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PRINCETOWN AND PROGRESS

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The approach to Princetown from Tavistock—past the innocuous and. maligned television mast on North Hessary Tor, with a radar tower visible in the distance—is impressive. Even the rough blocks of granite piled by the roadside are not without their beauty and appropriateness. As one comes to the town itself the Prison is visible through the trees, a drab and dreary monument that punishes all who gaze on it. Around it are the warders’ houses, and warders can generally be seen in their serge uniforms making their way to and from the Prison. Princetown has several sides, several faces which it obstinately presents for inspection. The wishing well, the gift shop, the hotels and the lively moorland ponies are not incongruous, for this grim little fortress is also an oasis. In the summer months it tries to seem welcoming even if the reproachful church serves as a reminder that here suffering far outstrips enjoyment.

At the present time it has some local vitality not stemming from the life of the Prison. It has its own institutions such as a Choral Society, a Ladies’ Club, whist drives, dances and so on. The Vicar, the Reverend Cecil Longden, has found it an extraordinary place having a unique mixture of types. “Its ugliness even is impressive: the swirling mists one week and then suddenly crystal-clear blue skies and bracing sunshine. It has a remarkable record for health, and the incredible youthfulness of the inhabitants also strikes a newcomer at once.”

But how did Princetown—just the kind of spot any town-builder would have wished to avoid—come to be where it is? This is an episode in the story of Dartmoor which has been neglected. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries there was much agricultural activity in England. It was the day of the agricultural improver; and the earliest of these on the Moor was a man named Gifllet who occupied one of the ancient tenements, Prince Hall, beginning his improvements in 1780.

PRINCETOWN AND PROGRESS

William Crossing states that the opening of the nineteenth century saw two classes at work within the Forest, the natives and new settlers who had more ambitious aims.

“Still, the land taken from the Forest was comparatively small in extent; no enclosures existed to compare in size with those seen today. Besides the thirty-five tenements there were also within the Forest the estate of Fernworthy, on the South Teign in the neighbourhood of Chagford, the enclosures of which were of long standing, being mentioned in the Perambulation of 1609; the farm at Teign Head of very much later date; and the newly-formed estate of Sir Thomas, then Mr Tyrwhitt, known as Tor Royal.”

It is Tyrwhitt who stands out as the chief improver of Dartmoor, as the man who somehow girded himself to do with this waste what John Knight attempted to do with Exmoor. Success is a matter of degree and both these men had the strength of will and the ambition to struggle against forces that others looked upon as unconquerable. Crossing tells us little about Thomas Tyrwhitt, neither is there any reference to him in the Dictionary of National Biography. He is one of the lost figures of the Moor almost as remote to the memory as Childe the Hunter. It may be that his work was deliberately underestimated by those who disliked its aims. At any rate the memorial tablet in Princetown ('hurch means nothing nowadays. It says that “His Name and Memory are inseparable from all the Great Works on Dartmoor and cannot cease to be honoured in this District”. But who has honoured it? Certainly not Hansford Worth nor any of the writers that I know anything about. Sneers come more readily to die tongue than praise for Tyrwhitt. What kind of a man was I yrwhitt and what did he accomplish?

I le came to Dartmoor at the right moment. A Bill was passed 111 1772 for the construction of a road from T avistock to Moreton-h.impstead, and even in an area like Dartmoor such innovations were not rejected. He was a man born opportunely at Wickham bishops 011 August 12th, 1762, being the son of the rector of that Kmcx parish. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he took his M.A. degree in 1787. The Dean of Christ Church, Dr < 'yril Jackson, realizing the gifts of this pupil, introduced him to iIk Prince of Wales who was later to become George IV. A friendship grew up between king and commoner and Tyrwhitt soon

                      LAND AND PEOPLE

In a balanced society land is inseparable from people,

 It shapes them as working folk, breeds in their minds a respectful attitude toward birth and death;

and in every region, every parish, Us discipline has been the source of originality of thought and culture. In the market towns, villages and hamlets of the Dart* moor borderland the shaping process is still strong.

Agriculture gives to these places a unity and connects the upland with the rest of the county.

Modern Dartmoor also attracts many visitois annually, and it is probable that more money is earned from tourism than from agriculture. Farmers and their wives may catei for visitors in order to make a profit; but they also dispense good country fare—honey, cream, butter, bacon, roast beef and pasties —and contribute toward a proper understanding between town and country. Tourism and agriculture are likely to remain as the chief supports of the Dartmoor native.

It is agriculture that appeals most to the Dartmoor farmers and commoners; and their work is never easy because the land gi ves rise to special problems. Whether at the heart of the Mooi where the land is of poor quality—or on the borders where u is suitable for the pasturage of sheep and cattle, there is evidence ol constant struggle between man’s desire for cultivation and the slow wilfulness of the Moor to spread. In the survey devoted 11 • Land Utilization, edited by Professor Dudley Stamp, it was estimated that:

v “There are considerable possibilities of afforestation on and around Dartmoor. There are old established plantations at 1,260 to over 1,500 feet north of Princetown, large new afforested areas south of Postbridge, and the Forestry Coin mission area around the new reservoir south-west of Cnagfoid, Woodland at present is most abundant on the eastern bordei, and one surveyor noted that much had survived because ol difficulty of access.” *

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In the same survey the special region from Chagford to More-tonhampstead is referred to: “The whole region is underlain by the eastern part of the Dartmoor Granite mass, and the soil is not inaptly described by the general title of Granite Gravel. There is no mistaking the land use pattern on the Land Utihzation Map, Sheet 138—patches of moorland on the higher hills, much woodland, the agricultural land mainly under the plough, the ploughland thus occupying large continuous stretches with comparatively little grassland, and that poor. There are few orchards; these are the warm light soils which have led to a marked specialization in potatoes. Throwleigh, Gidleigh, Chagford, North Bovey, Manaton, Moretonhampstead, Lustleigh, Bridford and Christow arc the parishes in this region, the first five stretching into the main mass of Dartmoor, whilst portions of Hennock and Bovey Tracey are also included. All show a high proportion of land in potatoes, but low percentage in wheat and barley (the soil may suit but the climate does not). Several surveyors have noted the difficulties of maintaining pastures at high levels “even by careful grazing because they quickly revert to rough grazing and can only be restored by ploughing.”

The Dartmoor farmer has found a difficulty in making a livelihood merely from the raising of sheep and cattle. It was estimated in 1946 that about 1,138 farmers took advantage of moorland grazing, and the Duchy of Cornwall calculated that twenty-two parishes and a number of farms remained “in Venville” even though it seems that the Venville customs are now in abeyance and Venville dues paid only irregularly.

The economic position of the Dartmoor commoners could be the subject of much controversy. Dr Ian Moore, Principal of Scale Hayne Agricultural College, Newton Abbots and an authority on the use of grassland, has told me that so far as Dartmoor is concerned there is a great potential in relation to the improvement of grassland.

“But the whole question is largely one of economics and many of the Dartmoor farmers have not the capital available to embark upon schemes of improvement, such as ploughing and re-seeding, fencing, drainage and the hke. Then, too, there is a considerable acreage of land in the country which could be improved at much less expense before Dartmoor is tackled and the whole problem largely resolves around the question of

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DARTMOOR

what is needed of British agriculture. If we were driven to i point of relying upon home resources then the improvement of Dartmoor and like moorland areas would have to he faced.”

Living in liis compact stone-built house in a valley sheltered against storm the Dartmoor farmer has had to develop in himself both shrewdness and thrift. He has learned to fight for self-preservation. Traditionally these farmers derived the bulk ol their income from the sale of store cattle, store sheep and wool. The Scotch Blackface breed have increased steadily in numbci s and the Whitefaced Dartmoor is still common though very few of the Bluefaced Dartmoor are now there. South Devon and Devon cattle are kept for milk production and some improvements have been made to farm buildings to render them suitable for the sale of milk under sanitary conditions.

Some commoners in a favourable geographical position and linked to the ancient Venville tradition, arc able to own sheep though they neither own nor rent land. They farm out their sheep under what is called the “half-crease” system. A farmer takes charge of the flock and provides it with fodder, and for this service he obtains all the wool and half the lambs. This is typical of a peasant mode of agriculture and is healthy because it assists the men desirous ultimately of acquiring capital in order to buy land; and it also aids the man who while owning land has little ready money for the purchase of stock. Rights of common, if not so widely exercised are still existent, and the Moor has become a centre for grazing.

The farms are made up of small fields enclosed within the grey stone walls or hedges.

“It is estimated that in some parishes a quarter of the enclosures are less than two acres in size and there are some in which single-acre plots are a feature. These are known locally as “Borough Acres”, being survivals of a system which originated in Saxon times. The soil is generally derived from the granite and is thin and hungry, being inherently short of lime, phosphate and potash, ,but free draining and responsive to adequate treatment with dung, lime and fertilizers. The farms are well scattered over the fringes of the Moor and are frequently difficult of access. Electricity and other such amenities are more often than not absent, while water supplies arc

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Civing in liis compact stone-built house in a valley sheltered against storm the Dartmoor farmer has had to develop in himself both shrewdness and thrift. He has learned to fight for self-preservation. Traditionally these farmers derived the bulk of their income from the sale of store cattle, store sheep and wool. The Scotch Blackface breed have increased steadily in numbers and the Whitefaced Dartmoor is still common though very few of the Bluefaced Dartmoor are now there. South Devon and Devon cattle are kept for milk production and some improvements have been made to farm buildings to render them suitable for the sale of milk under sanitary conditions.

Sratimtrc

what is needed of British agriculture. If we were driven to i point of relying upon home resources then the improvement of Dartmoor and like moorland areas would have to he faced.”

Lome commoners in a favourable geographical position and linked to the ancient Venville tradition, arc able to own sheep though they neither own nor rent land. They farm out their sheep under what is called the “half-crease” system. A farmer takes charge of the flock and provides it with fodder, and for this service he obtains all the wool and half the lambs. This is typical of a peasant mode of agriculture and is healthy because it assists the men desirous ultimately of acquiring capital in order to buy land; and it also aids the man who while owning land has little ready money for the purchase of stock. Rights of common, if not so widely exercised are still existent, and the Moor has become a centre for grazing.

The farms are made up of small fields enclosed within the grey stone walls or hedges.

“It is estimated that in some parishes a quarter of the enclosures are less than two acres in size and there are some in which single-acre plots are a feature. These are known locally as “Borough Acres”, being survivals of a system which originated in Saxon times. The soil is generally derived from the granite and is thin and hungry, being inherently short of lime, phosphate and potash, ,but free draining and responsive to adequate treatment with dung, lime and fertilizers. The farms are well scattered over the fringes of the Moor and are frequently difficult of access. Electricity and other such amenities are more often than not absent, while water supplies are

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Cranium