On a day when all forms of precipitation are taking their turn to thrash down, or even across, horizontally, it's nice to sit by the window and remember a summer walk. Today, these views are covered in about four inches of snow, but with the fire lit, I can reminisce about this beautiful walk along a disused railway on top of Dartmoor, back in June. Even on what was a bit of a grey day it looked lush and green.
Burrator is best known for its reservoir that collects rainwater to supply the city of Plymouth, while Princetown is most famous as the home of the notorious Dartmoor Prison. A short five minute walk from a car park set under some pine trees and you step onto what was once the Yelverton to Princetown branch railway.
In the distance is Dartmoor and the site of Princetown. Between 1823 and 1825 a railway was built from Princetown to Plymouth. Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt was the local landowner who founded the town of Princetown and it was his idea to improve the transport links for the Dartmoor area to the coast to enable development both industrial and agricultural. At this early date the line was planned as a horse drawn system and it was freight only, not a passenger line. The line was tortuous and twisted as a consequence, due to it having to follow a gentle, horse friendly gradient from a great height.
The line could not really be considered as a success due to greater than estimated costs and no real benefit to any sort of agricultural development. By 1852 a prospectus was formulated for the nearby South Devon and Tavistock Railway which was to connect Tavistock to Plymouth. At this time investigations were also made to include a branch line from Yelverton to Princetown, which ultimately reused part of the earlier Princetown Railway.
It was not until 1878 that the Great Western Railway, now the owner of the Tavistock route, obtained an Act of Parliament to build the Princetown branch line. The line was to be 10¼ miles in length from Yelverton Siding (on the Plymouth to Tavistock line, at the south end of the tunnel) to Princetown.
On 7 July 1883 Colonel Yolland of the Board of Trade made an inspection of the line, but found several issues to be unsatisfactory, and he refused the sanction to open. He made a second visit after alterations had been made, and the line opened without ceremony on 11 August 1883. Wikipedia
Most of the traffic came from carrying prisoners, prison officers, and supplies for Dartmoor Prison, with some traffic from the quarries near the line, and also some excursion traffic. In 1924 Burrator Platform was opened for workmen employed on the raising of the Burrator and Sheepstor Dams.
Today, the disused track is a popular walking destination across the moor. Much of the line now forms the route of the Dousland to Princetown Railway Track walkway and rough cycle track.
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Saturday 06 September 1845
Dartmoor. —It is reported that the Prince-town Prison is to be sold. The building is of vast extent, and accommodated at one time ten thousand prisoners of war, and the soldiers who guarded them. Its strength incalculable; language cannot describe the gloomy desolation of the spot, where the poor captives, far from their own sunny land of wind and olives, were immured to die amid the horrors of a Dartmoor winter. The place is worth seeing before it is closed to the public.
A mere 180 years later and it is still operating as a prison.
Exeter and Plymouth Gazette - Saturday 09 January 1847
Disposal of the Convicts. —Now that we are to have no more transportations to Van Diemen's Land, and "Botany Bay" is to be catalogued among the things that were, the question, "What shall we do with the convicts?" is gathering around it an intensity of interest. It has been suggested that the extensive prison of Prince-town, on Dartmoor might be an eligible place for the incarceration of those criminals who are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment as substitute for transportation. A beneficial labour could possibly be found for them in the work of cultivating portions of the moor, for the growth of flax and potatoes ; and thus their location in this wild would be one step in the march of reformatory prison regulations, as well as useful to the country. When we talk of the cultivation of Dartmoor, we must of course be understood to recommend nothing which would tend to the destruction of its sublime granitical monuments of druidical days.
But it wasn't all grim news up at the prison.
Western Morning News - Friday 27 May 1932
ELEVEN HAPPY MEN LEAVE PRINCETOWN
LIBERTY EARNED AS REWARD FOR LOYAL SERVICE
SIMPLE JOYS AFTER LONG YEARS OF INCARCERATION
PET MICE LEAVE PRISON CELL WITH THEIR COMPANION
ELEVEN convicts stepped through the gates of Dartmoor Prison yesterday into the bright sunshine and crisp air once more free men. They were the loyal men who had gained the reward of liberty for meritorious acts during the mutiny in the prison on Sunday, January 24, and to whom special remissions had been granted by the King on the recommendation of the Home Secretary.
High spirits prevailed among the men as, accompanied by Store Officer Gilbert, they walked to Princetown Railway Station, and while they showed an eagerness to chat with special representatives of " The Western Morning News and Daily Gazette," they resented the attentions of Press photographers, whose cameras they threatened to destroy if full-face photographs were taken. The reason for this was stated by several of the men to be that they would be marks of gangs who had friends undergoing sentence at Dartmoor.
Barely had the prison bell summoning warders to duty ceased tolling at 7 a.m. yesterday when the men, laden with suit-cases, portmanteaux, and neatly-tied parcels, came through the prison gates. All the men were smartly dressed, and one man, wearing a neat navy blue lounge suit and spats, attracted particular attention.
That the stories of convicts taming mice as pets in their cells are not pure imagination was demonstrated by one man, who had with him two field mice which had been his companions in solitude.
Constable Tucker was on the platform in plain clothes when the men arrived, but they paid little attention to him, their one anxiety being to get into the train which was to take them away from the familiar environment of the penal establishment to more homely surroundings.
TOO EXCITED TO EAT OR SLEEP.
One or two of the men confessed while on the journey to Yelverton that they had been too excited to eat much breakfast, and, indeed, had found sleep difficult last night as the hour of freedom drew nearer. Some Welshmen who were among the party, talked with excited accent in their native tongue, and as the train travelled over the circuitous route to Yelverton once or twice broke into song. As the train made its way past Burrator Lake a number of the convicts left their seats and looked out of the carriage windows, and could not restrain audible expressions of their admiration for the delightful scene.
......One the men was observed to be fondling two field mice, which he had caught and trained in the solitude of his cell. He was taking them, he stated, home as pets for his young brother. He had had them as companions in his cell for more than a year, and the care bestowed upon them was evident from their sleek bodies. Amidst the noise of the train and the babel conversation the little animals refused to perform any of the tricks which he claimed they were capable. At Yelverton the party split up, eight men proceeding to Tavistock, where they were to catch a Southern Railway express for London, while others proceeded to Plymouth, where they joined trains to take them back to their relatives. Before parting Yelverton the men bade each other farewell, and one to another expressed the hope that they would meet good fortune.......
Western Morning News - Friday 30 December 1927
THE RELIEF OF PRINCETOWN.
HOW THREE-DAYS ISOLATION ENDED.
GREAT FIGHT AGAINST BARRIERS UF SNOW.
CONVICTS "DIG OUT" WARDERS
After three days the siege of Princetown was raised yesterday and a further chapter added to the thrilling drama of the snowbound moors. Shortly before noon the strenuous efforts of the Great Western Railway officials succeeded and they had fought their way through the great snowdrifts and established rail communication with the famous moorland town.
After about three hours steady pioneering through the snow the snowplough reached Princetown, where three days mails and supplies of "The Western, Morning News" —the first paper to reach the town—were delivered.
Thrilling tales of the experiences of the inhabitants were related to a "Western Morning News" representative on arriving at the station. Long before the special relief train reached Princetown, little bands of people, including several young women with rather unorthodox stormproof footwear, congregated on either side of the permanent way to watch the progress of the relief train as if it were a repetition of the arrival of the first steam engine in the midst of the moors.
A touching story is related of a prisoner whose term at Dartmoor having terminated on Boxing Day determined to leave the bleak house on the moors and tramp to Yelverton to join a train for Plymouth en route for London, where he hoped to join in the festivities at his home. Realizing the severity of the weather, the governor (Capt. Morgan) strongly urged him to remain until the weather became more favourable. However, having set his heart on securing his freedom after three years detention, the well-built ticket-of-leave man made a bold bid to reach Yelverton. He was driven back, however, by the relentless snows and winds after hours of determined struggle.
Later he made another and successful effort. Among the stories related was how convicts dug out warders from their snowbound homes to go on duty.
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