Quarryman’s Path (aka Sheep Path)

This route or track is described by Eric Hemery in his book ‘Walking Dartmoor’s Ancient Tracks – A guide to 28 routes which was published in 1986, three years after his more well known publication ‘High Dartmoor’

The Quarryman’s Path (Track 17 – pages 193 to 198) is picked out by Hemery as a particular route to exemplify the tracks, paths and journeys, the quarry workers of the Victorian era would have had to take to get to their work. Hemery has justified the route on the basis of it being noted by William Crossing (the renowned Dartmoor Guide writer from the turn of the 20th century) and by oral history relayed to him by a George Penrose of Peter Tavy. It would also seem that is it also one of the longer Quarryman’s tracks or routes of the period and Hemery chooses the route to start at Mary Tavy enroute to Merrivale, a distance of around 4 miles.

Penrose passed onto Hemery, what he knew of his father Frederick’s work as a quarryman. Frederick Penrose was born in 1870 and lived at Higher Godsworthy Farm. This would have been around the time (ie 1870) that the small industry of ‘Sett Making’ on the eastern slopes of Great Staple Tor was in its heyday, a full 5 or 6 years before Merrivale Quarry (then known as ‘Tor Quarry’) had been opened. Frederick said he would walk to work following the ‘Quarryman’s Path’, which in those days was known as ‘The Sheep Path’, waiting for his workmates coming through the combe (Peter Tavy Combe). It would seem that Frederick would have worked at ‘Tor Quarry’ when it had been operational around 10 years (mid to late 1880’s). He would have been acutely aware of Sett making although might not have endured the conditions of his predecessors on the slopes of Great Staple Tor. That said, the evidence in this post does suggest that ‘Quarryman’s Path’ was likely to have been used by the early Sett Makers possibly as early as 1860.

What does set this ‘Quarryman’s Track’ apart from others is a ’causeway of granite’ which has been set out like “……a kerb like series of set stones” (ref: Hemery, 1986, p198), which seem to have been laid by the quarrymen across the col, between Great Staple Tor and Cox Tor and then onwards towards the ridge between Great and Middle Staple Tors. The conjecture being that the causeway would have either been to keep dry from the boggy and less wet conditions or indeed to prevent them losing their way in the dark or mist.

On a dry and bright October day with a group of friends, the author embarked on following the ‘Quarryman’s Path’ as defined by Hemery between Mary Tavy (St. Mary’s Church) to Merrivale Quarry and return in the footsteps of these hardy Victorians. The author had only previously walked the route one way and decided to experience a return journey. This post covers this journey and points of interest along the way, with a few ‘minor’ side trips to record interesting features.

Bibliography

1. Eric Hemery (1986) – Walking Dartmoor’s Ancient Tracks, A guide to 28 routes, Track 17 (pages 193-198)
2. Simon Dell and John Bright (2008) – Dartmoor’s Sett Makers’ Bankers (An industrial mystery solved?)
3. Helen Harris (1968) – Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor
4. Helen Harris (1981) – 19th Century granite working on Pew Tor and Staple Tor, Western Dartmoor, 31-34 (Article in Serial). SDV236242.
5. P.H.G. Richardson (1992) – Mines of Dartmoor and the Tamar Valley after 1913 – Chapter 5 (pages 53-60)
6. C.W. Pilkington-Rogers (1930) – Days on Dartmoor, pages 96/7
7. William Crossing (1910) – Guide to Dartmoor – Page 150
8. Peter Tavy Village Cross
9. Mary Stanbrook – (1991), Old Dartmoor Schools Remembered
10. The Quarryman’s Path – A Walk in English Weather
11. Royal Commission for the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) – (1987-1993) -Duchy Farms Project Survey Visit (Report – Survey). SDV350839
12. Anthony R. Kingdom – (1991) – The Yelverton to Princetown Railway (page 75)