Annual Bluebell Walk to Burrator Woods

Time for our Annual Bluebell Walk. Will we get them at their best or will they have gone over as they did last year? We walked with eager anticipation.

Around 6.5 miles in glorious sunshine. Starting in the Quarry Car Park near Burrator Reservoir, we walked around the reservoir to the Narrator Plantation and then contoured Sheeps Tor at a low level until we reached Sheepstor village. From there we headed through Burrator Woods to the Meavy bridge and then back to the car park. Not a particularly strenuous walk but definitely a notch up from 'easy'. 

A Dartmoor pony which took a rather too-close-for-comfort interest in an apple I was eating. Unlike many tourists, I never feed the ponies and neither should anyone else.

Looking north-eastish across Burrator Reservoir towards Down Tor. It doesn't feel that high when you are up there.

And due south is Sheeps Tor. We haven't been up there for ages. Too long ago, in fact. We'll have to correct that soon with a circular route I have in mind.

Finding this Jay in the corner of a shot was a very pleasant surprise. In fact, I don't think I've got one of a Jay on the ground before. It pays to look carefully at photographs before deleting them as this was part of a rather boring panoramic shot.

Blue and gold of Ukraine?

St Leonard's Church, Sheepstor. There has been a church and chapelry  on this site since the early thirteenth century but the dedication to St Leonard's seems to be a relatively modern association. The present building dates from the 1450s and was 'restored' by the Victorians in the 1860s. There are lots of reasons to visit this church but the most unusual are its links with the Rajahs of Sarawak (Borneo), the Brooke family. 

 The carved Rood Screen dates from around 1914. It is based on a drawing of the old rood screen that was unceremoniously ripped out in 1861 (the rood screen, not the drawing) by the builder doing the restoration. It was designed by Frederick Bligh Bond who was the Devon rood screen expert at the time and carved by one of the best workshops in the South West, that of Herbert Read of Exeter. One of the best workshops, yes, but not THE best. Let's give that accolade to the Pinwill sisters, who, in my humble opinion, have the edge for artistic interpretation over Herbert. But what do I know? Only what I like.

This window commemorates the Brooke family, from whom the link to Sarawak springs. There is more that can be said about them that I've got space for so I'll just touch on the bits that interest me.
The 'White Rajah of Sarawak', Sir James Brooke is buried in the churchyard, along with his successors as Rajah, Charles Brooke and Charles Vyner Brooke. Sir James helped the Sultan of Brunei combat pirates and squash internal rebellions. As a reward, he was granted dominion over Sarawak in 1841. The jury is out on whether Sir James was a champion of Sarawak against the oppressive Sultanate of Brunei and the evils of slavery, or an autocratic colonial adventurer. Me? My politics makes me favour the latter. Notwithstanding this, the title descended through three generations of the Brooke family until Bertram Brooke essentially granted the title to the UK government following WW2, despite the objections of the Sarawak people and the next Brooke in line to inherit.
The three tombs of the Rajahs can be found in the north-eastern corner of the churchyard, rather incongruously facing the most English of rural scenes with sheep grazing on the hillside. James Brooke’s has the grandest tomb made from polished red Aberdeen granite. Yes, red granite from Aberdeen in the middle of an ocean of lovely local granite. The other two tombs are less conspicuous and are of local Dartmoor granite. The larger of the two apparently took 11 horses to pull it to the churchyard. It really is huge so, perhaps, it is pretty conspicuous after all.

This alabaster memorial to Susanna Elford dates from 1641. There's a lot to see in this poignant memorial of a double death.

Susanna, according the symbolism on display, died in childbirth along with her babe, shown here on the left wrapped in swaddling clothes. Just for emphasis, Susanna is pointing to her baby (1), and her three grieving elder daughters are grasping her coverlet. A tragedy but there is some theatricality, almost at the level of a Victorian melodrama. Top left (2) and  middle right (3, hard to make out) are two angels holding back curtains, as if presenting this as a scene in a play. Old Man Death has a walk on part as well, top right (4), peeking out from behind the curtain, just to make sure that we all get the point. Though, to show that there is hope after death, at the bottom left is a phoenix (5), for resurrection and everlasting life.

These kind of memorials, to death in childbirth, are not unusual and appeared to have started in the latter part of the 1500s and became more popular in the early 1600s. Unusual too, as they did not start with the aristocracy and spread downwards, but were always with the merchant class and small time gentry. Why? Well, one interpretation is that they were a sign of the rise of marriage for love and/or companionship, rather than transactional, for connections and property. And Squire Elford had lost his Susanna and his fourth daughter, missed them deeply and wanted to show it. And why wouldn't he?

But what I find so poignant are the two little girls on the right (6 & 7) clutching their favourite things, a special ribbon, a treasured book. Both looking as if they want their mother to wake up and play with them. As I said earlier, Victorian melodrama.

Looking back down the nave and side aisle, the fifteenth century granite arcade (row of pillars) is wonderful. One of the many (and there are so many) delights of these Dartmoor churches is that they use ‘moorstone’ which is the granite just lying on and around the surface of the moor. No violent quarrying, no despoiling of the earth, just gently taking the surface stone and lovingly caressing it with a chisel to give it another character. And all done in the same neighbourhood. A triumph for low granite miles. A description I like is that churches such as St Leonard's were built 'from the bones of the moor'. I wish I'd thought of it but I can still use it, and I will.

An unusual, but rather dusty, adornment is the Sarawakan ceremonial blanket, a Pua Kumbu, hanging on the south wall (to the right). It was the gift  of the people of Sarawak in the 1990s. It could do with a good clean!

Lovers of wood carving don't just come to St Leonard's for the Rood Screen, they also come for the benches. These were designed by Violet Pinwill and carved in her Plymouth workshop between 1914 and 1939. I really like her work, and that of the Pinwill sisters generally, and always marvel at the skills that are completely beyond my abilities.

They are very much of their time, beautifully carved, and could have leapt from the pages of children’s history books and bibles of that era. Will future generations have the context to decipher and appreciate such subjects? With increasing secularisation, I doubt whether the religious references and subjects will mean much to the 'unchurched'.

The primary purpose of this walk at this time was to see the bluebells in Burrator Wood. Last year we got there just after they were passed their best. This year, by general acclaim, we got it right. And what a visual and sensory treat we had. The path wound its way through the woods and there were bluebells all the way. There's no need for any more text - just enjoy them.

Not a bluebell in sight. The sloping path up from Meavy and back to the car park. The buds are just breaking and the canopy is filling out very nicely.

I'll finish with 360 degrees of daffodils. Until next year, I presume, as I don't think we'll be seeing anything quite as splendid as this again in 2022.