Natural England - East Dartmoor: history

East Dartmoor: history

East Dartmoor has had a rich and colourful past, with humans playing a huge role in shaping the landscape.

Today the Bovey Valley is almost entirely wooded, but once it was covered in small farmsteads, each with its own fields and copses. About 100 years ago, new ways of farming changed this way of life and gradually the farms were abandoned. The numerous stone walls and earth banks within the wood give the biggest clues to this agricultural past.

Houndtor Camp, positioned on the highest ground in the Valley, is thought to be one of a series of lookout posts along the valley, built and used during the English Civil War.

Commanding views up and down the valley would have given early warning of invading forces, with each lookout post would be able to see the next, so that they could communicate the impending peril.

The moorland of Trendlebere Down has been occupied and farmed since at least the Bronze Age. The myriad of historic ‘lumps and bumps’ left behind show that people once lived here. Look out for the row of stones, cairns and hut circles which all date from this period, as well as more modern features such as the Bovey Pottery leat.

Just like a mill ’race’, the leat is a man-made stream that took water to the famous potteries in Bovey Tracey. Although the leat is no longer in commercial use, it still picks up water within Yarner Wood and takes it to the Pottery Ponds. Now a haven for wildlife, the ponds were originally constructed to store water to power machinery at the potteries. You can visit the pottery museum at the House of Marbles.

The majestic oaks of Yarner Wood are testament to an ancient past and a long history of woodland management. Centuries ago, large blocks of woodland were felled to make charcoal, and the legacy of trees re-growing in similar-aged groups can still be seen today. If you spot a flat, circular area about 5m across, then you’ve probably found one of the many old charcoal hearths that are still dotted across the woodland.

Locally, charcoal was needed during the industrial revolution to smelt iron, lead and copper. The charcoal at Yarner Wood was used at the Yarrow copper mine in the late 19th century.