River Heads, Foots and Meets

Brooks, Feeders, Lakes, Rivers, Streams and Waters, Heads, Meets and 'Feets!'


This classification covers all named Dartmoor river heads and foots (or feet). These are usually paired together by name with a head and a foot for each, but if a named watercourse is a 365 item and a mid-point, this will remain separate. On Dartmoor, watercourses have various names, and while river, brook and stream are commonly used elsewhere, 'water' and 'lake' are not. A 'water' is just a Dartmoory name for a stream, as is 'lake'. Hemery (1983) says of the latter in High Dartmoor: "Visitors to Dartmoor are often puzzled to find this term applied to running water than standing water. I believe its use to indicate a stream of which the source was once a small lake or tarn, just as originally it indicated the source itself, for in almost every instance the physical character of the water-head is suggestive of a lake-bed. These, one and all, have been drained by the medieval tinners during their streaming operations."
Clicking on the blue river lines will provide a pop-up that names that river section.  The Watershed 'Heads' are indicated by a special mapicon (currently yellow/black check)

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