Hyperlinks can become ‘broken’ – if you notice any on this page that need updating please do contact Dartefacts. Thank you.
Sponsorship:
Paul Rendell, of Dartmoor News, has recognised the value of an online resource such as Dartefacts and has kindly decided to sponsor the Dartefacts website. Dartefacts costs money to maintain and without donations and sponsorship the site would struggle to survive.
Paul is so much more than an editor of a magazine, he is a guide, gives illustrated talks and publishes books. His knowledge of the moor is incredible, intimate and unmatched. Paul has been the editor of the bi-monthly Dartmoor News magazine since its inception in 1991; it remains to this day an absolute must-read for all Dartmoor enthusiasts and is packed full of interesting articles and news from all over the moor.
Paul has been leading guided walks since he was 16: his walks cater for all abilities ranging from short strolls to longer treks across the high moor, telling people about the flora, fauna, history, archaeology and myths and legends that Dartmoor is so famous for. In addition, Paul gives talks that cover a wide range of topics from Dartmoor to Cornwall and beyond. Thanks to Paul’s generosity, Dartefacts now has a much more secure future.
Special Thanks:
Simon Battersby Consulting Ltd: Professional Website Designer who developed the Dartefacts site for me.
After several failed attempts of my own trying to create a ‘Dartefacts’ website I finally decided to employ the services of a Professional.
I can thoroughly recommend Simon Battersby Consulting Ltd.
Peter and Karin Brooks: Peter and Karin have had a massive impact on the development of the site – both in terms of ideas to make it more user-friendly as well as adding an enormous amount of content (data, photos, corrections etc.) Further it was Peter and Karin’s interest in ‘Square Bagging’ (i.e. visiting EVERY 1km Ordnance Survey Grid Square within the boundary of Dartmoor National Park’ that led to a a brand-new activity within Dartefacts. Square Bagging on Dartefacts has proven to be such a superb and friendly way of ‘navigating’ around the Dartefacts Dartmoor Map that it has now become the main method for using this website. Thank you to you both!
Max Piper: Max has also had a massive impact on the development of this website and has been a huge contributor for items, images and suggestions. He contributes also to the Tors of Dartmoor website, as well as his own, Tor Bagger.
Peter Kearney: Peter has provided his considerable knowledge of Excel and coding to the Dartefacts Database and as such has proven invaluable in tidying up the Classification system used by the website.
Acknowledgements and Useful Links to websites, books/ magazines and individuals whose information/ data/ personal knowledge has significantly assisted in compiling ‘Dartefacts’:
I do try my best to acknowledge where I get my information from but Dartefacts started many years ago as a personal ‘GPS database’ so back then I didn’t bother to keep ‘references’ as to where I was getting all my information from. It was only years later that I realised others might want to have access to all this data! So, if you think some of my data has come from you or another source and you believe you can help me ‘fill’ my referencing ‘gaps’ I would be very happy to hear from you and add credit where it is due.
Due to the size of the database references and acknowledgements cannot be added to specific Dartefact items but are instead placed on this page.
Military Firing Ranges, Weather, Access and Webcams:
Military Firing Ranges:
Dartmoor Military Firing Range Schedule.
Dartmoor Military Firing Ranges Map. (use ctrl+mouse scroll wheel to zoom in).
Weather:
Dartmoor Webcam – Princetown Community Centre
DartCam: Image of Dartmoor RIGHT NOW!
Yes, it’s always like this on Dartmoor..
Access:
Natural England – Open Access Maps
Dartmoor CRoW Act 2000 Access land interactive map – Tourbytor website
Dartmoor National Park Permitted Wild Camp Areas: An Ordnance Survey map showing areas permitted for camping. Very high level of zoom – a close 1:25 – so it’s also very useful for studying the moors from an armchair whilst planning your next camping adventure!
WHO OWNS DARTMOOR? Map showing who owns what.
Mapping Resources:
Find Grid Ref – Dartefacts: The Dartefacts Grid Ref Finder – courtesy of Simon Battersby Consulting Ltd. Only accepts mouse clicks for selecting, but touch screens can navigate around the map.
Dartmoor National Park Permitted Wild Camp Areas: An Ordnance Survey map showing areas permitted for camping. Very high level of zoom – a close 1:25 – so it’s also very useful for studying the moors from an armchair whilst planning your next camping adventure!
LIDAR Map of England and Wales: An utterly absorbing experience! The Environment Agency released their LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data under an Open Government Licence and the person who runs this website has combined the ‘strips’ together. Simply stunning.
BING Maps: OS (1:50/ Zoom in for 1:25) of Dartmoor and surrounding areas
British National Grid Map: 4 fig. NGR on each square!
Where’s The Path?: Map gets ‘used up’ quickly!
Side by Side: Awesome! Provides 10 fig. NGR! I use this all the time to establish items from old maps (like Bench Marks) as well as from the satellite imagery. There appears to be an inaccuracy of approximately 10 to 15 metres in the 10 fig. NGRs provided. Add 10 to 15 metres North (and possibly a few metres to the West) for a more accurate result. You can acquire the NGR for a map item by hovering over it with your mouse and the ten-figure NGR will appear on the bottom corner. Update: it now provides LIDAR!
Magic Map: Amazing levels of zoom and ability to add ‘layers’ of different ‘geographies’ (i.e. aerial photography, OS mapping, geology etc.) A quite stunning application – and an excellent ‘mouse click’ option to find ten-figure grid references!
Dartmoor Maps Offline: iPhone and iPad.
Grid Reference Finder: Very nice grid reference management tool.
Geograph Map: This site is proving very useful for acquiring 10 fig. NGR from Ordnance Survey 1:25 k Maps.
Ordnance Survey First Series (1856) Map
Old-Maps.co.uk: (2021 Update: This amazing resource is unfortunately no longer available, however link will be kept to their website.) Previous notes: Very similar to side-by-side in that this site provides zoomable old maps to easily view. I have found quite a few B.M.s (Bench Marks) on these maps that don’t appear on side-by-side maps. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a feature to ‘extract’ the NGR for items that appear on the maps (with a single click), unlike side-by-side.
Devon Family History Society – Parish Finder
Devon County Council Environment Viewer
National Collection of Aerial Photography
SABRE Maps (Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts): Although its acronym name suggests it’s all about roads this site provides a great range of maps featuring Dartmoor.
Dartmoor Walks: Websites dedicated to providing Dartmoor walking routes:
Tor of the Moor: Toby & Genevieve have produced an excellent website of Dartmoor walking routes.
DarteWalks: Dartefacts’ very own walking suggestion pages. We are slowly adding walking routes to this database but it is a very time-consuming process as we include a map with a list of items to collect en route as well as a detailed stage-by-stage description with photos. Routes are split into green, amber and red difficulties (based on length, height gain, terrain, remoteness etc.) Every route has at least one Dartmoor 365 item to collect.
Dartmoor Walks: Richard Knights. Used extensively for further information. Great for walk ideas!
Johnies Meanderings: Johnie Stickland. A truly excellent Blog, informative, fun, interesting and a number of ‘Dartefacts’ that I haven’t seen listed anywhere else!? Often provides grid references. Loads of great walk ideas!
Dartmoor Tinworking:
Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group (DTRG) Tinners’ Map: Murray Oates. Used extensively for tin category and data. Now held within the pages of the Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group (DTRG). Brilliant use of a Dartmoor map with map dot icons that allow a pop-up of the tinners’ hut with photo and further data – including dimensions.
Dartmoor Tinworking Research Group (DTRG)
Tinners’ Buildings Research Project: This link no longer works – but once seemed to indicate that the DTRG group were embarking on a systematic and highly detailed survey of all Dartmoor tinner huts? Maybe this will be revealed again in the future? I will keep this link here just in case DTRG decide to continue this excellent idea.
Bench Mark Resources:
OS Benchmark Archive (South Devon): Thousands of Bench Marks across the whole UK. Does not show any remote high moorland Dartmoor B.M.s. This link focuses on South Devon, but you can view all UK B.M.s from here.
Bench Mark Database: A superb site that details all things Ordnance Survey. I may be using the site incorrectly but at present, it seems a bit limited on Bench Marks that exist deeper into the more isolated moorland. It appears to focus mostly on B.M.s and F.B.’s (Flush Brackets) that are close to roads? However, a superb database for UK wide Bench Mark hunting.
Jochta’s Benchmarks: John Talbot. Excellent map of many, many benchmarks in the UK and so many in Plymouth especially! A fantastic resource all in one place. Not many of the B.M.s listed in the wilds of Dartmoor National Park though.
Dartmoor Artists/ Photographers:
Nick Udy: Photographer: Has kindly offered to share a number of his excellent images within the Dartefacts website. Look out for his spectacular work on some of the ‘headers’ (top of page images).
Glavind Strachan Photography: Paul Harris. A really great style of photography, that of predominantly moody landscapes, is what Paul achieves and what better place than Dartmoor to put that into practice? Not many other photographers are able to successfully capture Dartmoor’s unforgiving mood as well. His images are well worth a look and a couple even feature on Dartefacts – can you find them?
Dianne Jayne Giles Photography
Photographic and Video Resources:
Dartmoor Archive: ‘The Dartmoor Trust has financed the digitisation of this important historic collection of photographs taken by the author and antiquarian R. Hansford Worth between the 1880s and 1940s, the originals held by the Torquay Natural History Museum. The Trust has contributed £6500 to this work, eventually resulting in around 5500 images being added to the Dartmoor Trust Archive for public view.‘ (Text quoted from the Home Page of the Dartmoor Archive.)
British Film Institute ‘Britain on Film’: Dartmoor: A fabulous and free video library resource. Many archive films of Dartmoor.
Other Media:
Skylark – Radio station for Dartmoor – contains a page of great advice on recording sound on the moors.
Prehistoric Websites:
The Stone Rows of Great Britain: A number of useful links and resources. This project and website has largely been created by Dr Sandy Gerrard – who formerly worked for more than 20 years for English Heritage.
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW), Dartmoor 365 Resources Page: Dave Parks provides a link for every 365 page to an Ordnance Survey Map that displays a graphic square showing the one-mile area covered. Genius.
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW): Dave Parks. Used extensively for Prehistoric category and data. Dave Parks credits the following for his initial gathering and subsequent further development/ improvement of the prehistoric artefact data on his website (Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks): National Monument Records (NMR as it was then – before the HER), Bill Radcliffe of Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor (website), Sandy Gerrard of The Stone Rows of Great Britain (website) and Andy Burnham of the Megalithic Portal (website).b
Prehistoric Monuments of Dartmoor: Bill Radcliffe. Used for further Prehistoric information – very good at listing monuments that no longer exist – they might one day be found! Extensive Listings.
Other websites, Blogs, and people who have assisted Dartefacts:
Dartmoor Crosses: Maurice Daniel & Glenn Bearne. Used extensively for the Crosses category.
Tors of Dartmoor: Paul Buck, Tim Jenkinson and Max Piper.
THE definitive listing of the numerous Dartmoor Tors – ‘..the well known that are shown on Ordnance Survey maps and those that are little known, merely remarked upon in the literature yet still not shown on maps.‘
Dartmoor CAM: Keith Ryan. Used extensively for further information – a blog of group walks, very informative and often with 10 fig. NGRs!
Legendary Dartmoor: Tim Sandles. Used extensively for further information – if it’s not here it’s probably not anywhere! The definitive ‘go to’ online resource for Dartmoor history and information. Tim’s Gazetteer has also helped enormously with adding new data to the site, using lots of old names seldom used nowadays.
Dartefacts: Undisputedly one of the top Dartmoor websites. But then we would say that!
GPO Marker Posts: Derek Pattenson. A fantastic, new, developing website providing details for the UK’s GPO Markers.
Dartmoor Walks: Richard Knights. Used extensively for further information. Great for walk ideas! (See above)
Waymarking.com: Dartmoor Granite classification. Many Dartefacts ‘found’ here! You do have to join up to gain access to the gps/ kml etc. files. A great resource but not easy to search.
Dave Bellamy: Used for some tor and hill, trig point and car park locations. (2023 Note: The website no longer works but this link is retained in case it does.)
Tim Jenkinson: Flickr: So many tors! Great for lesser-known tors.
Tim Jenkinson: (Dartmoor Oddities) Flickr: More specific.
Keith Parsons (Google Maps): Initial PCWW (Plymouth Corporation Water Works) Granite Posts’ grid references and information taken from a survey carried out May/ June 2010. This data was superseded when I discovered the Plymouth City Council data (below) – however, it proved very useful in early explorations and provides a Google map of most PCWWs (which Plymouth City Council does not).
Facebook 365: A Facebook group focused on visiting all 365 square miles of Dartmoor. Many members of this group have contributed information and advice including Penny Samuels, Dave Hamnett, Tim Sandles, Max Piper, Anthony Francis-Jones, Sheron Vowden, Dave Johnson.. (..to be continued!)
The Milestone Society: Vast number of items available as downloads to view on Google Earth or as Spreadsheets. Milestones, Crosses, Bound Stones etc. etc. – wow! A treasure trove of data!
GPO Marker Posts: Derek Pattenson. A superb and quickly developing resource of items – references some of the Telegraph Posts listed by Dartefacts. (See above)
Plymouth City Council (& Museum): This link is for: LEAT STONES, WATER WORKS AND WATER CATCHMENTS (LS & PCWW). Used extensively in the collection of PCWW marker posts around Burrator. The information on Plymouth City Museum’s web site was collected by volunteers during the Plotting Plymouth’s Past project: ‘Mark Fenlon and Ernie Stanton researched, located, recorded and even uncovered stones, and shared their knowledge. Michael Chown, Patricia Luxford and Richard Spear have worked behind the scenes on data entry. Gloria Dixon and Doreen Mole have given vital administrative support.’
Moorland Walker: Paul Buck. Excellent ‘tors collection’ and entertaining Blogger.
Tor Bagger: Max Piper. Excellent Blog and source of Dartmoor Tor information.
Martin Philpott: Martin has kindly supplied Dartefacts with some great images of interesting items around the Fernworthy Reservoir, as well as providing grid references for them.
Treksandtors: Stephen Foster. Enjoyable Blog with ‘Foster’s 500 Tor List’, including some of the less-visited hills.
Dave Hamnett: Dave has very generously provided Dartefacts with the National Grid References for the WD and PUDC boundary stone collections and continues to provide information for many other items.
Peter Cook: Peter has kindly provided numerous corrections to those very rare errors within Dartefacts (!) as well as helping to add content to the Dartefacts descriptions. Always appreciated!
Bob Fitzpatrick: Bob has kindly supplied Dartefacts with numerous 10-figure grid references for items that are usually overlooked, including stiles and rock features.
Dartmoor Explorations: Steve Grigg has kindly provided numerous new Dartefacts to add to the database including many of those lesser-visited such as vermin traps. His knowledge of the moor is admirable and this is clearly communicated through his well-written Facebook Posts across many of the Dartmoor Groups.
Peter & Karin Brooks: Peter & Karin had kindly supplied many bits of information and corrections to the site – but have recently come on board and now provide many of the Dartefact pages with their own photographs and further information. Additionally they came up with the ‘Square Bagging’ concept.
Johnies Meanderings: Johnie Stickland. A truly excellent Blog, informative, fun, interesting and a number of ‘Dartefacts’ that I haven’t seen listed anywhere else!? Often provides grid references. Loads of great walk ideas! (See above)
Anthony Veal – for providing the brilliant ‘Dartmoor Pubs on 365‘ map.
Bibliography:
Books & Magazines:
One long winter I will add in all of the books I have used/ own here, together with a scan of the front cover.. but for the moment I have abandoned this huge task!
Dell, S. & Bright, J. (2008) ‘Dartmoor’s Sett Makers’ Bankers (An industrial mystery solved?), The Dartmoor Company: Published book used for many of the listed ‘Bankers’ in the Sett Makers’ Bankers Classification within Dartefacts. At the back of this book is an excellent listing of 110 locations of Bankers (with 4 errors).
Dartmoor Magazine: I only need magazine number 114 to complete my set! A great magazine with many, many articles that often provide grid references to ‘items’. The letters section frequently reveals little known ‘finds’.
Dartmoor News: Paul Rendell. Another great read! I almost have the ‘full set’ of these (only missing issues 1 – 13!) There are often great ‘treasures’ to be found within its pages. If anyone has any of those ‘early’ copies I would be very interested in purchasing! I did get my hand in one of the photo galleries once! Fame at last!
Dartmoor 365: Rob Hayward. This is the book that divides the National Park into 365 square miles (one square for each day of the year!) and has heavily influenced the 365 classification on Dartefacts which remain among the most visited items. Rob Hayward is the son of John Hayward (the author of the book) and has been leading the production of the second and third editions.
Dartmoor Car Parks:
Dartefacts Dartmoor Car Parks Map
Dartmoor Transport:
Prehistoric Dartmoor Walks (PDW), Guide to Dartmoor Public Transport: The essential guide for public transportation on Dartmoor.
Dartmoor Guided Walking & Activities:
Moors and Tors: ‘Walking for health and happiness on Dartmoor in all weathers and over all terrains‘ with Liz Miall, an enthusiastic local guide.
Dartmoor’s Daughter: ‘Explore. Learn. Enjoy. Walks & Nature Connection Experiences for Transforming Health, Wellbeing & Performance‘ with Emma Cunis.
Paul Rendell: Paul offers walks tailored to your ability and can take you to whatever you are most interested in; tors, wildlife, remoteness. He also leads many guided walks of varying lengths and tells you about the landscape you are walking through – with Dartmoor Guide Paul Rendell.
Dartefacts Website Data:
Total Number of Dartefacts: 18194 items.
Total Number of Dartefacters: 2922 (Registered Users)