Westcountry wanderings » trees

1 day – 3 quite different photos

nigel — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:17:30 +0000

As Lightroom organises images by date by default looking back on some taken at different times on one day I realised that while there was no “story” some of the photographs appealed to me and I thought I might share them.

Firstly I spent the middle part of the day in Brixham. The tide was out and there was building work going on around the harbour with scaffold and sheeting covering a building which seemed to intrude on any shot. However walking the breakwater I liked the feeling of isolation around these fishing rods. The fisherman was nowhere to be seen which added to the effect.

In the evening I drove up to Dartmoor for a walk. A little unusually for us we headed into the valley of the West Dart at one stage rather than walking the open moors. These granite stepping stones across the Dart caught my eye and I took a few shots here. The water was low so walking across them was very easy but I have seen the river when you cannot see the stones at all. We stayed there for a drink and watched deer on the edge of the hillside however they were too far away for any meaningful photos . A green woodpecker flew by but too quickly to get a shot of.

Almost back at the car we passed this gate. I like the strangeness of a gate with no fence or wall around. On the far hillside are the lines of old leats as the area has been extensively worked by tin miners in the past. The late light on the moorland was lovely.

Along the Exe and the Exeter ship canal

nigel — Sun, 29 May 2011 12:13:49 +0000

Another day when the weather dictated my walk recently is the subject of this blog. I’d originally planned to head to the moors but the forecast suggested that might not be worthwhile so I was heading to the South Hams coast. Fairly close to home I realised that the forecast of less good weather in the west of Devon looked corrected so decided to head east. It was a while since I had walked the Exeter Ship Canal which runs from the docks at Exeter down to join the River Exe just above Powderham. The canal was originally built in the 16th century to allow traffic to Exeter that was not so dependent on the tide. It ceased commercial use in the 1970s but is well used as a leisure resource now. The above image is taken looking up the canal towards Exeter at Turf lock.

The canal flows into the river Exe at Turf lock. Both the above images are taken on the Exe looking downstream from around this point. The remains of the old vessel is just one of many that are along the banks of the river. The small dinghy is on the jetty at Turf which serves the small passenger ferry across the river here.

I walked on down the path along the edge of the river towards Powderham a small village mostly known for its castle. As can be seen from the images of this walk the weather was variable. Looking west here into the woods at Powderham the weather looked threatening. The bluebells were out but not in such numbers as I saw on the moors recently. Equally the image of Powderham church is so striking because of the dark clouds and the recent ploughed field.

I decided to head back up to the canal rather than walk further downstream as the path is on the road at this point and for a while longer. The image above looks over the stretch of water where the canal emerges to join the river Exe at Turf. The jetty that can be seen is the one shown with the dinghy on earlier in this post. The cyclists are waiting for the ferry to arrive to cross the river Exe which is quite wide at this point.

Walking back up the canal now there were a number of cyclists, walkers and canoeists among others making the most of the day and the track along the canal. There were swans nesting along the canal too and, from time to time, flag iris as can be seen above – they added some real colour to a day which was not the brightest.

I walked on up the canal past the point where the ferry runs across to Topsham. By this point the river, while still quite wide, has narrowed significantly. However the weather was not that good over this stretch and although not raining the light was poor. I turned back and headed for the car via the Exeter marshes which are an RSPB bird reserve. Back briefly on the canal there was a little more light for the above shot of the canal and then I headed home.

Watching the sun set

nigel — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:16:42 +0000

There is some dust from the Sahara which has affected sunsets here recently so I wandered out to catch the effects.

As is so often the case other things caught my eye while I was out. The Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) was out and looked great in the late light. It really is a lovely sight at this time of year.

We were not the only ones out and watching! One of the above will remind folk of a certain age of an album cover maybe? The other fellow was not sitting on the hedge last time I was out…

The sunset (over Dartmoor) was great.

Budleigh Salterton to Ladram Bay

nigel — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:43:30 +0000

Heading back on the coast again we went to Budleigh Salterton in East Devon on a sunny day recently to walk some of the coast path. The day looked to be settled and fine and when we arrived few people were around. While the above looks west we set off heading east.

Having crossed the river Otter a little way inland, the path follows the river back to its mouth before heading east. I rather liked the view above which looks over the Otter and west along the coast.

The path follows the fields which go right to the cliff until you get to Ladram Bay. The photo above is taken just to the west of Ladram Bay and shows the view along towards Sidmouth. The sandstone cliffs and sea stacks made a lovely setting.

The sandstone stacks are very interesting and make Ladram Bay a worthwhile destination (despite rather a large caravan park). I’ll certainly aim to get back there early one day maybe when the sandstone would look even better in the light then.

The beach at Ladram is a little surprising as it is a shingle beach despite the surrounding cliff being sandstone. This shingle is common along Lyme Bay and is what makes up Chesil Beach much further to the east. It is a lovely sheltered cove.

We turned inland at this point as we had other things we needed to do that day and passed through the village of Otterton and picked up the river Otter again here. We followed it back to Budleigh Salterton passing this lovely weeping willow along its banks. It made for a pleasant walk combining coast and countryside and we will certainly head back to walk more of that area when we can.

Circular walk from Burrator reservoir – part 2

nigel — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 13:44:52 +0000

This is the continuation of the walk that started with the post here. From the area around Crazywell Pool we headed up the valley of the Newleycombe Lake (a stream not a lake). It is quite hard to walk most parts of Dartmoor without seeing the remains of tin workings. In the valley, just before we turned south, we walked through an area that had quite extensive remains. The area above interested me. Initially it looked like a small pond in the process of becoming a bog. However, looking at the sloping walls to the sides and the fact that water was running out from the back of the area, I think it is probably the remains of a mining adit driven into the side of the hill which is gradually silting up.

Having walked south a little way we turned south west to start walking back to Burrator reservoir walking along the Down Tor stone row. There are a number of Bronze Age remains all quite close together here and there is no obvious way to determine the order of building. At the eastern end of the row is a cairn and an enclosure while at the western end there is a circle and a number of cairns. The actual row stretches away eastwards from this shot.

By the standards of many of the remains like this on Dartmoor, the Down Tor ones are quite well preserved. The above photo shows the circle at the western end of the row and inside the circle is the remains of a kistvaen. While not intact the stones around the burial area are quite clear to see.

The above image, showing the end stone in the row and part of the circle around the kistvaen looks south towards Combshead Tor. The longer shadows show it was getting late in the day by now.

We walked back to Burrator via Cuckoo Rock which is quite a large outcrop of granite which could probably be termed a tor. However, while it stands out well from some angles, it was not very prominent from here. However the late light on the tree (a rowan I imagine) just behind Cuckoo Rock was lovely.

When we arrived back at Burrator reservoir the sunlight had effectively gone but the water looked very tranquil with delicate shades. I’ll return to this spot again.

Walking down the River Avon

nigel — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:00:25 +0000

This continues the blog here of a walk from Shipley Bridge up the Zeal Tor tramway to Western Whitaburrow and back down the Avon to the car. The view above is from Petre’s Cross at Western Whitaburrow looking towards the barrow at Eastern Whitaburrow (both can have White Barrow in place of Whitaburrow). The cross marks one of the old tracks across the moors.

Looking east from almost the same spot the view is over the valley of the River Avon. In the distance is Pupers with the hill on the left being the wonderfully named “Heap of Sinners”! There is an ancient barrow there too which may explain the name to some degree. This is another valley with neolithic remains in and the large circles that stand out in the sunlight on the side of the hill were settlements with hut circles from that era in. To the left of those are some evidence of tinners workings and the faint line running almost horizontally above the circles is an old leat used to carry water from the Avon to a mine in the next valley.

Walking down the hill to the Avon there is a good example of an old clapper bridge which is on the ancient track that the cross further up the hill marks. This is a fairly isolated part of the moors and we had not seen anyone since we left the car at this point.

There is plenty of wildlife on the moors but it is not often you get very close to it. The left hand image is of a common frog which we just avoided stepping on as he/she was very still and the right hand image is frog spawn which we saw quite a lot of during the walk.

Further down the valley we reached the reservoir at the Avon dam. Again the weather was very variable with something looking like rain not far away. Water levels seemed high after quite a lot of rain since Christmas.

The contrast in the weather from the previous picture is marked and there was only around 5 minutes difference in the time of them. Behind the dam the sky had been quite grey but a patch of sunlight hit the overflow on the dam wall just as we got to it. The sound of the water running over was really quite loud.

While we were approaching the northern end of the Avon dam we had company of a sort! They were around for a while but whether it was a training run or something more important was not clear.

Finally – on the walk back down the private road to the dam there is the remains of an old house close to the road. There is not much left of the house now but this tree which was on the remains of one of the walls had an “other world” quality to it – I may well head back to try and catch it in better light sometime. A good walk and hopefully some more excursions on Dartmoor to come.

Mining and antiquities on Dartmoor

nigel — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:45:14 +0000

Effectively this is a follow on from my previous post from the same day’s walk here. The photos in the previous one were orientated around the scenery on the day and this one covers some of the antiquities and remains in the Headland Warren area generally. Walking south from Birch tor this was the view to the east towards Hameldon and Grimspound with the fog still rolling around.

Crossing the head of Chaw gully which is an old open tin mine on the edge of Headland Warren I arrived at the stone rows on Challacombe Down. There are multiple rows of stone here and both Hemmery in High Dartmoor and Worth in Dartmoor describe it as a triple stone row. To me it did lookss like there were more rows than this but I guess I am wrong.

From this image taken a little further up the rows it certainly looks like there are at least four rows of stones here. The rows run for around 150 metres. Birch Tor can be seen on the far right.

This is the “blocking stone” which appears to terminate the rows at the head of one row. It is quite a large stone compared to most of the others. While the stone is the subject of the photo to the right of it the ancient village of Grimspound can be clearly seen as a circle on the hillside. The tor to the left of the stone is Hookney Tor and below that on the left are some open tinners working disused for many years now.

This shows a small part of the open tin workings that are called Chaw Gully. The workings here (and there are many in the area) are some of the deepest open cast workings on the moors. The two named mines which used shafts lower down in the valley were worked loosely between 1750 and 1930 so this area was being mined prior to that. It is remarkable what was achieved with tools that would seem very primitive by our standards today.

This is the remains of a building associated with the Golden Dagger mine which lies a little south of the Chaw Gully open works. There is little doubt that tin has been extracted from the area for many years but the mine was first mentioned around 1851 (according to Tom Greeves). In 1892 41 people were employed there and the mine was at its peak then.

The photo above is taken from just above Golden Dagger mine looking back up towards the open workings of Chaw Gully whose lines can be seen slightly right of centre. The tor to the left is Birch Tor.

I walked back up the valley following the stream until I got to some of the remains of Vitifer mine. Vitifer (and Birch Tor mine ) was definitively mentioned in 1750 and by 1796 40 men were employed there (Tom Greeves) . The mine appears to have been one of the more prosperous one on the moors and there are quite extensive remains visible including some old mine shafts. It seems likely that the work here ceased around 1925.

The stream in the valley here was used as motive power for both the mines mentioned as well as previous open cast working. Now on what was still a cold frosty day it was rather more decorative – a pleasant end to a good walk.

On Dartmoor in frost and fog

nigel — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:23:35 +0000

Frost and fog on the edge of Dartmoor

I set off towards the moors looking for a day similar to the one in the last two posts – clear and cold. On the southern edge of the moors it looked as though the weather was not at all good and I almost turned back.

Tree in fog near Grimspound

When I got to the point where I had planned to walk from, close to Grimspound, it was obvious that there was some sun above the fog but visibility was not good. I had planned to walk in the opposite direction to Grimspound and it is an area I know well enough to walk in even in these conditions however I decided to go a little further.

Bennett's Cross in fog

I parked near Bennett’s Cross (by the Warren House Inn) and from here the visibility was no better. The cross is ancient but, as with so many of the remains on Dartmoor, no accurate dating is available. It was mentioned in documents from around 1700 but almost certainly is older than that. I set off into the fog.

On the edge of the fog

As I climbed the hill I found myself on the edge of the fog and it was obvious that it was a lovely day and that maybe the fog was relatively low lying.

Birch tor in frost

When I reached the top of the ridge I came out in sunshine and was looking over fog which was slightly below me and to the south only with the north moor relatively clear.

Fog around Soussons Down

After walking around some antiquities in the area and some old mine workings I headed down towards Soussons Down woods and back towards the fog. I’ll blog the working and antiquities in a day or so.

Fog in Soussons forestry

The effect of the fog, frost and light in the forestry was simply lovely. Wandering through the woods was a joy and I took quite a few pictures. The area is Forestry Commission land and the trees are not natural or native to the area which is a pity. Equally the plantations do cover up some antiquities too which is simply wrong.

Less than helpful sign!

As is often the case it is those small quirky things that make me smile and I just could not resist this sign. Bear in mind this is an upland area largely devoid of signs of any sort and it was a very foggy day. Fortunately I knew where I was and headed back to the car after having had a great walk that did not look promising at the start.

Man’s fingerprints on Dartmoor

nigel — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:22:50 +0000

In a sense this is “part 2″ of my previous post here. The images were all taken on the same day and, while showing quite a wild part of the UK, also indicate some of the ways the moors have been used over centuries. The work of man can be seen clearly from the above however there is some history here. The building is known as John Bishop’s house. John Bishop was a moorman in the nineteenth century and lived in a house on this site which, in turn may well have been built on the foundations of a far older longhouse. The current building dates from 1912 and was actually called Swincombe farm – it is very close to the river called the Swincombe.

The track here is close to John Bishop’s house and just above the ford on the Swincombe. It is part of an ancient packhorse route between Tavistock and Ashburton. It was probably regularly used from the Middle Ages until 1792 when a turnpike road was opened. There are quite a few ancient tracks across the moors dating from very early times. In some places they are very obvious such as here and in others far less so.

The track reaches this ford on the Swincombe close to John Bishop’s house. It crosses the river from the small opening on the right of the river to the bottom left of the image.

Taken from just below the ford on the Swincombe, this shows the current (relatively modern) foot bridge across the river at this point. Just below it and slightly upstream stepping stones can be seen with the ford seen in the image above just upstream of the stones. This has obviously been an important crossing point on the river for centuries.

A short distance downstream of the above are some beehives which can be seen here. I’m not certain of the current owners but for many years these belonged to the monks at Buckfast Abbey.

Moving from the current era to far older times this hut circle is set above the valley of the Swincombe. This will probably date from at least 3000 years ago. While this one is not easy to see it is similar to the ones at Grimspound which are larger and better know (largely because they are far more accessible).

As can be seen it was a cold and frosty day. There was plenty of ice around even where water was flowing. This is the result of draining ground further up via a pipe which leads water down towards the Swincombe. As such the hand of man over many centuries can be seen even in quite remote & beautiful parts of Dartmoor.

Hoar frost in south Devon

nigel — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:38:00 +0000

I thought that the really cold weather was maybe over around Totnes by now (22 December 2010) but checking the thermometer this morning it had hit -6 deg C overnight. The minor road I live on has had little traffic so had some aspects of a skating rink but I’d arranged to meet someone and needed to get out so I wandered out to check the road. The first clues of the level of the frost can be seen above – spiders webs on a beam.

Equally much of the garden had very significant hoar frost. The fact that there was a little colour left in the dead rose petals merely added to the effect.

I drove to Paignton for the meeting and, given it is on the coast, it was perhaps not surprising that there was hardly any frost or snow. Heading back one route had too much traffic so I took an alternative – chance plays such a role in photo opportunities. This is almost a “good news, bad news” story. I drove past another photographer who had a great view point – more of that in a minute – but headed to another spot I know. As I’ve said before I love mono tonal images and this sums up the feeling quite well – clean, simple and cold!

This is the other half of the above part. This is the spot the photographer was at in the late morning. He had a little sunlight on his scene – but the time I got back in the early afternoon that light had disappeared! I’ve said to quite a few people that I like to capture what I see quickly – the moral to the story is to stop and get the shot not hope it will be there later. Even though I do like this one it would have been better with a touch of light.