Barnyard Buzz Dorset March 2024

CAMPSITE

We must have had the wettest Easter on record.  It did affect my campsite bookings somewhat, in that some people came and then left early, some came later than booked, and some cancelled all together.  But all in all I did more or less have a full campsite for Easter because a few people turned up without booking to fill the gaps.  [1] [2] For the people who came in tents and who had to be on grass I had to lend them large silage bags to go under the ground sheets to make sure they had a dry tent. [3]  I also lent out heavy plastic lattice treads so that vehicles did not sink into the ground. [4]   Two girls, who were quite new to camping, pitched their tent for the weekend, but didn’t quite zip up their front door.  A gust of wind caught it and it was soon demolished, and everything got very wet.  They had to sleep in their car for the rest of their stay. [5]

This lovely young family arrived over Easter and is due to stay for 56 days.  They last stayed here during Covid so it was really good to see them again. [6]

FARM

The mud had really built up in the yard because of the continuing rain and it became a quagmire.  It took a long time to clear it with a tractor and scoop. [7] [8]  This was in readiness for crushed concrete and road planings to be laid.  It was hoped that further rain would not make it any worse before the yard could be covered.  To have a demarcation line between the main yard and the area where the goslings will go in June we put down railway sleepers as a fence. [9]

Lots of lambs were born during March and campsite children were happy to help feed them. [10]  Other children came to see the cows in the yard and this little girl liked the look of our curly headed bull.  [11]  After the disappointing hatch of only one chick from an incubator full of infertile eggs, we have had  better luck since George has put more eggs into it, including bantams.  As you can see “my chick” is now three times as big as the rest of them.  [12]  George has bought a new cockerel [Brahman] which has obviously helped with the fertility rating of the flock! [13]

CLOSURE OF MARSHWOOD CHURCH

[14] [15]

The Easter Sunday* service at Marshwood church was possibly the last service to be conducted there. [16]  [17] [18]  There have been many meetings to discuss its future in the last year, but nothing has been set in stone yet.

Rev William Law, who was vicar of Whitchurch from 1838-40, was responsible for the erection of the National Schools at Whitchurch and Marshwood as well as the church at Marshwood.  The land was donated by Charles Benjamin Tucker and the church  was dedicated on 26th September 1841.  By 1884 it was in need of extensive restoration.  The nave and chancel were restored by G. Vialls, so only the tower is earlier.  Obviously planning, structural surveys with structural engineers were either non-existent or very lax in the early 1840s.

The graveyard will, of course, stay open for burials and is unspoilt, with no headstones moved to the outside walls to make mowing easier.  It was extended a few years ago so there is enough space for many more burials in the future.  [19] There are amazing views of the Marshwood Vale from this site [20] [including the sea at Lyme Bay]  The cremation stoned area is very well kept. [21]  I have many relatives buried here including great grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and a first cousin.  There are also a lot of people here whom I knew in my childhood including the local baker.

Marshwood School, [22] [23] [24] is one of Dorset’s longest established primary schools with 60 pupils with ages ranging from 4-11.  It is a Church of England academy converter faith school and is one of the best state primary schools in the Bridport area.  The school has been using Marshwood church for 20 years as a school hall, gymnasium and “all school” activities.  Children’s art and written work can be seen on its walls.  [25] [26] The school will continue to use the church regardless of its fate.

* The reason that Easter is on a different date each year is because it is set to be on the first Sunday after the first full moon, after the March Equinox.

A SHORT HOLIDAY IN DEVON

I managed to get away for a 3 day holiday in West Devon.  This had to be planned between meetings and other commitments.  Now that the holiday season has started those 3 days will probably be the only time I can get away until next February.  I stayed with friends at Iddesleigh near Okehampton, [27] in their lovely early 1600s farmhouse. [28]  The outside walls were very thick, [29] and there were plenty of huge beams, this one being one over an inglenook fireplace with an old bread oven to the left. [30]  Behind this was a particularly interesting feature – a clome oven,  [31] which was a standard fitting for most kitchen fireplaces in Devon and Cornwall.  This bulge consisted of the masonry surrounding the oven.  During installation the oven was surrounded by packed clay to prevent the actual oven cracking.  To operate the bread oven it was packed with dried gorse or blackthorn and burned until it was white hot, with the smoke escaping out of the slightly ajar door to go up the main chimney.  At this point the ashes would either be raked out or put to the side of the oven.  The bread or cakes were then cooked inside.  I have a bread oven in my sitting room which probably takes up about one twentieth of its actual area, and must have been constructed in the same manner when Crabbs Bluntshay was possibly built as a Dorset long house.  Another feature at the back of the house is a very rare window which is a wooden mullioned window.  [32]

There is a very popular local pub in Iddesleigh called the Duke of York [which is made of cob and thatch (lathe and plaster?)] and dates from the 15th century and overlooks Dartmoor.  [33]  It has such an atmosphere of yesteryear with all the walls and ceilings covered with smoke dust and age, [34] along with a very battered dart board.  [35]  There is even an old oak beam covered with all manner of monetary notes from all over the world, equally browned and ageing.  [36]

It was in this pub that the author Michael Morpurgo talked to an old soldier with first-hand knowledge of the use of horses in WW1, which became the basis for his 1982 novel “War Horse”.  The village was also used as inspiration for the Morpurgo novel “Private Peaceful” in July 2021. The façade of the pub was used in the BBC television series “Down to Earth” broadcast in 2000.  It is a very popular pub and is used by many people including locals for shooting and fishing parties, birthday and anniversaries as well as “a good night at the pub”.

I drove over Dartmoor to Princetown, to see Dartmoor Prison, experiencing the rugged moorland with granite outcrops and isolation. [37] [38] [39]   On arriving I accidentally parked in the prison car park – after a few attempts.  It was only when someone asked “who I was visiting?” did I realise that I was in the wrong place for the  Prison Museum!

It was very interesting to discover how the prison came about.  [40]**  At the beginning of the 19th century Napoleon was again planning to invade and Britain declared war on France.  Prisoner of war prisoners soon began to arrive in England, many of whom were held on prison “hulks” – huge ships, moored off the English coast. [41]  These ships were vastly overcrowded, rations were poor, sanitary arrangements left of lot to be desired, the death rate rose to an appalling level, and the cost of running these vessels was at least £18,000 per annum.

“A developer”, who was keen to develop the small town of Prince’s Town, convinced the town council that the town would be the ideal location for a war prison so work was started in March 1806.  It took longer to build than expected, as the hot summers and icy winters were grim for the workers, many of whom didn’t last the course, returning home rather than endure the meagre pay and hardships of the working conditions.  The building was more or less finished when the first 250 French prisoners arrived in May 1809, with another 5000 arriving by the end of that year.  In 1812 Britain found itself at war with the United States. [I had never heard of this war!]  The reasons were varied, not least the fact that British ships were boarding US merchant ships and forcing sailors to join the Royal Navy!  The first American prisoners arrived in 1813 and a prison built for 5000 soon housed over 12000.  Unfortunately the black and white prisoners were separated so Dartmoor thus became the first prison to be divided on racial grounds.  Even though the prison was built by ordinary workers, the church of St Michael and All Angels in Princetown was built by both French and American prisoners [being paid 6d a day] between 1812 and 1815.  The last of the prisoners had left by 1816 and the buildings were deserted.

In November 1850 Dartmoor Convict Prison was born.  The Penal Servitude Act was passed to replace Transportation as punishment for convicts where they were now put to hard labour.  Dartmoor soon began to be the dumping ground for the country’s worst criminals as they thought the moor was remote enough to contain them, and to remove them from the thoughts of ordinary citizens.  As to be expected there have been many escapees since but generally the absconders didn’t get far before being recaptured.  Of course, over the years there have been notable characters who have been imprisoned at Dartmoor.  Frank Mitchell, whose abscond was organised by the Kray twins was found murdered after 11 days of freedom.  Nobody was every found and no-one was charged with the killing.  The Acid Bath murderer, John George Haigh, [who was incarcerated at Dartmoor], used to boast of his gruesome murders whilst at Dartmoor.  He was eventually hanged in Wandsworth Prison in 1949.  Eamon de Valer, the Irish Prime Minister for over 20 years was imprisoned for 3 separate terms.  This related to offences committed during demonstrations against the English control of Ireland and Irish Conscription.  Ronald Biggs [one of the great train robbers who stole £2.6 million] spent sometime at Dartmoor and then Wandsworth before being spirited away – first to Australia, then to Panama and eventually to Brazil.

This shows an early example of the uniform that prisoners wore, [42] and [43] shows a very recent example of the cell in which a prisoner lives.  One of the punishments meted out to early erring prisoners was the cat-o’-nail-tails whereby the man would be strapped onto this contraption [44] and whipped with this. [45]

Dartmoor was the first prison to have its own farm.  This all started in the late 1850s with dairy farming supplying the prison, its staff and their families with milk.  Vegetables to feed both the cattle and prisoners were also grown on the 1000 acres of land.  In the latter part of the 20th century sheep and pigs were kept.  The farm flourished but due to nationwide changes in the farming amongst other factors the prison farm was forced to scale down and finally close in 2003.  Some of the machinery was kept and a museum was set up in what was the farm buildings. I found this quite fascinating as we still have some similar equipment at Bluntshay eg. mowing machine, [46] hay turner, [47] cake cracker, [48] a winnower, [49] wagon, [50] weights for hay rick tarpaulins, [51] tractor [52] and a kitchen range.  [53]

I rounded off my visit to this fascinating place by having a delicious late lunch at the local Prince of Wales public house in Princetown.

After having such a good break away from Bluntshay I got lost getting home through Okehampton and could not find a sign for Honiton anywhere.  After stopping at a filling station I asked two assistants for directions, but both said they didn’t know where Honiton was!!  Fortunately a “bright young thing” with good satnav knowledge put me in the right direction and eventually I got back to West Dorset, by which time various things on my dashboard were flashing red. The next day my fan belt fell off on the way to the garage.  My poor car could not take all the extra miles in such a short time without suffering from severe exhaustion!

LUNCH AT WEST BEXINGTON MANOR

We like to choose a different eating place each time my friend from Exmouth comes to Bridport to attend a local event.  This time we chose West Bexington Manor, near Bridport, [54]  which dates back to the 16th century.  We had a lovely meal which included a crumble and profiteroles. [55]  The bar man, Lucas, was very friendly and helpful and said I could contact him for more information about the Manor if need be. [56]  The management allowed me to wander around and take photos of the dining room and any historical features I found, which included a panelled wall. [57] [58] [59] [60]  The garden helped to give the place a very welcoming atmosphere. [61]

The Manor is right on Chesil Beach which runs from the Isle of Portland to West Bay, and in places it is up to 50 ft high and 660 ft wide.  The shingle starts off quite large at Portland and gradually gets smaller as it gets to West Bay.  It is one of three major shingle beach structures in Britain.  The shingle curves before it gets to Portland as can be seen in this photo. [62]  There were quite a few people strolling along the beach, as well as some keen fishermen along the water’s edge.  [63]  Chesil Beach is a good place to catch mackerel!  Behind the beach is the Fleet, a shallow tidal lagoon.  [Home of the Abbotsbury Swannery]  Both are part of the Jurassic Coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Lindsay Dean-Smith, George Lambert, Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard, Caroline Lambert and the Dartmoor Prison Museum Personnel**.