PARISHSCAPES CELEBRATION EVENT 2018

A celebration of Community Heritage on Dartmoor

An inspiring event was held on 10^th March 2018 at Parke to celebrate the achievements of the Moor than meets the eye Parishscapes project. Twelve Parishscapes projects were represented on the day including the restoration of Buckland-in-the-moor’s Ten Commandments Stones monument, Bovey Tracey’s Granite Elements, Lustleigh’s community archaeology project and Throwleigh’s community arts performances.

Above. With a Parishscapes grant, a new history group has been established in Ilsington.

The Parishscapes project has been working with communities across the MTMTE area since 2015, to tell the Dartmoor story at a parish level and from a community perspective. Projects are supported with a Parishscapes grant and projects can focus on cultural, natural or built heritage. Parishscapes has encouraged numerous community groups to get involved and to date, the many dedicated and passionate volunteers have given a staggering 12,000 hours of their time to the project.

Above. Terry French from Widecombe History Group reads aloud from the Devon Dialect ABC book, funded by Parishscapes.

The day, which included a fantastic lunch from Home Farm Café, was chaired by James Platts, chairman of the Moor than meets the eye Board. In his closing speech, James attempted to summarise just some of what was covered throughout the day – as you can see, it is a diverse list!

“The projects were all encompassing…choirs, women-out-late, stannary boundaries by motor boat, genealogy, challenges of love, 2^nd Millennium BC, North Devon sgraffito ware, granite tramways, wildlife, sculpture, events, bogs, orchids, insects, birds, ditches, ridgeways, ducking stools, archbishops, those that pray, fight or toil, LIDAR, assaults, fines, signal flares, Spanish Armada, all nationalities, German tools and paint, memories, identification, early Totnes ware, maps and documents, test pits, village archives kept under beds, digital archives, going online, forums, chatting, gossip, exciting history, poor houses, ale houses, hut circles, watercress beds, oral history, ownership, slums and diseases, Devon ABC, pig houses, rubbing posts, frolics, junket, performances, ghost walks, Colonel Heath’s Hut, clapper bridges, boundary stones, moths, bats, open air labs, wool industry, tin mining, pottery geophysics, dye plants and dark skies. Truly Moor than meets the eye!”

Above. Alastair Camp from the Lustleigh Society explains how the Parishscapes project enabled the community archaeological excavation of Vinnimore farmstead, to take place

Huge thanks to all those who were involved in making the day a success, in particular, MTMTE’s  Andy Bailey and Adrian Wade.

For more information, please contact Emma Stockley emma@moorthanmeetstheeye.org