Under Dartmoor Skies



Dartmoor Morning

From having been brought up in Sydney then lived in Japan and Hong Kong, Singapore and Scotland the northern reaches of Dartmoor National Park have now become my home. It is here where my two daughters were raised, and where two of my grandchildren live, and where I now live in a converted late Victorian coach house - or more realistically where the pony and trap were once housed - and where I now write.

My first efforts at writing were inspired by a tiny hand written and obviously home made red book which I found deep in the recesses of a walnut writing box that I acquired at an auction rooms in East Devon. It was written in  pencil by a little girl called Harriet in 1904 and was all about the 'pets' she and her brother William and her friend Alison played with at their house Clare Cottage in Kent. 

I wrote the story, and this was published by  the magazine Devon Life in 2009. This small success inspired me to further writing efforts, plus I really wanted to find out what happened to Harriet and her brother William. My journey to find their story  will be revealed later. What happened to William and did he survive World War One, which started exactly a hundred years ago this year? Who was Harriet, and how did she come to move from Kent to Devon. And what happened to her best friend Alison after they played in the Edwardian  summer of long ago? Perhaps some one out there can help me find the answers.

So this part of Dartmoor is my home, and the land has been farmed since prehistoric times. The village and farming community have been established here since the Saxon era. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) where one Richard 'has eight villeins, and five bordars, four serfs, four head of cattle and forty sheep ..... half a leuga of wood, eight acres of meadow, one leuga of pasture.' It was worth thirty shillings a year. 

The Beginning of a Turf War on Dartmoor?

Right now I am glad we have all survived the floods and gales of this winter. We have a strong village community of around 200 plus. Our village hall is the centre for many of the village activities, and such as it houses a post office which comes two mornings a week, and on one morning there is a thriving morning café where you can get a selection of homemade scones, cakes, tea or coffee and chat - and it raises much needed funds for the Village Hall. It looks as if there is going to be a rival to this coffee morning as there has been an application to turn an old disused Sunday school hall into a full time café. This will breathe new life into a building in need of repair. Will this take away custom from our much loved weekly Café, and  therefore take away the Village Hall custom? Is this the beginning of a Turf War on Dartmoor? Should we be worried, or will there be enough business for all?

I like to think so - it is a very pretty village and we gets loads of visitors and moor walkers, and not just in the summer - they come all the year round. Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing? It would be interesting to hear. Most residents welcome the proposed new café, however some are against the venture, and fear an increase in the road traffic and possible parking congestion.  Oh  dear - the old hot potato Village Politics? There is a meeting of the Village Hall committee tonight when the new café is on the agenda. As a member of the committee I shall be there so I will be able to report back in my next blog in two weeks how the potential Wars of the Cafes proceed.

 In the meantime I shall keep my head down and look for the signs of spring. Even this morning I felt the warmth of the sun on my face as I walked to collect my post, and could hear the birdsong. Many snowdrops thrive by my front gate, and the first green shoots of the daffodils are thrusting through the dark soil. The daffodils 'that come before the swallows dare, and take the winds of March with beauty.' A Winter's Tale is nearly over.

See you in two weeks,

Mary Jane.