Why not write in to the Burrator Beacon and tell the editor all about it – where it is – and what the problem is.

Maybe (that’s a maybe folks) the parish council could be able to help improve the situation by advising one of the groups who look after our parish – Dartmoor National Park, Highways, National River Authority, or West Devon Borough Council.

So don’t just keep it to yourself, tell us about it.

The children stocked and ran the stalls, made numerous purchases and raised the splendid sum of £263.40 in less than two hours.

There was valued support from many parents and members of the community who took part in the fun, purchased coffee and bought a number of gifts from the various stalls.

Captain Gordon Cross of Dousland became the first chairman of the new Burrator Parish Council when the three former parishes of Walkhampton, Meavy and Sheepstor were grouped together in 1973. Here, in the first of a two-part article, he looks back on the circumstances which led to the creation of today’s Burrator administration.

Why on earth should the three civil parishes of Walkhampton, Sheepstor and Meavy, each with its own civil administration have ever decided to join together in 1973 to form the grouped civil parish of Burrator?

I do not think there would have been any over-riding consideration for grouping if Dousland did not exist. Dousland’s major development growth began after about 1950 with the increased use and ownership of the motor car. Dousland had originally started to develop with the opening of the Princetown branch railway in the 1880s with its station at Dousland.

The administrative snag was that part of Dousland was in Walkhampton civil parish with Boundary Road, Dousland, as the marker from Meavy civil parish. Some houses in Manor Park and Myrtle Close wondered where they belonged! For planning applications the local planning authority (Tavistock Rural District Council later West Devon) was required to seek the views of the appropriate parish council, in this case either Meavy or Walkhampton. This was to create unforeseen problems as Dousland began to develop into a residential community.

Prior to 1973 the civil parishes of Walkhampton and Meavy each had an elected parish council and a chairman elected by each council under the Local Government Act of 1958. By the same Act, Sheepstor with its smaller population of less than 200 electors, had its local civil affairs dealt with by an annual Parish Meeting which elected its own chairman annually.

The three parishes cover a vast geographical area which is mainly moorland. It extends eastwards towards Princetown, across to the River Plym, and down to Cadover Bridge and the Dewerstone. Meavy had the smallest geographical area and Sheepstor the smallest population. They have one common geographical point. This is in the middle of the Burrator Reservoir where, before 1898, Walkhampton, Sheepstor and Meavy ancient farmlands met.

Why in 1973 did we all decide to join together to form one grouped parish of Burrator? I was chairman of the new grouped parish council at its first meeting. Some years before being chairman in Meavy I had been the honorary clerk to the Meavy Parish Council. I recall some of the things which seemed to require regular or temporary attention during my time as clerk:

• The 1970 Commons Registration Act and our failed attempt to register the grass area above the Meavy ford as another village green.
• The Royal Oak Inn.
• The Meavy oak tree and the setting up of a trust fund to safeguard its future.
• The erecting of fencing and cattle grid adjacent to Sheepstor Road.
• The clearing and opening of all Meavy’s public footpaths.
• Flooding problems in Hoo Meavy, Meavy and Dousland.
• Planning applications.

Unfortunately in applications near the parish boundary where both Walkhampton and Meavy were required to submit their separate recommendations there was no legal authority for the councils to consult. This in hindsight was found to have concerned both councils and was the type of problem that led to the suggestions of grouping.

More of which in Part Two in the next issue.

April 18 The Templar Way by Mike Perriam, 7.30pm Meavy Village Hall

May 16 Bere Ferrers: Guided walk

June 20 Pew Tor: Guided walk with Helen Harris

July 11 Project, Monumental Inscriptions, 2.00pm Venue to be advised

July 18 Sheepstor: Guided walk with Jenny Sanders

August 15 Victorian Tavistock by Gerry Woodcock, 7.30pm Clearbrook Village Hall

September 19 The Duchy in Devon by Colin Sturmer, 7.30pm Buckland Monachorum School

October 17 Dartmoor Life and Landscape by Len Copley, 7.30pm Meavy Village Hall

November 21 Listed Buildings of Tavistock by Alex Mettler, 7.30pm Yelverton Rock Methodist Hall

On hearing of the gas main to be laid from Horrabridge to Princetown – as a resident of Dousland I expressed my interest in having my house connected and was duly quoted £1,350 with the proviso that 50% of the residents of Dousland take up the offer. On querying this price I asked if everyone who was interested would pay this amount, irrespective of the distance from the main, as it seemed unfair for anyone whose house was on the road next to the gas main, and the reply over the telephone was "yes of course, this is the only fair way".

In November 1999 I learnt from the Gas Transportation Company that the response from the residents of Dousland was less than 50% benchmark they required. However, if I would like an individual quote this would be forwarded to me.

I found the price had now risen to £1,848, due to the distance my house was from the new gas main. I subsequently found out that some residents whose houses were on the road next to the gas main had applied for connection and been quoted £300. On querying this with the company they replied that there had been two separate quotes, when the original offer was made in September 1999, sent out to the residents of Dousland which depended on the distance your residence was from the new gas main, one which I received of £1,350 and the other apparently considerably less! And of course the cost doesn’t stop there because a new boiler has to be purchased, along with the necessary pipe runs etc.

Gas at Last ? yes but at a price and only realistically viable to residents who reside in the road right next to the new gas main. Personally I believe that Dousland has been by-passed as far as gas is concerned and much to the disappointment of many residents including myself.

What links Mozambique and Headlands Hill at Meavy? People who dispute the reality of Global Warming and resulting climate change are rapidly becoming like the American gentleman in the 50’s who was so alarmed by what he read about the connection between smoking and lung cancer that he gave up reading. I had never particularly noticed the dip in the road just above the Mill, or the small culvert that drains it, until the night I came home late at night after a long meeting and found three cars abandoned in 18 inches of water in a place where there hasn’t been standing water seen in the 50 years I’ve lived here.

When I was tackling basic mathematics in the ‘40’s my textbooks were full of problems in the form "a bath has a drain capable of letting out x gallons a minute and a tap which delivers y gallons a minute; the bath holds z gallons. If the tap is turned on with the plug removed will the bath overflow, and if so how long will it take?". This perfectly mirrors real life in the wild. Every time it rains every square inch of ground receives rain at rate x, can hold y, and passes on z to wherever gravity and the terrain directs it. If more water enters any square inch than can get out of it the "bath" will start to fill until it can find an extra way out at a higher level. The domestic overflowing bath becomes the rural flood. If you get a flood where there hasn’t been one before either more water is arriving, or less is getting away!

Following several other occurrences of the flood on Headlands Hill I set out to discover why, in the company of a most experienced Highways officer. It’s only about a quarter of a mile of road, but our audit showed once again that Life is never simple......

At the top of the hill there are two farm gates. The local farmer had regularly driven his tractor through the first of these and straight up the hill. Two neat ruts from the gate collected rain from a large chunk of the field and ducted it straight to the road. Diagnosis, change in farming practice would help!.

The second gate was the start of a stretch where until thirty years ago the historic miner’s Leat had run down one side of the road. The Leat was, without consultation or excuse, piped and filled in by County Highways. A poor quality job too; in the field today’s heavy rain bypasses the pipe, and emerges under the gate carrying enough turf and stones to block the first (incorrectly fitted) grating outside.

The remaining gratings had disappeared under "hedge creep". Devon banks left to themselves creep imperceptibly out from the base, narrowing the road and blocking drainage channels at the edge of it. Since the demise of the "lengthsman" most of our Devon banks have been left very much to their own devices. Diagnosis: these two farm gates on their own were contributing a mighty river to the lane, scientifically illustrated by the quantity and size of the stones left on the carriageway by the passage of the waters. Improvements needed to keep the water in the pipe and off the road, and to recover the buried gratings.

Half way down the hill a third farm gate at the foot of a steep hill is discharging a big volume of water and stones coming down a heavily eroded ditch by a bank and hedge. Diagnosis: uncertain. The stream is a new one, maybe something has changed at the top of the hill.

Next, the piped outflow of an iron mine adit in the field emerges through the hedge, and is (supposedly) piped across the road. Badly aligned, in heavy weather the water is bypassing the second pipe and pouring out onto the road itself. Diagnosis: "pond" the space between the two pipes to keep the water where it should be.

And, at last, the dip and the culvert on which all this water is converging, and where the floods of the new globally warmed millennium are rising. The culvert cannot be enlarged, because the land owner on the other side of the hedge cannot be required to take more water than he is already getting; the law of "easements" doesn’t seem to have heard of Global Warming. The culvert can be cleaned out, and the grating re-set so that its full capacity is used, but that’s it.

Only time will tell if the planned improvements will offset the rise in the quantity and intensity of rainfall enough to stop the flooding, and if so for how long. In thousands of places all over the country the stronger flow of rain water is testing the capacity of the old channels which take it to the rivers and ultimately the sea, - and the rivers themselves have vulnerable stretches just like Headlands Hill. It may be a while yet before the helicopters have to pick us out of the tree tops, but Mozambique is a marker for our planet’s future, - and I have a nasty feeling that it may have been my car exhaust that tipped the balance. Time to Think Green!

Dear Frontagers

A nice word that "Frontagers" and one that I have only recently discovered. Thus I am particularly pleased to be able to use it in this open letter which is addressed especially to people worthy of that title, because it describes exactly what they are – owners of frontages.

Will you please spare a thought for the people – pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders etc who pass very close to your frontage and are often at risk from an overgrowth of vegetation; being forced to step out onto the road and thus endangered by passing traffic or maybe lose a hat, or even an eye, to a low branch.

Thus a plea to all Frontagers, will you please ensure that your hedges or other vegetation are cut back to your boundary and trees overhanging pavements clipped to give a minimum headroom of 7’ (or 2.135m in new money). Once a year should be enough, but please keep a watch on the rogue bramble, which throws out a spiteful shoot at any time of the year, and nearly always at head height.

If you do this, you will earn the undying gratitude of all of us who walk, cycle or ride through the Parish.

Popular publicans Roger and Sue Barber will be saying goodbye to all their customers when they leave The Royal Oak at Meavy on May 5th. The couple have been licensees at the famous Dartmoor pub for seven years.

Roger and Sue have decided it is time for pastures new and have found a new pub to run elsewhere at the end of their present lease. The Royal Oak was the couple’s first pub although Roger has been brought up in the licensed trade since he was six years old as his father ran a public house for 30 years. "The Royal Oak has been a wonderful pub. We knew the place before we came here as customers ourselves. It was always one of our favourite places. At the time we lived in Plympton."

He said that The Royal Oak was one of those rare pubs, few of which are left any more. "You only have to look at the place to see there are not too many left like this" explained Roger. "It is an idyllic country pub on the village green, very much as it always was intended to be". The building dates back to about the 1500s and with its ancient tree being almost twice as old as that, The Royal Oak was quite unique.

"They say there has always been a pub on the site since it was the Lord of the Manor’s brew house and monks used to stop off here on the way between Plympton and Tavistock priories," Roger added. He said he and Sue would like to thank all their customers new and old for all their custom over the years. "Without them we would not have been here today and we would like to thank them for their kindness and consideration," he said.

Roger said: "Whoever takes over couldn’t hope for a better place to live and work in. It is a serene and tranquil place. They are going to come into a nice pub with a nice atmosphere in an idyllic situation."

We are sure all Burrator Beacon readers will raise a glass and wish Sue and Roger all the best for their new future.

Our picture shows Roger and Sue behind the bar at The Royal Oak.

Mr Chris Kingdon (who grew up at Huckworthy where his parents still live) and his wife Zenna will take over the Royal Oak Inn as landlords on Friday May 5th and look forward to moving to Meavy. Their previous pub was the Pym Arms in Devonport (Plymouth) which they ran with great success.

Village hall users at Sheepstor no longer need to stumble and fumble in the dark as they try to make their way inside the building on a gloomy winter’s night.

For many years, the way towards the entrance of the village hall has been across a largely unlit and often wet and slippery piece of grassy access land. On dark nights walking to and from the building has needed a good torch and a steady pair of legs.

But now a sturdy footpath has been laid from the entrance gate to the front door of the hall with a ramp access included for wheelchairs. The project to create this ‘Millennium Path’ was undertaken by the Sheepstor Village Hall Committee to mark the new century and permission was kindly given for the plan by the landowners, Patrick and Annie of Greystone, Sheepstor.

The hall committee has also installed some new outside lighting to illuminate the path and with the addition of a further light from Patrick and Annie, the whole approach to the hall should now be very well lit.

The cost of materials was paid for through the revenue from the Sheepstor Lottery and the labour involved was all voluntary from committee members and others in the parish. Well done to everyone who helped brighten a dark spot in our lives!

Our photograph shows Sheepstor volunteers Peter Legassick and Gerald Taylor at work laying the path.

The preparations had been made. The evening had arrived. The fireworks had been tested and the safety area roped off. But how was it going to go? The school was opened, the bunting bunted. We mulled over the wine, would there be enough? At this stage we did not know how many people were going to turn up! The plates of food started to arrive. More and more and more, this was encouraging!

At the allotted time people started to assemble at the memorial cross. Couples, families and friends. Those young in years, those young at heart. Over 260 by all accounts. There was a wonderful atmosphere as the assembled masses proceeded by torchlight up to the church. The church was full and the short service that included a superb piece entitled "1000 Years of Walkhampton". Thanks must go to Nick Shutt and all those involved in that.

After the service a beacon was lit outside the church, a time to reflect possibly? The procession then snaked its way back down to the school and everyone was shoehorned into the hall where there was much merriment, the eating of food and the drinking of mulled wine (juice for the kids).

There was the opportunity for those who wished to "make a mark for the millennium" on a banner. Some people signed it. Children, of all ages, drew pictures, left a message or simply made a handprint. The youngest being only two weeks old.

There was some splendid live folk music played by members of the village which I thoroughly enjoyed! People were then invited outside to witness a most memorable firework display. I think that everybody that was there would have to agree. I personally have never seen one like it before and many thanks must go to Colin Vass and Peter Hamiliton Leggitt for keeping the audience absolutely enthralled.

Forget the Dome, Times Square etc – this is where the real event took place!

Derek Lavers bedecked the bridge with fairy lights and balloons during the day and it looked beautiful in the dark – with night lights being added once people started arriving about 11.15 or so. An awning was rigged at the entrance to the Mill in case the weather turned – but it didn’t – whilst temporary camping type stoves gave the area the feel of a field-kitchen!

The sound of church bells pealed across the parish on Millennium Morning as ropes were pulled and clappers span in unison across the whole country at noon on January 1 of the year 2000.

In Sheepstor, Meavy and Walkhampton, a team of 18 bellringers split into three groups of six to make sure the chimes rang out in our three villages.

Don Peek is a member of the regular team of about 10 bell ringers from Meavy who travel around the parish ringing out the sound of matins as Sunday morning service takes place on a rota basis in our three churches.

He said: "To try to spread the 10 ringers across Walkhampton,

Sheepstor and Meavy at the same time was impossible so the Captain at Meavy gave me the task of trying to call five ringers out of retirement. In fact we were able to lay on a team of six".

Don also put out an invitation to all the houses at Sheepstor for residents to come along to St Leonard,s church to see the bell ringing and share a glass of wine and a mince pie and the response to the invite was almost 100 per cent.

"I feel on behalf of the ringers I would like to say ‘thank you’ to the Sheepstor residents for making our New Year’s Day a memorable occasion."

Old acquaintances will be renewed when a party of 25 visitors from Mathieu in France visits Burrator homes at the end of April.

Members are very much looking forward to the visit, which is a departure from the usual Ascension time arrangement. Old friends will meet again and new friendships will no doubt be formed over the long weekend before the party leaves for home on the May Day bank holiday.

The reason for the change from Ascension is that it would have clashed with the visit of Walkhampton School to Mathieu at that time. Arrangements for a group of 45 are well advanced and pupils’ correspondence has been ongoing.

An adult visit to Mathieu is being planned for the weekend of October 21 and 22. All residents of the Burrator Parish are automatically eligible to be members of the association. If you would like to be more involved and possibly join the party in October please contact one of the officers for further details.

Officers elected for this year are:
Chairman Nick Shutt; Secretary Jim Knight; Treasurer Kevin Baxter; Lottery Treasurer Nick Ellis.

Nick will be running the lottery on an annual £12 subscription basis. For details call him on 854383.

It is possible there are people living in the Burrator area, especially those who have recently moved here, who are not aware that there is a thriving gardening club in their midst. Meavy Flower Society was formed at the end of October 1962 and had an initial membership of forty. It is now several times that figure. Members enjoy monthly meetings during which talks are given by gardening experts with a wide range of experience – for example on June 19 Miss Sally Whitfield will be telling us about the Elizabethan Garden at Buckland Abbey – and there are two garden visits arranged during the year. This year there is an outing on Saturday May 13 to Trevano Gardens at Helston and another, on Wednesday September 6 to Rosemoor RHS Garden at Great Torrington.

The Society also has two annual shows, a Spring Fun Show held this year on March 20 and a Summer Flower Show, when members of the public vote for the winners, on July 22.

So come on all you keen gardeners, young and old. Come and join us and enjoy the benefits, both of increased knowledge and the opportunity to buy seeds and gardening requisites at discounted prices. There are no stuffy rules and regulations and you most definitely DO NOT have to be a horticultural expert to be allowed through the door. This is not the kind of organisation where be-whiskered ancients sit in a close huddle arguing about the number of stamens on the flowers of species rhododendrons!

New members will be assured of a very warm welcome. The annual subscription is a mere £3 for single people, £5 for couples. All meetings are held at Meavy Parish Hall and start at 7.30 pm. But you don’t have to remember all this, just phone the Secretary MARGARET DUFFY on 854969.

The charge for future adverts will be £5 per advert per issue. These could be booked and paid for on a yearly (i.e. four issues) basis, payable in advance within seven working days of going to press. A full page advert would be £25. We have 750 copies going into every household in the Burrator Grouped Parish and also on the website, so why not take the opportunity to publicise your business.

The opinions expressed in the Burrator Beacon are not necessarily those held by Burrator Parish Council. Every effort is made to ensure that information in these pages is accurate. However, the Council cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. Including information does not imply recommendation.