Historic Lecture on Dartmoor and the Three Boys

by Colin Burbidge

This report is from the Western Times 3rd Feb 1865 and summarises a lecture by the Rev. John Ingle, who was the first owner of the original St Olaves estate in Murchington in the late 1860s. He particularly focuses on the area of Dartmoor that is accessible by foot from Murchington.

 At the Athenaeum in Exeter, on Tuesday evening, the Rev. John Ingle conducted a large audience on very interesting and pleasant, tour over the moorland region of Dartmoor. The lecture was illustrated with chalk and sepia sketches, drawn specially for it by one of the rev. gentleman's pupils at Mount Radford School.

Starting at Fingle Bridge, Mr. Ingle noticed that at the top of the interesting encampment opposite, a beautiful view is commanded of most delightful scenery. The bucolic mind has a peculiar penchant for some kinds of geology, and, unhappily, the stones of which the walls are formed, being porphyritic granite, are admirably adapted for roads, and hence are fast disappearing. From Fingle Bridge to the cromlech at Drewsteignton and Chagford the lecturer had taken some pleasant walks, and he now gave a description of what he had seen. Passing the romantic Holly-street Mill, you come to Gidleigh House which is in the midst of varied and most delicious scenery, but in very dilapidated condition.

Visitors to Gidleigh generally made a "great mistake” in going to the front of the house and taking the wrong route on their way to Moor ; they should not go within two or three gunshots of the house, but when they get to the rustic cart bridge leading to the more private grounds of the house, should turn off to the left and go up through the woods, where they would enjoy a walk that can hardly be surpassed. Visitors should go partly by the river side, and then they would immediately get on the best part of the Moor. Getting towards Kestor you come across a cluster of the most curious remains on the Moor, viz., " Hut Circles " which must have been very miserable places to live in. Mr. Ingle next gave description of the towering rock capped hills, and the wild and rugged scenery to be seen from their heights. Glancing at the antiquities of the Moor, he spoke of the stone avenues, the crosses, and the ancient trackways. Formerly there were three stone pillars known as the "Three Boys," but now only one is to be seen, the others having departed—grown to men, he supposed—(laughter). It was painful, distressing, and vexatious to see the way in which these ancient and curious remains had been taken down!

No one could go far on Dartmoor without a feeling of solemnity coming over him. The deep colouring, the stillness around, the vastness of the wild desolate view, and the constant play of light and shade gave a special character and beauty to the scenery. If they wanted to commune with nature and look from nature up to “nature's God." go when and where they would, they would always find what they wanted on Dartmoor. On the motion of Sir John Bowring, the lecturer was accorded a unanimous vote of thanks which were conveyed by the chairman P. C. De La Garde Esq.

THE UPPER TEIGN ON CANVAS

By Colin Burbidge and Jane Elliott

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries artists increasingly came to Dartmoor to paint the wild and rugged scenery. Indeed, some would say these artists were responsible for helping to make the area a popular tourist destination. The Victorian artist William Widgery was painting scenes along the Teign river at just the time that St Olaves was being created by John Ingle. His oil painting of Fingle bridge, just a few miles downstream from St Olaves can be seen in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. He and his son Frederick Widgery were noted for their ability to capture the soft damp quality of the Dartmoor light.

The following report from the Exeter & Plymouth Telegram on 18 April 1870 gives a sense of the popularity of William Widgery’s work in the late nineteenth century.

Devon & Exeter Graphic Society  Art Exhibition

A share of the honours of this exhibition are due to Mr. William Widgery, who is host himself in any collection of modern Devonshire pictures. He has a fine conspicuous oil painting hung opposite the entrance to the gallery, a fair example of his style of landscape, illustrative of the scenery of the upper waters of the Teign. Mr.Widgery has, in a manner, established his right to distribute among the lovers of English landscape-painting, glowing views of that previously almost undiscovered artist's paradise. No picture-fancier travelling through beauteous Devon in these days would consider he had done his duty by himself or by the county if he left the west country without, carrying away with him a memento of the bright visions of the higher shallows of the Teign from Widgery's easel. The tall painting of luxuriant greenwood, precipitous and rugged declivity, ferns and falling water, which occupies the chief place among those which he has contributed to this gallery, is taken from a spot near Chagford, not likely to be found by the tourist unless he availed himself of the aid of an artist-guide.

William Widgery “the Upper Teign from Gidleigh Park”

© Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter City Council.

There are many such secluded bits of nature, too romantic for common reality, in that region, scarcely ever seen except by those who dwell in the remote villages upon the outskirts of Dartmoor. Mr. Widgery, by long study of this description of scenery, knows how realize it upon the canvas as to bring away just the impression it makes upon the mind. Anyone who had wandered about that country would know, when he saw this dribbling of water down the hill, the green hue of the sunlight through the tall trees, the bits of wildflower, the rocky basin wherein the stream widens and rests and gets smooth for a moment before it descends again, and the limited peep of dappled blue sky straight above, that he  was looking upon a piece of Devon scenery, and those who are at all familiar with Devonshire art in our day would recognize in it the hand of Widgery.

William Widgery was born in North Molton where his father was a farm labourer. He came to Exeter as a young man and at first worked as a builder. In his spare time, he copied paintings by famous Victorian artists such as Sir Edwin Landseer. Dartmoor was his major inspiration, especially the area around Lydford where in 1880 he built a house and studio.

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

Sourced by Colin Burbidge

Arthur Wilde a former JP from Sussex, came to Moretonhampstead at the outbreak of WW II and enjoyed walking on Dartmoor. Being an able writer, he put his thoughts on paper, which the “Western Times” published under the heading “My Moreton Scrap Book” during the early 1940’s. What follows is part of an article entitled “Off the Beaten Track” from 22nd May 1942.

 Princep’s Folly

“My friend and I have lately been exploring the byways so that we could browse amid the antiquity of old habitations. We were off the beaten track the other Sunday and found ourselves at the foot of Gidleigh Tor. The Tor seems now to be known as Princep’s Folly, because a house was built on the summit over 90 years ago, by Thomas A. Princep. Judging from the boundaries of this old dwelling, it was not a large house and to gain added strength, its walls had been incorporated in some massive natural rocks. As we stood there I wondered what prompted the building of a house in such a lonely and exposed spot. I understand Mr. Princep never lived there and after his death his widow sold the contents, and the house was demolished. A few steps from the ruins of the house is an old tower, octagonal in shape and roofless, it is entered through a doorway with a pointed arch, and an elderberry is thriving so well inside that it has already outgrown the tower itself.

Map showing Gidleigh Tor (Thanks to Steve Foster - treksandtors)

Higher Murchington Farm

May wildflowers in the hedgerow at Murchington

 My friend was already acquainted with Mr. Arthur Endacott, and we had the pleasure of his company along the lane that led to his father’s farm at Murchington. I was charmed with their home, which was approached along a path bordered by clumps of aubretia and wallflowers, and I was able to gratify a long-held wish to sit before a real Devonshire fireplace. At Higher Murchington Farm the fireplace is so big that a person of fair height is able to stand upright in it. I liked the stout blocks of stone that must have been selected and cut to build it, and its builders certainly intended it to last for centuries.

The lane to Higher Murchington Farm - May 2021

I was particularly interested when Mrs. Endacott showed me the baking oven at the side- the first I have seen.

The very sight of this oven seemed to make me smell the delicious loaves of bread being taken out of it, and this took me back to my boyhood in Lancashire where my family loved bread baked at home.

We enjoyed our chat with Mr. Endacott as he sat on one of the chimney seats and felt we could have stayed for hours in the company of those good, homely folk. Alas all good things come to an end, but their cheery farewells put us in good heart for our tramp to Moreton town.

Footnote: A year later George Endacott retired from farming due to ill heath, all stock and equipment was sold at auction

Reproduced by kind permission of the Trinity/Mirror Group