A walk on the West side of Dartmoor National Park: Walkhampton,Horrabridge and Sampford Spiney

A delightful 7.2 mile walk with our U3A Group. It took us to parts that we had not walked before and, unusually, there was very little moorland involved. Our route took us from Walkhampton down the river Walkham to Horrabridge and then across fields and bridleways to Sampford Spiney. The return from there involved crossing Huckworthy Common and back to our starting point via Huckworthy Bridge. The weather was dry and clear and the walk was made all the more enjoyable by not having to wade through endless mud and puddles! And, for those of us who love old buildings, at the end of the walk we had tea with one of our friends in her wheelwright's workshop. The usual random set of photographs follow.

The route - highly recommended and one to add to our 'must do again' list.

This one caught me out. Lurking on the other side of the hedge was a Friesian cow. Not so, it's a life size statue in the (large) garden of the famous photographer David Bailey.

A granite gate post. I took this because it's rather unusual in that it shows the lumpy bit on the (right) end which is normally buried out of sight. It gives a good idea of how heavy these pieces are.

This occupied a couple of us for a while. What extruded it? Because it was made up mainly of fur, we concluded that it was probably fox droppings.

Strange things seen in hedges Part XX: ear muffs. Discarded by whom? And why?

A set of iron rails over a stream. What are they? For many years they acted as the base of a wooden launder (water chute) that took water from the stream (Blackbrook) running through the centre of Walkhampton village...............

..and used it to drive this overshot water wheel. The launder collapsed quite recently as a result of general decay and lack of maintenance. Although the building is called the Mill, it waa, in fact, a wheelwrights' workshop. In a report written in 1998, Martin Watts, (an acknowledged expert on water-powered mills), stated, ‘The Wheelwright’s Shop at Walkhampton is a remarkable survival of a once widespread local industry and unusual in that it retains several machine tools that were driven by water power…. As a water-powered wheelwright’s shop that still retains its prime mover and machinery in full working order, the site at Walkhampton can be considered unique in England.’

The water wheel was, by a series of cogs and drive belts, used to power a large number of machines in the wheelwrights' workshop. By my reckoning there were at least 12 take-off points; just imagine the noise and the motion when the work was in full swing. The building dates from the 1840's and was in the same family (the Veale's) for most of its working life. Water power was used until the 1980s when a 3-phase electricity supply was installed. The workshops were in operation until circa 1990, after which time the associated ramshackle outbuildings were demolished and the site used for a small development of houses. The workshop building itself has been converted into a couple of dwellings. But the actual workshop, and it's contents, as they have listed status, remain relatively untouched.

Another shot of the workshop with a cartwheel in place. Rather oddly, the carts were repaired on the first floor of the building, being pulled up there via a wooden ramp. I presume this was necessitated by the fact that the machinery was just too heavy to be anywhere other than on the ground floor. Carts are relatively light and so wouldn't pose a weight problem.

A collection of metal pieces, the function of which has been long lost. The friends who own the building would like to do some restoration work but this isn't as easy as it might sound. The triple complications of the building being listed, being in a Village Conservation Area and being within the Dartmoor National Park mean that even making minor changes is fraught with difficulty and bureaucracy. A good example is their wish to restore the launder. As a result of a stand-off between the Village Conservation Area (under Devon County Planning) and the DNP (no, not me), their respective legal teams have been brought in to hammer out a resolution.  Conservation gone mad!