#PrincetownRailway etc

A few weeks back I mentioned a planned and then aborted Dartmoor cycle ride with my 2 brothers. I was down in Exeter to see my family again so the Dartmoor High Moorland Link was back on the cards.

Before I describe the cycling I want to quickly record a couple of thoughts from my visit. As usual I stayed with my daughter and son in law and two little granddaughters. It is such an important part of my life. The standouts for me. I showed Ayla how to play "clock patience". She is quick on the uptake. It wasn't long before we were all having a go. Annabelle got down to 2 cards left before the 4 kings appeared. They have promised to message me if anyone gets out. As with children it is about finding the right game or toy at the right time in their development. On this occasion it was spot on. Such a simple game but real fun! 

The other thing with the girls - they are now reading really well and enjoying the narrative as the motivation to read. I had to go into Exeter and bought them each the next in series. It is such a privilege. My daughter was and is an avid reader and of course it rubs off.

As I mentioned I went into Exeter centre for some shopping. I know Exeter well although I am not a shopper normally - ha! Admittedly it was a Wednesday in February but after acknowledging that - Exeter seemed unusually quiet - with a surprising number of closed down shops. Even Exeter - a city that has prospered and been able to draw on a wide catchment population to sustain its shopping centre seems to be struggling - perhaps not as much as many town centres - but there are certainly signs of downturn - I think decline. Why? Conjecture on my part - but I suspect it is the two well documented main reasons. The impact of online shopping has to be the first. The other is probably the huge reduction of people working in the city centre. Offices, banks and  shops no longer have anything like the numbers of people employed as in the past. This was a pre covid trend but Covid has certainly brought rapid change in working practices. All those people are no longer milling around. It felt rather sad.

To the cycling. The weather was a concern although there seemed to be a weather window between Storm Dudley and the highly charged Storm Eunice to come in the next day. However at the best of times Dartmoor is of course very exposed and changeable so caution is sensible. 

We set out - the plan to leave a car at Buckfastleigh and then drive the 27 miles across the moor to Tavistock for the start of the High Moor link and cycle back to Buckfastleigh. The drive across was thought provoking. The sky was heavy and the route sharply undulating! We had opportunity to consider what we were taking on and whether it was the right day/conditions to do it. Mike clearly thought it wasn't - Rob seemed to have a foot in both camps - and I will admit as usual I suffer a bit from "summit fever" (if you know what I mean). In the end I accepted the sensible plan was to abort - so we settled on staying on the beautiful moorland top but to find a less challenging circular route for a few hours cycling. 

The solution (via Google and Komoot) was to do a circular route from Princetown - on an old railway track. The route is referred to as "Granite and Gears", The problem however was we had hybrid/touring bikes and the granite chippings / grass / boulder track really needed a mountain bike. Progress was therefore slow as we picked our way across but it didn't really matter. Being on the moor in virtual isolation (we saw just the odd hiker) was compensation enough. The moor is raw beauty and it is easy to find a sense of remoteness and of natures elements. Driving rain came in and then hail but we had the right gear. It was special to be out there. I attach a few mob photos :

The forbidding Dartmoor Prison at Princetown

Moorland scenes. A wonderful place to be to feel the elements.

The old granite railway track

 

After 2 or 3 hours we get back to Princetown.   

Princetown is a village in the Dartmoor national park in the English county of Devon. It is the principal settlement of the civil parish of Dartmoor Forest. The village has its origins in 1785, when Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, Secretary to the Prince of Wales, leased a large area of moorland from the Duchy of Cornwall estate, hoping to convert it into good farmland. He encouraged people to live in the area and suggested that a prison be built there. He called the settlement Princetown after the Prince of Wales.

The austere and foreboding Dartmoor Prison, built during the Napoleonic Wars, is the most iconic and famous part of Princetown; the jail is still an important part of the country’s prison service, though today visitors can visit the prison museum and learn more about it.

It’s thought that Sherlock Holmes scribe Arthur Conan Doyle penned his most famous work, The Hound of the Baskervilles, during a stay at the Old Duchy Hotel, now the Dartmoor National Park Visitor Centre in the heart of Princetown. You can go to the centre and retrace Conan Doyle’s steps on a walk to Grimspound.

Eventually we get back to Buckfastleigh - a lovely little town (village) on the edge of the moor. We find our way to a proper pub (no fancy stuff) in the centre called The Globe. A wood fire and a couple of pints of Jail Ale brewed by Dartmoor Brewery at Princetown. (what more do you need!)

While we are enjoying our beer I get a very thoughtful and timely message from my daughter flagging up the weather warnings for Storm Eunice. My plan was to come back to the Isle of Wight the next day. However the forecast was a shocker and it was clear there was going to major disruption to the cross Solent ferries. To try and avoid that I decided to try and go back on the day. Eventually I was able to book a slot before the storm was due to hit but it was a midnight crossing from Southampton! The crossing was smooth but the ferry was delayed. I eventually get to bed at 2am so a long day but worth the effort. 

The next day the storm hits and I was glad I had made the effort to get back because the car ferries were stopped for several hours and that caused massive logistical problems with huge delays. It is very unusual for the car ferries to stop so it confirmed it was a proper storm. Later it was revealed the strongest gust ever recorded in England had just been measured at the Needles at 122 mph. I have been up on Tennyson Down in a gale. A 122 mph gust is extraordinary. I reckon a gust like that could literally knock you over. No wonder the ferries were cancelled! The ups and downs of living on the Isle of Wight. Happy days.

#anExetervisit

 A week or two back I made the regular trip down to Exeter to see my family members who live down there. Those who read my blogs know I am originally from Exeter and despite living away for over 40 years retain strong links and a strong affinity. I am a Devonian - ha!

All I want to do here is make a record - essentially for my own purposes.

When I go down to Exeter I almost always do the school run. This entails walking the mile or so with my two little granddaughters. They chatter away. I love asking them questions. I get a lot of oh grandad but they like it really. It is so special to watch them develop. How can anyone be horrible to children?

My son in law took this one - walking to school on a cold and frosty morning. Simple pleasures.

My daughter has moved into a new area of  nursing having been a ward sister for many years. She has trained as a pain specialist and absolutely loves what she does and is so motivated by it. Pain is such a complex thing. A while ago Vicky sent me an account of a builder who went to hospital in an ambulance in acute pain and distress. A work accident. A fired nail had gone right through his boot toe cap - into his foot and out through the sole. When the boot was eventually removed there was no injury - the nail had missed the toes and gone between them.

On one of the days I did a cycle ride with a friend along some of the Exeter Canal / River Exe as far as Cockwood. It was a lovely cold clear bright still day. I have written before about the Exeter Canal. Here is the blog link David Shoulder - Isle of Wight: #Exeter Canal and where you live. (davidshoulder60onwards.blogspot.com)

The Double Locks pub.

Over a beer we talked about many things - life - ha!. I referred to Darwinism and Maslow and how important they have been to me and my understanding of the world. I was asked "what about Freud ? It was a very good question in the context of what we were talking about -  but I didn't have an answer other than to say I do not know much about Freud! Much ! I know people sometimes refer to a Freudian slip which I understand is revealing something in our subconscious - inadvertently. I also know Freud is the father of psycho-analysis. Anyway my interest was tweaked. A couple of days later I had to go to Exeter centre and took the opportunity of visiting Waterstones. You can get a lot of reading for a tenner! I have started on the preface. There are chapter titles such as "Psychoanalysis and libido theory", "fetishism", "the Psychology of the Grammar School Boy" and "on the introduction of narcissism". The editor states in his introduction that it is inevitable when using the book that a level of personal psychoanalysis is bound to result - ha! 

The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include

1. A person's development is determined by often forgotten events in early childhood, rather than by inherited traits alone.
2. Human behaviour and cognition are largely determined by instinctual drives that are rooted in the unconscious.
3. Attempts to bring such drives into awareness triggers resistance in the form of defense mechanisms, particularly repression.
4. Conflicts between conscious and unconscious material can result in mental disturbances, such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, and depression.
5. Unconscious material can be found in dreams and unintentional acts, including mannerisms and slips of the tongue.
6. Liberation from the effects of the unconscious is achieved by bringing this material into the conscious mind through therapeutic intervention.
7. The "centerpiece of the psychoanalytic process" is the transference, whereby patients relive their infantile conflicts by projecting onto the analyst feelings of love, dependence and anger.

If I get through it I will report back!

Some light reading

On the third day I had arranged a Dartmoor cycle with my two brothers. Alas Mike was unwell so we cycled near Rob's home. By coincidence this took us to another canal - The Grand Western Canal. Again it was a cracking day - cold still and bright. It was easy cycling along the tow path. I love canals in winter. Canals are generally very quiet and the winter trees show off their skeletons. I copied this from Wikipedia :

The Grand Western Canal ran between Taunton in Somerset and Tiverton in Devon in the United Kingdom. The canal had its origins in various plans, going back to 1796, to link the Bristol Channel and the English Channel by a canal, bypassing Lands End. An additional purpose of the canal was the supply of limestone and coal to lime kilns along with the removal of the resulting quicklime, which was used as a fertiliser and for building houses. This intended canal-link was never completed as planned, as the coming of the railways removed the need for its existence.^[1]

Construction was in two phases. A level section, from Tiverton to Lowdwells on the Devon/Somerset border, opened in 1814, and was capable of carrying broad-beam barges, carrying up to 40 tons. The Somerset section, suitable for tub boats (which were about 20 feet (6 m) long and capable of carrying eight tons) opened in 1839. It included an inclined plane and seven boat lifts, the earliest lifts to see commercial service in the UK. The lifts predated the Anderton Boat Lift by nearly 40 years.

The 11 miles of Devon section remains open, despite various threats to its future, and is now a designated country park and local nature reserve, and allows navigation. The Somerset section was closed in 1867, and is gradually disappearing from the landscape, although sections are now used as a footpath. It maintains a historical interest and has been subject to some archaeological excavations.

Rob and I cycled on the Devon section - in and around Tiverton. Canals have a fascinating history - most historically went into decline because of changes in need. Many canals have been lost but some have been saved. Not all the Grand Western has - but a good run is now secure. It is a tremendously valuable leisure area (now designated a Country Park) and obviously beneficial to wild life.Wouldn't it be nice to wander along the canal network in a narrowboat. One to do when I am an old man - ha!

Grand Western Canal scenes