Connection of People with Nature throughout time
Following an enquiry from PhD researcher Lena Ferriday (Bristol University) regarding land use in this area, a site visit was arranged for 8th January. Albert Knott invited three volunteers with an interest in local heritage to take part in a guided walk with Lena to look at ways humans have shaped the landscape of Yarner Wood. Lena’s research project explores the ways in which the environments of Devon and Cornwall were used for the extractive industries of fishing and mining, natural scientific research, medical treatments and pleasure within the time frame of 1845 - 1910. Lena’s focus on the Dartmoor area is particularly in relation to the burgeoning tourist industry where urban visitors navigated tors and mires, leaning heavily on the local knowledge of experienced guides to keep them out of danger.
Yarner Wood is an example of a working environment, prohibited to tourists until the 1960s which is now seen as place for conservation and leisure. However, a walk through Yarner Wood provides ample evidence of its industrial and working heritage and it embodies the significant changes in land use through time.
Albert Knott leads group round Yarner Wood
Yarner is listed in an inventory of the King’s Forests in the reign of Edward VI (1547-53) and was certainly a wooded area at that time. There were areas of open ground and heath used for grazing within the woodland and coppicing was a regular practice during the 18th and 19th centuries. Birch and young oak have filled the gaps left by clearance of large trees for grazing or fuel. Albert pointed out areas of the woodland valley, where there is extensive birch tree growth and evidence of old field boundaries and where the remains of a boundary wall can be seen.
Charcoal making made use of many of the large trees which were part of the ancient woodland and there was still active charcoal burning in the late 19th century. Much of the wood would have been used to supply fuel to Yarner House. Our walk took us past at least two former charcoal burning sites, one of which is currently being cleared by volunteers. The charcoal burning area is clearly visible. Many of the oak trees around these sites are of a similar size, as the traditional method of making charcoal used coppiced wood. The trees were coppiced to ground level, and the ‘colliers’ moved to another area of woodland. Meanwhile the coppiced trees regrew, to be cut down again after a few decades. Up to 10 tons of wood are required to produce 2.5 tons of charcoal, so it made sense to produce the charcoal within the woodlands and then transport the product to where it was needed.
Natural England volunteer clearing charcoal platform
During the 1920s and 30s Yarner Wood was managed as a seasonal shooting venue with pheasants, partridges and black grouse in the vicinity and the keeper was also required to supply pigeons, rabbits and wildfowl for the Yarner House table. The keeper and his wife lived in a cottage on the estate. Public access to the estate and the woodland was prohibited. Even when Yarner Wood became one of the first National Nature Reserves in 1952, visitors were not encouraged. Access was by permit only, as it was felt that visitors would interfere with the scientific research work being carried out. The Wood wasn’t opened to the public until 1963 and interest in the location increased when various trails and walks were created.
privately owned Yarner House seen from Yarner Wood
Yarner Wood now provides guidance for walks, information and interpretation boards for visitors, most significantly by the remains of the copper mine. Copper was mined in Yarner from 1857 and by 1862 the mine had reached a depth of 50 fathoms and 50 people were employed. The machinery at this time consisted of a 60-inch cylinder pumping engine, one 40-foot wheel and another of 25 feet.
Albert and Lena by one of the interpretation boards in Yarner Wood
Water was obtained from the nearby leat which was dug in the 1840s from Becky Falls, through Yarner and on to the Bovey Tracey Pottery Company to feed watermills for mixing clay and grinding new materials. The leat runs alongside Yarner stream for some distance and water still runs in the channel to Pottery Pond in Bovey Tracey. Further evidence of copper mining can be seen to the west of the mine, where there is an adit, a spoil heap and discolouration of the ground can clearly be seen. The ruins of the copper mine are described in the 1912 novel by Eden Phillpotts, ‘The Forest On The Hill’. The imagined story of Timothy Snow, gamekeeper at Yarner, is set in Yarner Wood and the neighbouring village of Ilsington and describes the woodland as seen in its varying seasons.
A short walk from the copper mine lie some of the best-preserved sections of the granite tramway passing through Yarner. Granite was carried along this route from the quarries at Haytor and Holwell during the 1820s. Granite was unloaded at the Stover canal basin and transported to the coast from there by barge. There is a five-mile marker stone as well as the beautifully preserved granite setts which formed the tramway.
5 mile marker along the granite tramway in Yarner Wood
Conversation on the walk was wide-ranging, reflecting on the impact of humans on the landscape and the variety of activities in this small area as well as the change of land use from a place of work and industry to a popular place for recreational walks. Attitudes towards the landscape have also changed. When the woodland became a National Nature Reserve in 1952, little attention was paid to the oak woodland and the area was seen largely as an outdoor laboratory for experimental land management. As part of the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve Yarner Wood is now recognised an excellent example of internationally important western oakwood with its associated bird and lower plant communities, and with public access welcomed.
Viv Styles, Natural England volunteer, Bovey Heritage Trust and Granite Elements artist
