wind is right (24).

Sometimes the cry of the river is more articulate. At Rowbrook, under Sharp Tor, the farmhands heard a voice calling one of their number, a lad named Jan Coo. If they answered it, the voice would fall silent. This went on through the winter, until a day came when Jan was working with a companion above Langamarsh Pit. The voice called again, and when Jan answered it himself, it did not fall silent but grew more insistent. He wrenched himself out of the grip of his companion and hurried down to the call of the water. Then silence: and he was not seen again (25). Classenwell pool on the moor lies at the foot of a steep outcrop, so that on one side the rock rises about a hundred feet above the black water. Sometimes a voice from the pool calls out the name of someone living in nearby Walkhampton, and they have to obey the summons and come to their death (26). But it is possible, even on Dartmoor, to break the thread of tragedy.

In the 1950s a man saw his neighbour looking down mesmerised at the East Okement, and as he hurried down to pull his friend away, he heard the river say ‘The hour has come but not the man’ (27). Normally, however, these words signify that the water is ready and that the victim is about to arrive. In this way, two Merionethshire lakes - Llyn Gwernan and Llyn Cynwch - call for a life each year. At the end of that year, if their appetite has not been met, a voice will call ‘The hour is come but the man is not’, and someone will be seen rushing headlong to the water’s edge (28). The words are the same in English and Welsh, as they also are in Norse and Danish versions of the story. They may be spoken by the river, or by its guardian. During harvest-time in Ross-shire, men were cutting corn in the fields above the river Conan when they heard a disturbance in the water. The kelpie had risen above a treacherous ford, and was shouting ‘The hour but not the man has come’..

Looking up the hill, they saw a man rising furiously down to the river; and, finding they could not persuade him of the danger, they took hold of him and locked him in the church. An hour went by, and they flung the door open triumphantly, but to no avail. He had fallen and drowned in the font, the only water in the place (29). As this shows, you don’t need much water to be dangerous. The moat around the old farm at Much Hadham is small enough, but it is haunted by a ghostly lady who, in the usual way, claims a life each year. Like Peg o’ Nell, the moat lady of Hertfordshire has her Night, on which she pulls in a victim; this is the 13th February, the eve of St. Valentines Day. Maybe she was crossed in love (30). Compared to the mighty Severn or Trent, a muddy ditch in the Home Counties seems somehow... undignified. It is hard to believe in the moat lady as an ancient Celtic goddess, given the recent origins of her environment. But according to the standard interpretation of the tale, that is exactly what we sould do.

‘These drowning legends are undoubtedly dim memories of a time when the rivers ‘needed’ victims, in other words, when such victims were ceremonially sacrificed to them’. (31) A chilling thought, if true. But is it true? ‘Undoubtedly’ - to borrow that useful word - people were once sacrificed in Britain, and their corpses were laid in water. The bog bodies are evidence for that. But whether these people were sacrificed to the water is not so obvious. Perhaps significantly, Lindow Man and his kind were not drowned - they were clubbed hanged, garotted or slit across the throat. And these things need not have happened at the water’s edge. Maybe these pitiful bodies are the residue of ritual practices carried out elsewhere, for other reasons, which ended in their being banished to the lonely fens, and there was no intention of doing honour to those places. The bog bodies are those of nobly born people, not accustomed to hard labour, and this is unusual: normally human offerings are slaves. It is possible that elsewhere, perhaps in rivers, slaves were thrown in to drown.

But rivers are not kind to their victims: bodies float downstream until the fish and birds have done their work, and the clean bones break up as they clatter along the gravel. It is hard to tell ritual from accidental death, let alone speculate on the nature of that ritual (32). Bones are not the only evidence of ritual to be dredged out of the river mud. There are the famous swords, spears, cauldrons and ornaments which must have been thrown in as part of ceremonies, if not actual offerings, at the water’s edge. Here, where we might expect to find archaeology dovetailing with modern folklore, geography steps in to complicate things. The most heartfelt devotion, as witnessed by the number and value of things found, was paid to those rivers which drain the Midlands, and which issue in the estuaries of the Thames and the Wash (33). But these are not the life-demanding rivers of tradition. The topography of the sinister rivers is fairly consistent. They are all fast, clear streams, spilling through a steep countryside of impervious rock.

After heavy rain, they do not breach their banks, like the meandering rivers of the lowlands, but carry down a sudden gush of water instead. It is this power of the river to rise in spate which overwhelms the unwary. This is particularly true of the Pennine catchment - the Wharfe, the Ure and the Ribble, as well as the Swale and the Tees which have an ominous reputation even though they are not said to demand lives. Further south, this is also the way that the Tavy and the Dart run off Dartmoor. It is not the same with the Trent or the Severn, but here lives are taken by the tidal bore - also a sudden gush of water, but one which comes from the unexpected direction. This is not a new conclusion. The primary sources for beliefs in these rivers all make the same point, one usually ignored by their folklorist interpreters. The sinister rivers do indeed claim as many lives - exactly as many lives, in the case of the Ribble - as local people have said. There is no need to bring in ideas about people ever having appeased these streams with human sacrifice.

They always took their own sacrifices, and they are still doing it today. Superstition is not some kind of flotsam left by the ebbing tide of paganism. Religion and superstition are equally old, equally rooted in the human relation with the landscape. We know that Belisama was the pagan goddess of the Ribble two thousand years ago, and that Peg o’ Nell was the folk guardian of its waters in the last century - if indeed she is not still there today. But Peg has her own history: she is not a survival of Belisama. It is the river, not the tradition, which runs on through the centuries. Half the world away, in India, we stand on ground where paganism was never suppressed or transformed, and yet we meet with exactly the same beliefs as in Christian Lancashire. Here is a river whose floods demand people every three years (34); there is a reservoir haunted by a vengeful ghost, who drowns a victim every third year, unless she is thwarted by a kindlier spirit (35). These stories cannot be a survival of the pagan veneration of rivers, because that veneration is still going on within a stone’s throw of them.

Within the tangled web of Hindu worship, there is room for both religious and superstitious responses to water. The stories about life-demanding rivers are not echoes of an ancient faith, but the active response of story-tellers to the tragedies of the present. Quite so: but why the stories? Someone has used their art to translate the language of statistics - on average, one person every year drowns in the Dart - into that of myth. Dart must have a life each year. Perhaps the historical claims of folklorists, the idea of these stories being no more than folk-memories of horrid things long ago, have blunted our realisation that the river is taking sacrifice now. It is not some naked barbarian ina fox-fur tippet who bobs on the waters, but people we know - tramps, campers, children. And we wonder what is happening, what is meant by this sacrifice. Rivers have received a great many things over the years as offerings - swords, flowers, blood, lamps, bullocks and girls in bridal costume. Few if any of these things are necessary to the comfort and wellbeing of a river, but they get thrown in nonetheless.

Sacrifice is about the moment at which something which has been offered up passes from the realm of the human to that of the divine. It is about opening a passage between the worlds, through which for a moment the light of the otherworld gleams on the maker of the sacrifice. The victim must have been made holy, or there can be no communion between worlds. Inanimate things show this purification through a rite of consecration; animals, though the calmness with which they go to their end; people, by being willing. There must be a secret bond between sacrificer and victim. There must be close attention to the right time and place (36). When the river calls ‘the hour is come, but not the man’, when a victim betrays this secret affinity with the water, when he walks unafraid to the riverbank, then the conditions of sacrifice have been met. It is this that turns what might have been random, meaningless death into a powerful ritual. People drown, and the thought that they died needlessly is a cruel one, but through the story-teller’s healing art their death is woven into a pattern, an everlasting cycle which comes round every three years, every seven years.

The meeting with destiny is not so lonely or so random when it is revealed as an encounter on the chosen night with Jenny or Peg. We take the pitiful drowned body and clothe it in the words of tragedy and sacrifice, until our magic art has overwhelmed the brutality of things, and death itself is only an incident... ...‘Now Lycidas the shepherds weep no more; Henceforth thou art the genius of the shore, In thy large recompense, and shall be good To all that wander in that perilous flood’. References 1. David Clarke, Strange South Yorkshire, Sigma 1994, p51 2. Ibid. p47 3. W. Gregor, ‘Guardian spirits of wells and lochs’, Folk-Lore 3 (1892) pp67-73 4. Edwin and Mona Radford, Encyclopaedia of Superstitions - ed. Christina Hole, Hutchinson 1961, p219 5. Robert Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland, Chambers 1870, p207 6.

Ella Leather, The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, Sidgwick & Jackson 1912, p10 7. Radford & Hole, op. cit. 8. Gregor, op. cit. River Teign and Estuary, Devon River Teign and Estuary, Devon Located in Devon , South West England , England The North River Teign and South River Teign rise on the north moors of Dartmoor National Park . They meet around Chagford to form the River Teign. This river flows south east to Teignmouth and then into the English Channel In our opinion, the river is most spectacular around the Teign Gorge and National Trust's Castle Drogo and Gardens . We'd recommend walking the Dartmoor Way along the north river bank within the gorge. Start from Fingle Bridge Alternatively, if you're up for a longer walk, try the Two Moors Way from Chagford . The path follows the course of the River Teign as it flows into the gorge. For both walks, use the Ordnance Survey OL28 'Dartmoor' map for detail.

We've located all the relevant points of interest on Google maps so zoom in on the satellite setting to discover the area There's a very pretty Clapper Bridge on the high moors that straddles the river. Downstream is an impressive public sculpture In the Teign Estuary, we'd recommend food and drink at The Coombe Cellars . At the mouth of the estuary, explore the very pretty village Shaldon and the popular seaside resort Teignmouth 'Salmon and sea trout glide through the waters of the river Teign ... Both types of fish spawn in the Teign, and spend the first few years of their lives here before migrating out to sea.

Later they return to spawn, identifying their home river by smell.' (Source: information board at Dunsford Nature Reserve in Dartmoor National Park ) Other well known Devon rivers that rise on Dartmoor include the River Dart and River Tavy , River Erme and River Plym By James Penman Spooners And West Dartmoor Hunt Hunts *Enter the number below * About the Spooner's & West Dartmoor Foxhounds The Spooner's and West Dartmoor Foxhounds trail hunt a country centred on Tavistock on the western edge of Dartmoor, England. The Country extends from Postbridge in the east to Gulworthy in the west and from Okehampton in the north to Plymouth in the south. More than half the country consists of high moorland, which is generally hunted on Saturdays, and the rest in-land farms with high hedge banks separating small mainly grass fields and steep heavily wooded valleys. The rivers Dart, Walkham, Tavy, Lyd and West Okement all rise within the boundaries. The moor offers excellent opportunities to watch hounds follow the trail in detail but not always at close quarters.

The open appearance of the landscape is deceptive, for despite the areas of good galloping grass it is interspersed with granite boulders, deep bogs and fast-flowing streams in equal quantities, which make it a challenge to cross. Most horses, given time, will learn to cope with its hazards but for the occasional visitor it is better to beg, borrow, steal or hire a local horse. For as in any country a canny mount greatly adds to the enjoyment of a day's sport. Hunt based in Devon Events Past Events Sorry but we do not have any events for Spooners And West Dartmoor Hunt at the moment Past Events For Spooners And West Dartmoor Hunt Date Dartmoor walks guidebook | Ordnance Survey Shop Dartmoor walks guidebook 26 - Pathfinder Guide 1:25 000 scale  Delivery & Returns Much of central Dartmoor is an uninhabited wilderness almost free of villages, farms, trees and roads making it outstanding environmental value.

From this mass rise Dartmoor's rivers, including the Lyd, Tavy, East and West Dart, Bovey, Teign, Taw and Okement, nearly all of which flow southwards to the English Channel. The large numbers of tors that dominate Dartmoor are the remnants of hard masses of granite, drastically reduced in size and moulded into their present shapes by millions of years of weatherings. Bowerman's Nose, Hound Tor and Haytor Rocks are famous examples included on these walks. This book contains 28 circular, graded walks all tried and tested by seasoned walkers. The routes range from extended strolls to exhilarating hikes, so there is something for everyone. Specifications Pathfinder Dartmoor: Walks book by Brian Conduit, John Brooks, Geoffrey Sutton (Editor) | edition available edition | Alibris Books + Add to Wishlist Much of central Dartmoor is an uninhabited wilderness almost free of villages, farms, trees and roads making it outstanding environmental value. From this mass rise Dartmoor's rivers, including the Lyd, Tavy, East and West Dart, Bovey, Teign, Taw and Okement, nearly all of which flow southwards to the English Channel.

The large numbers of tors that dominate Dartmoor are the remnants of hard masses of granite, drastically reduced in size and moulded into their present shapes by millions of years of weatherings. Bowerman's ... Read More Much of central Dartmoor is an uninhabited wilderness almost free of villages, farms, trees and roads making it outstanding environmental value. From this mass rise Dartmoor's rivers, including the Lyd, Tavy, East and West Dart, Bovey, Teign, Taw and Okement, nearly all of which flow southwards to the English Channel. The large numbers of tors that dominate Dartmoor are the remnants of hard masses of granite, drastically reduced in size and moulded into their present shapes by millions of years of weatherings. Bowerman's Nose, Hound Tor and Haytor Rocks are famous examples included on these walks. Read Less High Rated Sellers Only (Above 4 stars) Highest Rated Sellers Only (5 stars only) Shipping Attribute

Question: Where do the rivers Dart, Tavy, Teigh and Okement rise?
Answer: Dartmoor