Cranmere Pool
Cranmere Pool is a small depression within a peat bog in the northern half of Dartmoor, Devon, at SX604858. It lies about 1,835 feet above sea level
The pool is in the north of the high moor but als may be said to be at the heart of Dartmoor, as several rivers rise here to flow in different direction: here is the source of the West Okement River which flows northwards, about 500 yards north-west of the source of the East Dart River which flows to the sea to the south-east, and about the same distance west of the River Taw, which flows to the county's north coast. The River Teign, which flows east to the sea, rises less than a mile south of the pool and some of the headstreams of the River Tavy, which flows south-westwards to the Tamar rise just from the Cranmere Pool. (The nominal Tavy Head and the West Dart Head are just two miles to the south.)
The pool is surrounded by higher ground, in the peaks of Black Hill (1,916 feet) to the south, Hangingstone Hill (1,982 feet feet) to the east and Great Kneeset (1,864 feet) to the east. The highest peaks of Datrmoor and of all Devon, High Willhays (2,037 feet) and neighbouring Yes Tor (2,031 feet) stand two and a half to three miles to the north-north-west.
Location and history
The pool lies within the Okehampton Artillery Range, one of the Ministry of Defence ranges. A military access road which made it possible to drive to within half a mile of the pool was closed for civilian use in 2010. Walking distance from the closest civilian road access is now approximately three and half miles, from the north, at SX601911, at a starting height of 1,410 feet above sea level and using the existing military access road.
Cranmere Pool was once a permanent pool of water, but William Crossing, writing early in the 20th century, stated that it had been over a hundred years since this had been the case.[1] The only time there is standing water today is after heavy rainfall.
Cranmere Pool is the location of the first hikers' letterbox. William Crossing relates in his Guide to Dartmoor that James Perrott, a well-known Dartmoor guide from Chagford, built a cairn in the pool and placed a bottle there for visitors' cards in 1854.[1]
In popular culture
In Ernest George Henham's novel A Pixy in Petticoats (London: Alston Rivers Limited, 1906), Cranmere Pool and its famous letterbox play a vital part in the plot. It is a story of unrequited love between Beatrice Pentreath and John Burrough that occurs primarily in Dartmoor.
In August 2015 the pool was featured in BBC television's Edwardian Farm.[2]
Legends
Cranmere Pool is at the heart of several Dartmoor legends, the most common of which involve the former mayor of Okehampton, Benjamin Gayer or Gear who was actually mayor of the town five times during the 17th century and has a memorial in Okehampton church vestry.[3]
In one version of the legend "Benjie Gear" was convicted of stealing sheep and as punishment was ordered to empty Cranmere Pool with a sieve. Being a resourceful person, he stole and killed another sheep and lined the sieve with its skin which allowed him to empty the pool so quickly that the town of Okehampton, in the valley below, was flooded. For this misdemeanour he was hanged on nearby Hangingstone Hill and his spirit was condemned to spin all the sand at the bottom of the now-empty pool into ropes. And since he has been unable to find any way of doing this, he is still there and can be heard on dark nights moaning and wailing about his never-ending task.[4][5][6]
Outside links
- Location map: 50°39’18"N, 3°58’34"W
- Streetmap: SX604858
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Crossing, William (1976) [1912]. Crossing's Guide to Dartmoor (Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 479–80. ISBN 0-7153-4034-4.
- ↑ BBC: Edwardian Farm
- ↑ St. Leger-Gordon, Ruth E. (2001) [1965]. The Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor (Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: Peninsula Press. p. 51. ISBN 1 872640 11 7.
- ↑ Barber, Sally and Chips (1988). Dark and Dastardly Dartmoor. Exeter: Obelisk Publications. pp. 10–12. ISBN 0 946651 26 4.
- ↑ Pegg, John (1987). After Dark on Dartmoor (4th ed.). Tunbridge Wells: John Pegg. pp. 13–14. ISBN 0 9508598 1 8.
- ↑ Cranmere Pool on Legendary Dartmoor