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Friends from Belgium - "Hello" - for other photos of features that you may have seen during your walk, take a look at: 8 July 2010, 21 Jan 2011, 30 June 2011 & 28 July 2011.

This walk: 2011-7-28. Zeal Tor Tramway wooden rail, iron nail, iron pipe, fox moth caterpillar movie, Petre's Pit, pond, flowers, cotton grass, Redlake Tramway, Western White Barrow, Petre's Cross, boundary stone, Eastern White Barrow.

Walk details below - Information about the route etc.

 

 

Zeal Tor Tramway wooden rail, SX 66891 64390 ± 3 metres .....

 

Pointing out a fixing nail that protrudes from the surface of the rail, possibly coming out after all these years?

 

Closer view of the nail.

 

Nearby exposed iron pipe that brought china clay slurry from Petre's Pit to Shipley Bridge, SX 66841 64428.

 

Looking at the first remains of a "building" encountered on the walk - see the "square" outline at extreme right in the Google Earth image below ......

Google Earth image of the area before reaching Petre's Pit .....

 

Zoomed view across the first building to some exposed stonework.

 

Dartmoor CAM movie

A Fox Moth caterpillar on the Zeal Tor Tramway.

 

Click the photo to download

File size: 3 MB.
Time to download: e.g. 13 secs
Length 18 secs

 

Three cuts in the ground that correspond to the two or three parallel lines towards the upper left of the Google Earth image above.

 

First of two side features to the three cuts seen above .....

 

Second side feature .....

 

A drainage pipe leading into the first side feature above.

 

Possible embankment that was the side branch of the tramway into Petre's Pit. We found it difficult to follow this right into or alongside the pit.

A path across the main valley leading down from Petre's Pit.

 

A pond .....

 

Showing grass, yellow flowers (unidentified) and Cotton Grass .....

 

Another view.

 

Cotton grass, apparently multi-headed therefore Eriophorum angustifolium.

 

Yellow flowers - it was too boggy to approach more closely!

 

A willow beside the pool.

 

Looking down on the old "Puffing Billy" track i.e. the Redlake Tramway. 

 

Petre's Cross on Western White Barrow, at SX 65358 65491.

 

The cross has lost its side arms and has been re-erected upside-down, so that we see the square peg at the base of the cross that would have sat in a socket stone.

 

The shelter within the barrow, now filled with stinging nettles.

 

Redlake Clay Works spoil tip, seen from Western White Barrow.

 

Another view of the cross.

 

Friends from Belgium, photographed on the track beside Western White Barrow with Plymouth Sound in the distance behind them.

 

Boundary Stone at SX 65436 65239.

 

Looking up the "valley" into Petre's Pit.

 

Zoomed view to Eastern White Barrow (see 8 July 2010).

 

Another view back towards Petre's Pit.

 

The 3/4 mile stone on the main tramway - this is 1¾ miles from Shipley Bridge.

 

General view south, towards South Brent with Corringdon Ball on the left.

 

Walk details

MAP: Red = GPS satellite track of the walk.


Ordnance Survey © Crown copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Licence number 100047373.
Also, Copyright © 2005, Memory-Map Europe, with permission.

 

The car park is at Shipley Bridge at the yellow cross /  P  symbol. Access is best from the A38 turn-off at the junction named "Marley Head" where the A385 goes to Avonwick, Totnes & Paignton. Drive north from the junction onto the moor. At the first junction (Harbourneford Cross) go straight across the cross roads using the left road (there is a smaller road across to the right - ignore it). Follow this narrow lane with passing places uphill until it bends SHARP left (this is Gingaford Cross). Follow this road (ignore a road to Lutton, off to the left) until you come to a picturesque spot with a tiny bridge. Go over the bridge and turn right into the car park.

Statistics
Distance - 10.1 km / 6.28 miles
 

 

 

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