Dunnabridge Pound

Dunnabridge Pound

Dunnabridge Pound is a large enclosure of unknown date situated almost dead centre of the high moorland of Dartmoor. When it was created is not known – it has been variously described as a 'late prehistoric pound' and a 'mediæval stock enclosure'. An overall analysis suggests that the enclosure may have been originally a Bronze Age enclosed settlement similar to that at Grimspound nearby, but rebuilt over later ages, to serving as a cattle pound from the Middle Ages into the modern period.

The visible structure of Dunnabridge Pound appears to be medieval though with later rebuilding. It consists of a drystone wall, built of large rough granite blocks in roughly circular plan. The entrance, facing the road, is divided by granite monolith into a wider and narrower opening.

This pound is very well preserved, as it has been maintained over centuries.

Just inside the Pound's entrance near the road is a structure known as The Judge's Chair, which may have been installed here as recently as the Georgian period. This is a large stone seat, integral with the wall, with a large granite canopy above providing shelter.

Location

• Location map:50°33’20"N, 3°54’46"W
• Streetmap: SX646746

The pound is to be found beside Dunnabridge Pound Farm, on the north side of the B3357, between Dartmeet and Two Bridges.

The site overlooks the valley of the West Dart River, as it performs a great loop. A footpath leads up from the farm to Bellever Tor to the north and Laughter Tor to the north-east. Both of these tors bear the traces of prehistoric settlement and ceremonial structures, but whether there was a connection can only be speculation.

History, and prehistory

There are only theories of how old Dunnabridge Pound is in origin. Butler wrote that the pound was built in the Bronze Age as an enclosed village, but that it has been rebuilt out of recognition. He reckons that the present-day structure closely follows that of its Bronze Age counterpart, but that constant use throughout the centuries has resulted in virtually all the prehistoric features being obliterated. Nevertheless, there are faint traces of two huts and some walling within the enclosure wall, suggesting a settlement which may have been part of a complex of villages on Laughter Tor and Bellever Tor in the Bronze Age: Butler suggests that around 17 people would have lived here.

The pound was an important structure for many centuries of moorland life. A document of 1627 records that the tenants of the ancient tenements "have been accustomed time out of mind to make three several drifts yearly for cattle and one for horses depasturing upon the said Forest to Dynabridge pound and are to attend there two or three days and nights for the watering and pasturing of the said Cattle". The tenants who complied with this were given a halfpenny loaf and those who refused were fined 6s8d.

The Judge's Chair

The earliest written record of Dunnabridge appears in a document of the Duchy of Cornwall dated 1305 where the location appears as Donebrigge, which is taken to mean ‘Bridge by the down’.

The Reverend John Swete visited the pound in 1798 and described what he saw:

“

… I came to Dunabridge pound, a large wall’d inclosure for the safe detention of Cattle, just within whose gate was a rude kind of seat, oer-canopied by a single flat stone of considerable dimensions, of which the foregoing is a sketch“.

”

Hemery wrote:

"It was to Dunnabridge that the relics of the presidential seat from Crockern Tor were brought late in the eighteenth century; the Judge’s Seat was erected as stocks for would-be pound breakers and the Judge’s Table as the protective canopy for the dipping well in old Dunnabridge Farm court“

There are many stories about the judge's chair, most saying that it was brought from Crockern Tor, on whose bleak top the Stannary Parliament was wont to sit, and was there the chair of the judge of the parliament.

Outside links

• Megalithic Portal: Dunnabridge Pound

References

• National Heritage List 1170564: Dunnabridge Pound
• Dunnabridge on Legendary Dartmoor
• Butler, J.:
  • 'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities', Vol. II (Devon Books, 1991)
  • 'Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities', Vol. V (Devon Books, 1997)
• Hemery, E.:
  • 'Historic Dart' (David & Charles, 1982)
  • 'High Dartmoor' (Hale, 1983)