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| An independent voice and a forum for debate for those who find Dartmoor a source of livelihood or inspiration |
The following events have been organised over the next few months. More details can be found in our Newsletters. New events are normally added to the website to coincide with Newsletters being posted.
Please use the Book Now buttons to book places and pay online. If you are a Dartmoor Society member please sign into the Member Centre beforehand so you can book places for members-only events and not need to enter all your contact details every time.
Alternatively you can download and print a booking form and post it to us together with a cheque to cover any payment to The Dartmoor Society, PO Box 38, Tavistock, PL19 0XJ.
When our events are over-subscribed, waiting lists are created. If you find that you cannot attend an event you have booked for, please contact the Honorary Secretary as soon as possible. Your place can then be allocated to someone else.
Wednesday 23rd August, 2:00pm – 5:00pm
Our hosts for this year’s farm visit are Frank and Sue Martin. Their farm, Pizwell, is documented from AD 1260 and is one of the ancient tenements of central Dartmoor, most of which are thought to have pre-Norman origins. It is on the very edge of the Forest of Dartmoor. We shall see some fine medieval buildings on site.
The farm now produces high quality beef and lamb from South Devon cattle and Cheviot and Dartmoor sheep (meat will be available to buy).
We shall learn about hill farming and the rhythm of the year at this iconic place.
Wednesday 27th September, 2:30pm – 4:30pm
Den Brook Wind Farm, between North Tawton and Bow, comprises nine turbines, each measuring 120m high to the tip of the blade, as well as on-site tracks and crane hardstandings, a control building and a grid connection. The turbines are visible from Dartmoor.
Construction work began in late August 2015 with turbine deliveries taking place in the summer of 2016. All nine Vestas turbines were erected by October 2016 and the wind farm became fully operational in November 2016.
The wind farm has an installed capacity of 18 megawatts of renewable electricity. This is sufficient to meet the annual average needs of approximately 9,000 UK homes.
Our hosts are RES (Renewable Energy Systems), who are the developers, constructors and asset managers of the wind farm, responsible for its day-to-day operation.
The visit will provide a great opportunity to see one of the newest windfarms in the UK. It will include a walking tour (high visibility vests will be supplied). There will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions.
We will also see the works carried out to enhance ecology at the site and will hear about the construction process. More information on the project is available on their website.
Den Brook Wind Farm is located at postcode EX20 2BJ, and is approached from the south side of the A3072 between De Bathe Cross and Bow.
Saturday 21st October, 10:00am – 5:00pm
Meldon Village Hall, EX20 4LU
Chairmen: Dr Tom Greeves & Simon Dell MBE
Dartmoor’s varied stone resources have been used since prehistory to create the distinctive built heritage of the area, and further afield. However, for many years, quarrying within the national park has been perceived by many as anathema, and since 1997 there has been no working granite quarry on Dartmoor.
However, two quarries survive, and both are important employers – one producing limestone on a large scale at Linhay, Ashburton and another, much smaller in scale, producing metamorphic building stone at Yennadon, Dousland.
The principle of using local stone for local and regional needs fits with contemporary ideas about wise and environmentally sound use of resources. Are we doing enough to meet this imperative?
A wide range of speakers will explore what makes Dartmoor stone so special – in the morning its geology, archaeology, and its potential use for maintenance of historic buildings, will be explored; in the afternoon the role of the two working quarries will be told. There will be ample time for discussion.
1000 – Welcome
1015 – Kevin Page (University of Plymouth): The geological diversity of stone in the Dartmoor region.
1100 – COFFEE
1130 – Tom Greeves (independent cultural environmentalist): The archaeological legacy of Dartmoor stonecutting.
1215 – Stuart Blaylock (archaeologist and independent historic buildings specialist): The importance of local stone, its use and procurement for historic buildings.
1300 – LUNCH
1400 – Ian Glendinning & Barry Wilson (Glendinnings): Limestone: its use and history of quarrying at Ashburton.
1445 – Andrea Robertson (John Grimes Partnership Ltd): Yennadon Quarry: continuing Dartmoor’s tradition of supplying building stone.
1530 – TEA
1600 – Discussion: Have we got the balance right?
1700 – Close.
Friday 10th November, 7:00pm
Dolphin Hotel, Bovey Tracey, TQ13 9AL
When he was 17 years old Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) rode off on his pony to explore Dartmoor. His nights were spent in moorland inns and, in 1888, he recalled hearing the men singing in the evenings.
He revisited some of those inns and met a new generation of singers whose songs he noted down as part of the collection of folk songs that he made in Devon and Cornwall. He was the first of the large-scale collectors of English folk songs, and his manuscripts contain more than 2,000 separate items, which he heard or which were sent to him.
Martin Graebe will tell the story of Baring-Gould’s journeys across Dartmoor in search of songs, of the men and women he met, and of the songs that he found. And you will hear some of these songs sung by Martin and his wife, Shan.
Martin Graebe researches and writes about English folk song. He lived and worked for many years in West Devon where he took a particular interest in Sabine Baring-Gould, and the collection of songs that he made in the area around his home in Lew Trenchard. He sings with his wife, Shan, and they have performed Baring-Gould’s songs to audiences around the world.
Martin’s new book, As I Walked Out, Sabine Baring-Gould and his search for Folk Song in Devon and Cornwall, is to be published in the autumn of 2017. Copies will be available to buy at the Research Lecture.
