August 24, 2020

BUCKLAND AND HALSHANGER MANORS

The inspiration for this post comes from Dave Brewer from his first edition (1986) “A field guide to the BOUNDARY MARKERS on and around DARTMOOR”. I have added a bit of my own narrative but have also paraphrased Dave Brewers findings contained in the book. I note that Dave Brewer uses “Halsanger” in his book but OS uses “Halshanger”. I have used the latter in this post.

Drawing Layout of Halshanger and Buckland & Ashburton Boundaries — An overlay of the boundary stones contained in this post. The easiest place to park is Cold East Cross for access to all the stone

BH2 — Philip Woodley (PW) held this manor for nearly 339 years from 1586 to 1925. This particular stone is not on the current OS map and has been somewhat overtaken by bracken

BH3 — The second PW stone is near Cold East Cross. The middle part of the W has been incised in a peculiar manner such that the W looks like two co-joined V’s

BH4 — It is said that the Woodley family had a hand in both the erection and subsequent demolition of the old inn at New House, which is between Cold East Cross and Hemsworthy Gate on the old Chagford – Ashburton drovers road.

This is the furthest south of the stones on the Buckland / Ashburton parish bound that is on open access land. There are two others, namely: one known as Kingshead and bears the inscription “Kingshead May 4th 1837 A. B” in Auswell woods, the other is at Lover’s Leap and is known as such. This boundary stone has incorrectly been named as “Gary Mare” on 19th century maps. The “Gray Mare” boundary stone was moved / destroyed in 1771 when the Welstor newtake wall below Stidwell Spring was built.

BH6 — Some interesting features leading away northwards from Buckland Beacon. These stones are in the approximate location of three small black circles on the OS Map (which indicate standing stones). Are these original Buckland parish bound stones, now built into the dry stone wall ?

EFB 5 — The series of stones inscribed EFB 1837 refer to Edmund Pollexfen Bastard, who was Lord of the Manor

When you’ve got an itch……

BH8 — At wall corner, near spot height 379m

EFB 4 — Edmund Pollexfen Bastard also acquired the Auswell estate

EFB 3 — Moving north towards Cold East Cross

EFB 2 — Moving north towards Cold East Cross

EFB 1 — Cold East Cross car park can just be seen in left hand photograph

EFB 6 — Passing Cold East Crossing and heading towards Blackslade Ford

BH14 — The first of two stones on the bound marked simply with A(shburton) and B(uckland)

This one was a bit tricky to locate as the description suggests.

EFB 7 — A final EFB stone

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In Parish and Manor Boundaries

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